Eyya moo I'm doing a paper on the development of indie music

sonic youth isnt indie

doynald!
sore-ah!

lmao

>>69540985
sonic youth aren't indie

twee pop in UK when it was still in its early form. super DIY but not punk rock, go on from there imo.

A lot of its roots are traced to SST records which maybe not coincidentally is where sonic youth started

In particular, touring circuits have been attributed to early SST bands as having blazed the trail.

Otherwise the term indie gets into very nebulous territory regarding independent labels and what defines that which I assume could be debated all the way back to the dawn of published recordings.

I think essentially what we' re looking for is a combination of those publishing criteria plus an additional touring circuit of whatever musician may be in question. For example a musician in the 50s May have has a low budget tour but still have been in a major label.

>>69541014
>>69541034
Okay, then who was the "first" indie artist?

>>69541078
Thanks for the detailed answer. In your opinion, who were the first artists who were undeniably "indie," as we know it?

And additionally a 50s or 60s band may have had relatively independent publishing but then not toured which is I think what we're looking for. Shows aren't enough, they need to have gone out on tour. Otherwise we'd be counting talent shows etc.

>>69541109
Well for starters that would be American violent punk which quickly led into hardcore punk. As for SST trailblazing tour circuits I recall lifting that directly from the book American Hardcore

>>69541109
And to specifically answer your question SST Records was started by Gregg Ginn of Black Flag

>>69540985
>>69541088
>>69541109

If you don't know anything about this why did you choose to write a paper about it? Can you not just google "first indie artist"?

File: sonic.jpg (42KB, 551x552px) Image search: [Google]

42KB, 551x552px

>>69541014
it basically is.
all hipsters are onto it.

>>69541176
Because I'm interested in it.
Most sources say Sonic Youth, but there's a lot of conflicting answers. Do you guys not consider them indie because they crossed over into mainstream?

>>69540985
>When did indie music start?
The Greeks

>>69541212
indie music as a whole most definitely did not start with sonic youth for the reasons that other anons have just posted, though they were a big step into getting indie music mainstream recognition.

>>69541212
Sonic youth makes literally no sense unless they have some completely different definition.

As I recall pavement is very commonly associated with the "indie" sound and as I recall Thurston Moore from sonic youth is who discovered them and launched their career.

Also it's my own theory that sonic youth was actually the first post-hardcore band with daydream nation but I seem to be in the minority opinion to say 4theast. Just listen to that record then unwound fake train and drive like jehu yank crime and you will hear very striking similarities.

Other than those two points the statement makes literally zero sense to me. If anything sonic youth were Johnny come latelys

>>69541256
>>69541161
>>69541141
So it's the artists on SST I should be looking at for origins of indie music?

>>69541293
As far as I know yes. Indie as I'm independent bands and labels has a direct line to SST records particularly the American touring circuit. Check out the book American Hardcore just for starters. Again though we'd have to make sure we're even defining tbisbthe same way. If you re coming up with sonic youth then something seems extremely off unless it's in reference to Thurston Moore apparently discovering pavement which seems like at least an interesting place to start I suppose if you're interested in pavement in particular.

>>69541293
yeah SST was the big player in the game, though i'm sure there were hundreds if not thousands of artists that could be considered indie by some vague definition that were putting out records by themselves independently in parallel to SST.

>>69541280
as someone who has listened to all three of those extensively i'd have to disagree, but maybe we just have different definitions of post hardcore. also, there were bands like big black and bitch magnet releasing what i would consider more seminal post-hardcore at the same time as daydream nation was put out

I think you need to carefully define 'indie' before we can answer this. The indie lable always seemed like a meme to me so I'm sorry you chose this topic... Does indie mean the band doesn't have a lable? Does it mean the band sounds like something. If it mean they don't have a lable, then pretty much every do-it-yourself band ever is indie. Why not just call it alternative? What happened to that? Why not use a lable that actually describes what the band sounds like and not how they sell their music.

>>69541346
>thousands of artists
That's why I think there needs to be the combination of a tour to fit the criteria.

really, the best thing to do for this is to read 'our band could be your life'. it's a pretty definitive account of the development of american 'indie' in the '80s and explains how it grew out of punk and the environment of underground labels and touring networks that punk brought along.

Look up a little band called The Fugs

>>69541442
looks like I could've saved myself a lot of typing.

>>69541419
and here's the pdf for the book itself.

https://mega.nz/#F!U1N1EZTS!td-3P0GW4sesbcQT8MCKZg

i really highly encourage that you read this.

>>69541626
You don't think the answer is simply the fugs? Not this this book isn't great especially for the butthole surfers stories.

Might want to mention in rainbows somewhere. Not as the first but definitely a change.

>>69540985
>I want to write a paper
>on something I don't know what it is
Sounds smart to me

>>69541638
it's pretty essential for a more complete view imo, the fugs works as a single sentence answer but anybody could benefit from a better depth of understanding

>>69541679
True a richer understanding of what's already understood

Indie doesn't exist