Indie Culture

Indie Culture originates in the music and film industry. Using music as my prime example, bands which were unable to obtain the financial support to have a major record label deal found themselves doing their music independently.

The term “Indie” relates to the idea of individuals/bands being unique and diverting away from mainstream culture.

A common belief in Indie culture is being anti-conformist, which has now become quite ironic as Indie culture is considered mainstream culture in the present day.

The original point of Indie Culture and Indie music was that it came from the “grass roots”.

Indie Culture emerged in the early 1980's, and the number of “Indie kids” has increased dramatically over the years.It is quite ironic to notice that Indie culture has now become a part of mainstream youth culture as many youths now search around for independent bands at both local and international levels. The drive to find these “unknown” bands is now a cultural necessity as people try to make themselves “individual”

In the 21st century Indie culture has now crossed over with a variety of subcultures including alternative, mods, rockers, hippies and the biggest being emo culture.Emo culture has now also become a mainstream culture and the philosophies have noticeable been linked to those of Indie Culture.

There are a number of “Indie” bands that are now well known across Britain and America such as We are Scientists and The Strokes. These bands came together themselves, however have ended up in mainstream culture due to the mass amount of youths attempting to become “Individuals”

The British Indie music can be tracked down to the 1960's mod era with rock and roll bands like The Who and The Kinks making the first big impact on Indie Culture. Their rebellious nature against conformist mainstream culture spoke out to the audience and influenced them.

In the present day however, Indie music has become a mainstream ideal. There are a number of famous bands such as Arctic Monkeys, Razorlight, Franz Ferdinand and Bloc Party which have all become household names and are liked by an audience with which consist of a variety of different people labelled as different things, from chav's to middle aged individuals. These bands have all had hits in the charts and have caused the original definition of “Indie” to change. Contemporary Indie culture is now known to be the label given to guitar pop by mainstream publications such as NME. The media have changed the view of Indie bands by publicizing them as their own label. By dressing and making the appearance of these “Indie bands” in music advertisements and magazines all along the same lines, the concept of uniqueness has faded.

Indie culture focuses on the individuality of a person. The fashion in which Indie music is associated with consists of band t-shirts, vintage clothing, waste coats and ties. The footwear which is a major part of Indie culture normally consists of converse or plimsolls.Because in the present day Indie music caters for a wide variety of people and tastes, the fashion in which these “Indie kids” are presented with influences a variety and range of people. Indie fashion has now relocated to mainstream culture.

The way in which Indie Kids try to make themselves unique always fails as mainstream culture takes these new “fashion statements” and recreates them to sell to everybody, therefore making a large profit. An example of this being Skinny jeans and the idea of stretching your ear.

There are a few shops with claim to cater for Indie kids such as American Apparel, Artus and Urban Outfitters. However it is interesting to notice that the idea of mainstream shops producing mass produced goods and selling them at higher prices is ironic as Urban Outfitters in comparison is more expensive than the usual high street prices.

The Indie fashion has become more and more popular on the high street with shops such as topshop using these unique styles to produce interesting clothing lines and re-brand themselves. The mass amount of apparent “vintage” and “Quirky” pieces is massive in mainstream culture.

The hairstyles which feature in Indie culture range from individualized shapes and a variety of different and unique ways of styling such as back combing, ideally making a statement.However like fashion, these styles have relocated to mainstream culture as celebrities are attempting to make statements and try to look “individual”, which consequently means that masses of people are copying these weird and “unique” hairstyles.