Indie Rock

Although many listeners use the terms of indie and alternative rock as meaning the same thing, they are actually two different concepts. While alternative rock encompasses all of the many independent styles that were emerging in the late 1980s and early 1990s, indie rock was a specific movement that had several different styles. Also called college rock, indie was often identified by the low budget approach that bands took to creating music. In most cases, the albums were recorded in a makeshift studio and did not have traditional distribution channels. The reason that indie music began to be noticed is because of the cities where the scene was at its peak.

In contrast to the grunge music that was coming from Seattle, there were many home bases for indie music. Austin, Texas, was considered to be a hot spot, as well as Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and San Francisco, California. The common theme among these places was that they contained a very large student population and it was these students that helped to bring indie music to the mainstream. At most of the universities in these areas, there were prominent radio stations on the campus. The indie rock would be played on these stations to build up a fanbase and to announce when the bands would be traveling in the area.

Although many indie rock bands were given the label of being slackers because of their musical sound, there was often a heavy work ethic in place to drive the success of the bands. Many of the groups toured relentlessly, spending months on the road and playing lots of concerts for only a small amount of money. In time, these efforts would be rewarded as the popularity of the bands grew and major record deals were landed. Of all of the alternative rock genres, indie is the one that has showed the most staying power, with many bands still enjoying lucrative careers.