The document provides a history of independent (indie) music from its origins in the 1950s-60s as a reaction against commercial popular music, through its growth and evolution over subsequent decades. It notes how indie music incorporated diverse genres and had a DIY ethos. Key developments included influential artists like The Velvet Underground and Captain Beefheart in the 1960s, the popularity of bands like The Sex Pistols, Joy Division, and Ramones in the 1970s which brought indie mainstream, and the commercial success of acts like New Order, The Strokes, and Arctic Monkeys in later decades. It questions whether modern indie music has lost its exclusivity and roots as it has become more mainstream.