INDIE - what is indie? are you indie?

so my girlfriend, out of nowhere, asked me to teach her how to be indie.

this sort of brought up a lot of thought over the next few days about the term indie. i mean, sure, it’s short for independant, but is that as far as it goes? to be indie, you need to be independant; an individual? how do you know what an indie band sounds like?

ok, let’s start with the basics of how to be indie. first up, fashion! reading a wikipedia page (funnily enough), they hit the nail right on the head with this.

“Common clothing items include band T-shirts, vintage clothing, striped tops, blazers, waistcoats, ties, cardigans, skinny jeans and Converse Chuck Taylor All-Stars.”

i agree with this. though i’m not a fan of skinny jeans myself. but this is a general guide to what the indie culture wears. more commonly it’s band t-shirts, since indie bands are generally on independant record labels and need the money, so by buying a shirt you’re supporting them. simple!

now, indie music. this is the most important, since this is where the term originally came from, and fans of indie music started the indie culture. indie music now comes under three forms: bands on actual independant record labels (such as The Unicorns, for example), bands that have a unique “indie” sound (such as Stars or Broken Social Scene) or a term for a type of music with certain rock elements, but mainly pop and with frontmen who dress like the indie culture (such as the Artic Monkeys, the Kooks etc.). know your indie! the artic monkeys are NOT indie, they are shit pop rock. indie music makes use of lots of different instruments, and keeps a certain pattern, with catchy choruses and songs about… anything really, as long as it’s not too depressing. fans of indie know their indie band members, and they know who the hell sufjan stevens and conor oberst are (if you didn’t know, sufjan is an incredible indie artist, and conor oberst is the frontman of bright eyes, and also made the indie record label saddle creek). so knowledge is also key to being indie!

i had more to write but it slipped my mind, i’ll edit this later.

check out this site: indieclothingblog.com, it’s amazing.

June 1st, 2007 ~ opinion, personal, question, music, life, indie, interesting, fashion

4 Comments »

leindiemeister

Comment on June 2, 2007 @ 2:34 am

AAH-mazing post. The Arctic Monkeys, I’m afraid I liked one of their songs, once, but I don’t really remember it, so I suppose it’s all good. Coincidentally, I just read that Wikipedia article yesterday, and I was like, “…Fuck yes.” I guess for both guys and girls, the tee shirts are MAINLY band tee shirts, but when you get down to it, there are also tee shirts from like dElia*s and Urban Outfitters and H&M (the last two were mentioned in the article) that could qualify as indie. At least, that’s where I buy the bulk of my clothes.

I’ve always liked Chucks, Vans slip-ons, and FLATS! Yes. It’s really quite cute that your copine asked you to teach her how to be indie.

You got the music right on, and the two main head Gods of Indie, but you can’t forget the Goddesses, like Jenny Lewis, Feist, Cat Power, and then their you know…ladies-in-waiting, Maria Taylor and a few others who I can’t think of. Karen O., but I’m not sure whether she’s a goddess or just a step down.