Indie pop traces its origins back to post-punk bands in the late 1970s that released music on independent labels. In 1986, the New Musical Express (NME) magazine released a compilation cassette called C86 that featured early indie pop bands and helped define the genre, though the connection between the bands has been disputed. C86 and indie pop drew influence from power pop, punk, and post-punk bands and was driven by a DIY ethic. While the scene was loosely defined, it continued to evolve through the 1990s in both the UK and US on independent labels.

1. Indie Pop
Kevin O’Mara

2. Roots
The birth of indie pop can be traced back to the post-punk
explosion in limited-circulation photocopied fanzines, and small
shop-based record labels such as London's Rough Trade Records
and Glasgow's Postcard Records. The publication in Record
Business magazine of the first weekly indie singles and album
charts (for the week ending 19 January 1980) and the adoption of
such charts in the UK music press stimulated activity. In order to
reflect this, the British musical weekly New Musical Express
released an era-defining compilation cassette called C81. This
cassette featured a wide range of groups, reflecting the different
approaches of the immediate post-punk era.

3. History
• NME followed up C81 with C86. Similarly designed to reflect the new music scene of the time in the UK, it is now seen as the
birth of indie pop in the UK (the 2006 extended reissue CD86 is subtitled 48 Tracks from the Birth of Indie Pop). The UK
music press was, in 1986, highly competitive, with four weekly papers documenting new bands and trends. The grouping of
bands, often artificially, with an overarching label to heighten interest or sell copies, was commonplace. NME journalists of
the period now agree that C86 was an example of this, but also a by-product of NME's "hip hop wars”, a schism in the paper
(and among readers) between enthusiasts of contemporary progressive black music (for example, by Public Enemy and
Mantronix), and fans of guitar-based music, as represented on C86. C86 featured key early bands of the genre such as Primal
Scream and The Pastels, but also included tracks by several more abrasive, "shambling" bands from the Ron Johnson label,
who were atypical of the perceived C86 jangle pop aesthetic.
• A link between C86 and unifying genre is commonly disputed by critics and the bands actually on the original compilation.
Everett True, a writer for NME in the '80s under the name "The Legend!”, has argued that "C86 didn't actually exist as a
sound, or style. I find it weird, bordering on surreal, that people are starting to use it as a description again". [7] Geoff Taylor, a
member of the band Age of Chance, agreed: "We never considered ourselves part of any scene. I’m not sure that the public
at large did either, to be honest. We were just an independent band around at that same time as the others." [8] Bob Stanley,
a Melody Maker journalist in the late 1980s and founding member of pop band Saint Etienne, acknowledges that
participants at the time reacted against lazy labelling, but insists they shared an approach:
• Of course the "scene", like any scene, barely existed. Like squabbling Marxist factions, groups who had much in common
built up petty rivalries. The June Brides and the Jasmine Minks were the biggest names at Alan McGee's Living Room Club
and couldn't stand the sight of each other. Only when the The Jesus and Mary Chain exploded and stole their two-headed
crown did they realise they were basically soulmates. Manic Street Preachers bassist Nicky Wire remembers that it was the
bands' very independence that gave the scene coherence: "People were doing everything themselves - making their own
records, doing the artwork, gluing the sleeves together, releasing them and sending them out, writing fanzines because the
music press lost interest really quickly.” Many of the actual C86 bands distanced themselves from the scene cultivated
around them by the UK music press - in its time, C86 became a pejorative term for its associations with so-called
"shambling" (a John Peel-coined description celebrating the self-conscious primitive approach of some of the music) and
underachievement.
• In 2004 the UK-focused Rough Trade Shops compilation Indiepop Vol. 1 effectively documented the history of the sound
acknowledging that it pre- and post-dated 1986.

4. Influences
• In his book Time Travel, pop historian Jon Savage traced the musical origins of C86 and indie pop to the Velvet
Underground's eponymous third album. Power pop was a significant influence, as was punk and post-punk. Catchy
power pop melodies made the Ramones and the Buzzcocks the most identifiable punk influences. Before the last
and main influence on C86 and indie pop - The: Josef K and Orange Juice (along with contemporaries The Fire
Engines). Other possible musical antecedents included The Television Personalities and the Swell Maps.
• The inspiration of punk's DIY ethic manifested itself, too, in fanzines from the period. Significant titles from the
period were: Kevin Pearce's Hungry Beat!, John Robb and Mark Tilton's Smiths - the bands of Glasgow's post-punk
independent Postcard label had some influenceRox, and Everett True's The Legend! Other titles included: Pure
Popcorn, Baby Honey, Simply Thrilled and Are You Scared To Get Happy? The fanzines often featured flexi discs of
bands associated with C86.
• The jangle pop indie sensibility with which 6C8 became synonymous began to be applied to bands who had not
appeared on the tape. Some influenced by the compilation and later associated with it had yet to emerge in 1986,
such as Talulah Gosh and Razorcuts. The UK label Sarah Records, which released its first record in 1987, embraced
the perceived jangly indie pop sensibility in such a way that it - and its most popular bands, The Field Mice and
Heavenly - could be seen as typical proponents.
• The movement continued to hold sway into the 1990s. Scenes developed in the United States, particularly around
labels such as K Records and Slumberland Records. Bands of the US riot grrrl movement acknowledged a debt to
C86, and Scottish band Belle and Sebastian recognized its influence.
• In the United States, the terms "twee” "twee pop" and "cutie" (all pejorative terms in the UK) have been adopted
retrospectively to describe some examples of indie pop, owing to what has been called the genre's "revolt into
childhood”. In the mid-2000s, London clubs such as How Does it Feel to be Loved? and Scared To Dance continue
to air tracks from C86, and Sweden has increased its export of indie pop through Labrador Record