Tuesday

Another indie-mag? In the words of Borat, "But why"?

To understand why we felt the need for another indie music blog, you must first understand what Andie means by "indie". Call us old-school, but we feel that independence is an indispensable element of indie-music. And, when we say "indie", we are not talking about a musical genre. It is true that there are already plenty of magazines and blogs about the "indie genre", and many of them are great. But by focussing on a specific genre - by treating "indie" as a style of music - they are severely limiting the amount of independent artists that they can showcase. Furthermore, most of the bands that are being featured in "indie" magazines, record stores, radio stations, etc., don't need any more promotion. (As a little editorial side note, I think you could make a solid claim that "indie", as a genre, is a concept that the music industry invented to help with marketing.) But this is no slight against bands that do get shelved under "indie" on iTunes. I get pumped when I hear 'Float On' blasting through the loud speakers at a pro football game, but let's get real; what connection do bands like Modest Mouse, Death Cab or MGMT (signed to Epic, Columbia and Atlantic/Warner respectively) have to the original meaning of the term "indie"?

Look, I like those three bands a lot and I'm not going to get too worked up over a music category; categories in art all seem kind of pointless to me, and some are down right ridiculous (e.g. Beard-Rock, Neo-Psychodelia, Screamo). But indie means something more than the way it is used "in the parlance of our times" (-The Dude). Take away any aesthetic understanding of indie-music, and you will find a simple ideology of independence; complete autonomy of the artist, in the name of creative freedom, even at the expense of record sales! 

It is the independent artists, who are not featured in 'Pitchfork' or played in H&Ms, who can always use another venue, no matter how small, to show off their talents. And that is why another "indie-mag", that uses the original meaning of "indie", is of true value in the world of art. This magazine will attempt to showcase beauty and talent, from any musical genre, that you would otherwise have to scour the depths of the interwebs to find. So please subscribe, and share the articles and the bands you like on here with your friends. Word of mouth and the internet can save music from the music industry, but that's a topic for another post!

1 comment:

  1. Just to further illustrate what indieAndie is not geared towards, I am going to paste in a few definitions of "Indie" from urbandictionary.com

    Let's start with the first definition:
    "indie music is melodic, the instruments are simple but well textured. Usually includes a simple but origanal guitar riff, another guitar riff layered to complement it, bass doing the same, simple drum beat (but fitting the song well) either a keyboard or violin or something to bring out the underlying melody, and soft vocals, usually well harmonized. The lyrics are powerfully emotional (but not whiney). They spark emotion but they dont talk about how there lives suck."

    "Indie Boys tend to be skinny, shy, with messy hair and a fringe."

    "Indie Girls normally have wavy hair that looks bedraggled".

    And my personal favorite quote:
    "Indie Girls generally don't really care about their appearence that much, but scrub up pretty darn well, as opposed to a 'scene girl' who is the scum off the earth".

    That's all well and good, but indieAndie is NOT concerned with any of that!

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