2. BASIC OVERVIEW
• The word "indie" was used at a time to describe artists on independent
labels. Indie pop music is a genre of alternative music along with the other
genres such as Britpop, Grunge, Indie rock, and a few others. The
instruments usually tied into indie pop music are vocals, guitar, bass, and
the drums.
3. WHAT IS INDIE POP?
“ Indie pop is not just ‘indie’ that is ‘pop.’ Not too many people realize this, or really
care either way. But you can be sure indie pop's fans know it. They have their own
names for themselves ... the music they listen to ... their own canon of legendary
bands ... and legendary labels ... their own pop stars ... their own zines ... websites ...
mailing lists ... aesthetics ... festivals ... iconography ... fashion accessories ... and in-
jokes ... in short, their own culture.”
Nitsuh Abebe, Pitchfork
4. ORIGINS OF INDIE POP
• Indie pop is a genre of alternative rock music that originated in the
United Kingdom in the mid 1970’s through to the1980s, with its
roots in the Scottish post-punk bands on the Postcard Records
label in the early '80s such as Orange Juice and Josef K and the
dominant UK independent band of the mid eighties, The Smiths.
Orange Juice:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESy-Z8vqMrE
5. INDIE POP
1970’S AND 1980’S
• The term "indie" had been used for some time to describe artists on
independent labels (and the labels themselves).
• Both "indie" and "indie pop" had originally referred to the same thing
during the late 1970s. A key moment in the naming of "indie pop" as a
genre was the release of NME's 1986 compilation C86, a follow up to C81
(1981).
• American indie pop band ‘Beat Happening's’ 1985 eponymous debut
album was influential in the development of the indie pop sound,
particularly in North America.
Beat Happening - Our Secret
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlQnmEKSBak
6. WHAT IS C86, WHY WAS IT IMPORTANT?
• C86 is a cassette compilation released by the British music
magazine NME in 1986, featuring new bands licensed from
British independent record labels of the time.
• This was one of the first times Indie pop was recognised as a
genre and publish to the public.
7. SUBGENRES ON INDIE POP
Twee Pop
• Twee pop is a subgenre of indie pop that maintained a reasonable amount of
success and notoriety distinctive from the overall indie pop current.
Chamber pop
• Chamber pop is a subgenre of indie pop that features lush orchestrations
8. TWEE POP
• The definition of twee is something "excessively or affectedly quaint,
pretty, or sentimental," supposedly born from a childish
mispronunciation of the word sweet. While the terms "twee" or "twee
pop" are considered pejorative in the UK a retrospective fascination
with the genre in the US saw Americans eagerly defining themselves
as twee.
• The author Marc Spitz suggests that the roots of Twee stem from the
post-war 1950s music. While the culture categorized itself under the
moniker of "indie" (short for independent), many major twee
powerhouses gained mainstream critical acclaim for their
contributions to the twee movement
Tiger trap- Puzzle Pieces
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=km9VJgSKEPg
9. TWEE POP - CUDDLECORE
• Cuddlecore is a movement that emerged as a consequence of
twee pop that was briefly prominent in the mid-1990s.
• This label described a style marked by harmony vocals and pop
melodies atop a punk-style musical backing. Cuddlecore bands
were usually, although not always, all-female and essentially
represented a more pop-oriented variation on the
contemporaneous ‘riot grrrl scene’
L7 – Pretend We’re Dead
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAdlZ2F-fs8
10. WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?
INDIE POP VS TWEE POP
• The difference between “twee” and “indie pop” is slight but polarizing. Both styles
of music transcended genre, became a tape-trading lifestyle, and have similar
influences, drawing from the Ramones’ minimalist three-chord structures as much
as The Jesus And Mary Chain’s salty pop harmonies. Everyone varies slightly on
origins ... Twee itself began as a vast collection of sounds, gathering the threads
where luminaries left off, and carving out divergent avenues in their wake.
11. CHAMBER POP
• Chamber pop (or ork-pop) is a subgenre of indie pop or indie rock which
arose in the 1990s as a reaction against the lo-fi aesthetic of the time.
Drawing from the lush orchestrations of Brian Wilson, Burt Bacharach, and
Lee Hazlewood, chamber pop grew out of the lounge revivalism of the
decade, but without irony or kitsch.
• Artists placed a renewed emphasis on melody and production, layering
baroque, ornate songs with richly textured orchestral strings and horns
while rejecting the traditions of grunge, electronica, and other concurrent
musical movements.
Thundersticks – We Are Dreamers!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8GNxVHFHhw
12. MY SONG AND INDIE POP
• ‘Be there’ is listed as being the genre of “alternative/ indie”
therefore the links of Twee and Chamber pop aren’t
relevant for me however it has given me a deeper
understanding of the genre and the history of Indie pop.
Seafret- Be There
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8INOzcCGBzY
