May 23, 2009

Indie = ?

Ask yourself what do you know about indie rock? What does the word indie mean? Hmmmm... Most of the people living in Armenia will say: "... Indian?" But hey! Are you from the past?

So, what is indie rock?
Wikipedia says: "Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that primarily exists in the independent underground music scene."
Yessss, exactly! Just to remember.. Nirvana, Stone Roses, Oasis, Blur.. Most of the bands that changed the history of rock music in 90s and 00s came literally from the "underground", - playing in the basements of their houses.

Have you ever asked yourself why do you like this or that band? It's very popular among young people, especially teenagers to like a band for the hairstyle of its vocalist or as we armenians say, for his beautiful eyes. Maybe the trend came from the era of boybands, I don't know.. HIM, Linkin Park, Hinder, Rasmus.. I don't have anything against these bands but after many years most of the people will remember their appearance and not their music. As for me I will still listen to their songs but only to really good ones. Unfortunatelly they are not so many..

"I love music" - said Charley Pace in LOST TV series. Music is something psycological that can make you feel good, bad, happy, desparate, and sometimes it can say nothing. Depending on what music you listen to, you can have a good or a bad day.

But it's not only a short-time influence.
"People worry about kids playing with guns, and teenagers watching violent videos; we are scared that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands - literally thousands - of songs about broken hearts and rejection and pain and misery and loss." by Rob, In 'High Fidelity', by Nick Homby (thank you, Luis Paolo De Sa for the quote).

Hinder - Lips of an Angel

Well, my girl's in the next room
Sometimes I wish she was you
I guess we never really moved on..


Breaking Benjamin - The Diary of Jane

Something's getting in the way.
Something's just about to break.
I will try to find my place in the diary of Jane.
So tell me how it should be.



Papa Roach - Forever

Because days come and go
But my feelings for you are forever
Because days come and go
But my feelings for you are forever



Apocalyptica feat. Adam Gontier - I Don't Care

If you were dead or still alive
I dont care
I dont care
Just go and leave this all behind
'Cause I swear (I swear)
I dont care

Shinedown - Second Chance

Tell my mother,
Tell my father
I've done the best I can
To make them realize
This is my life
I hope they understand
I'm not angry, I'm just saying...
Sometimes goodbye
Is a second chance

Try to find three differences :D
I think there is no need to go on.. All the bands from mainstream tie people to their music through sentimental lyrics and melodies. Noooooooooo! I don't want to say that music has to be rude and without any feelings. But how much? How long? I'm tired of downloading albums and songs and videos about all the same. Plagiarism - that's what rules the world and I'm sick of it.

I used to go to parties, concerts, festivals quite often a couple of years ago. Then I stopped. The same faces, same behaviour, getting lost in smoke, show-offs, music from the past. Then I started to look at the things from the side. Now I see that most of the people don't like music. They are stamping themselves as rockers, listening to metal and they are afraid they will lose their statuses of rockers.
Yes, exactly! Think deeper.. THEY! ARE! AFRAID! OF! LOSING! THEIR! STATUSES! AS! ROCKERS!
They will say "it's not rock!" if they listen to a song where there is no guitar with distortion. But they like My Immortal by Evanescence!!! Non-sense!
Most of them don't know what they want and why. And every Friday and Saturday they will go to clubs, bang their heads, scream/growl "black metal forever!" and tease everyone who will try to say that metal is not the only genre in rock music.

And that's true! But I don't have anything against metal personally. Metal has quite a wide range in rock music, and yes, I agree that Armenian mentality is close to metal music because we Armenians mostly don't like to have fun but to fall into depression and dark thoughts.
Wait a minute.. Did I just say having fun? Ah, yes! You will say "but I HAD fun during that party/concert/fest". Hmmm.. I usually have fun of doing some physical work, for example, working in the garden. Don't kill me, please, but parties in Yerevan and working in the garden are the same for me. Maybe I like the garden thing more because it's also beautiful. I want to receive positive energy from the party and not only pain in the neck next morning. That's why I want positive music. I want music that will make me move and not only bang my head.


I'm tired of stereotypes and sick of breaking stereotypes. Either you are with me or I don't care. But I promise that I will help the revolution come true!

I don't want to be the one of the thousands. And it's not because I want to be different. It's because I AM different. Aren't you? I'm not interested in politics or something stupid like that. I love music and I like when it's different everytime, from band to band. I like the uniqueness of sound. That's why I prefer independent music scene. That's why I choose indie rock and lifestyle. Don't you?

Indie = Independent!

1 comment:

Dharmist said...

Great introduction, really, nothing much left to add. And yes - breaking stereotypes is a form of stereotype, too, and thus it's almost impossible to get rid of them staying in a shadow of another mainstream movement, like, say, hippies, metalheads and so on.

Uh, I'm so looking forward for the Libertines party :)