What is Indie?

That’s the title of the movie Dave Cool made, and it’s still a good question these days with people at major news outlets like The Independent declaring that indie is dead:

These days the term ‘indie’ is little more than a generic sonic description for any band that plays guitars and probably wears skinny ties, skinny jeans, and skinny cardigans. Collins, a former NME writer and ex-editor of Q, says now: “‘Indie’ has become a meaningless term. It just covers guitar bands. But it was never meant to be about a type of music, it wasa spirit and an attitude. When I glance around the bands that are supposedly ‘indie’ today, I don’t see any attitude. I don’t see any content in their records, any political interest in the band members. They’re a terrible generation, unfortunately, but they’re becoming famous overnight and selling a lot of records.

Some indie bands had some success and now the next generation is trying to replicate the equation and being fuelled by majors, one step behind, trying to market and brand it and cash in. But to narrow in on this wave in music and ignore the much bigger movement of indie in craft, fashion, film, and fine art is to miss the point. Thankfully I discovered this empassioned blog post this morning that aptly answers the critics from the perspective of an artist and, with a soaring bit right in the middle, provides what could be a rallying cry for the hopes and dreams in our community and of the spirit that went into building Indyish:

how dare we try to keep our money where we know we want it to go. how dare i know that sara is making soap to pay her rent, and live her life how she wants to live it, and how dare i support her by buying her awesome soap because i’m dirty and need soap. how dare i not give my money to (insert bath and body corporation here) to support their investment in destroying more land acreage and natural habitats to build another store and take my money to who knows where. how dare i not try to sustain my own community and neighbors?

this is simply what the indie lifestyle tries to accomplish– to return things to a human scale, and realize that as independent individuals, we are nothing without the support of our fellow independent individuals.