When
the average person is asked to comment on music, the first artists that come to
mind are Miley Cyrus, Rihanna, Drake, and Lady Gaga. Unfortunately, not many
people know the depth of musical genres past the usual aforementioned mindless
Top 40 hits- underneath the layer of pop culture buzz and mainstream
complacency lies a musical underground teeming with talented artists- the
independent, or "indie" bands. It can be quite difficult to define
what indie is, because indie can span all genres of music. Ultimately, indie
boils down to the artists' "do-it-yourself" approach, by writing
their own music rather than having songs written for them by corporate
moneymakers. Artists who distance themselves from the mainstream sound and have
autonomy in their musicianship are what I deem worthy of being called an indie
band or artist.
Music was never a big part of my
life until I reached my senior year of high school. There were a few bands I
liked but I never actively sought out music, unlike my friends who all had a
favorite band and an extensive knowledge on a vast amount of music. Music is a
huge part of many people’s lives and I was just unable to relate to that. I
felt extremely left out whenever my friends would go to concerts and have the
time of their lives. In my computer class I befriended Brian, who would
eventually introduce me to indie music, which would drastically turn my life
around. We started out hating each other, but after some time we became very
close friends and started hanging out. Like most people, music was a huge part
of Brian’s life and it was hard to have a conversation with him where music was
not brought up. He was one of the biggest influencers of music in my life and
got me listening to an assortment of different bands and genres I had no idea
existed at the time. With today’s modern technology it is extremely simple to
listen to a whole album for free from basically any location. Whether in
Brian’s car, in school or just lying in my bed, I had a vast collection of
music always in the palm of my fingertips. But I wasn’t fully able to absorb
all of this until my first concert experience.
An on-campus group at USC called
KXSC Radio was having a little music festival with a few well-known bands that
my friends and I took interest in. At this point I had never been to a concert
so I wasn’t really sure what to expect, and to make matters more difficult, I
also had my first date that same night. A girl in my history class who had
taken an interest in me was also in attendance, and our friends set it up so
that we would be going together. As the night went on, we talked and danced
while making awkward conversation, and finally the band we all had looked
forward to went on stage- a band by the name of Starfucker. They were an
obscure looking group of men, some dressed in women’s clothing playing even
weirder music. Most people would never have been interested them let alone want
to see them live, but Starfucker's weird individuality, even expressed through
their band name, set them apart from the norm. We all danced the night away and
I immediately fell in love with two things that night when they played the song
"Isabella of Castille"- the first being music and the sheer bliss of
seeing a great band perform in front of me live, and secondly the girl I was
with at the show, Sareen. She would later on become the biggest influence of
indie music in my life as well as my girlfriend. Our relationship stemmed from
us sending songs from different artists to one another as a means to get acquainted.
As our relationship blossomed, so did my love for indie music as I began
exploring the huge and almost underground scene of amazing artists that not so
many people had heard of.
In my blog, I want to relate my
experience with indie music to specific bands, sort of like music reviews but
on a more personal level. I could write about a new band every day and I would
never run of things to say. From live shows, specific albums, the type of
instruments they use and much more, I want explore all the different aspects to
specific bands that interest me. As a blogger, I hope my posts will inspire you
readers to be active in your choice of music rather than listening to whatever
the radio throws at the public, so that you may achieve some sort of musical
enlightenment as I did. Stay tuned for more updates on under-the-radar
musicians that might become your new favorite artists- you never know!
