Indie Rock.

Indie rock is a sub-genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Originally the term was used to describe record labels, used to describe independence from major commercial record labels, with a  Do-It-Yourself approach to recording and publishing, the term then became connected with the kind of music which they produced and this association with a style of music remains today. 

There are different types of indie music ranging from female to male styles of indie music as well as artists and bands to the different sub genres of this genre. Originally indie rock can now just see a new style of music which is just called indie, indie music doesn't necessarily focus on the manner in which they choose to record of publicise their music any more and is simply the style of music. 

Musicians assosiated with indie rock: 

• The Kooks.
• The Drums.
• Arctic Monkeys. 
• Two Door Cinema Club.
• The Joy Formidable.
• The Strokes.
• Cage The Elephant. 
• Arcade Fire.
• Bon Iver.
• Elbow.
• Noah and The Whale.

From looking at this list I am able to see that all these names are names of bands rather than any artists denoting that this music genre is heavily influences by bands rather than artists. As well as them all being bands, they all have male lead singers as well, which also denotes that this style of music is mainly performed by males. 


To find artists rather than bands and to try and find some females I have decided that I will have to look at indie music in specific and move slightly away from the 'rock' aspect of the genre. For this the results are slightly different, however, many artists fall under the indie folk as indie as a genre on its own is quite hard to pin point as music styles often fall into sub-genres and indie rock is the main genre with the folk aspect falling into it as a sub-genre, therefore I learnt that artists of the indie rock genre usually come with other aspects to their music, for example for the folk aspect. 

Artists associated with indie music: 

• Ellie Goulding.
• Ed Sheeran. 
• Never Shout Never. 
• Kate Nash. 
• Charlie Simpson.
• Frank Turner. 
• Mumford and sons.

From this research into the indie rock genre I have discovered that it is prominently bands who cover the genre, however there are artists who would be considered 'indie'. Although the indie genre does not exist alone and is a form of rock music originally, I've discovered that the indie aspect of the genre is able to be applied to other genres of music to create new sub genres for instant indie folk which is where many artists fall. 

Typical instruments: 

• Guitar. 
• Bass.
• Drums.
• Keyboard.
• Vocals. 

To find a band that falls under the indie rock genre I have to look out for style of music which generally uses these kinds of instruments; rather than using sounds created by machines which may be typical of the R&B genre the music is played by instruments by musicians in the band. Additionally, if I am looking for an artist which may begin to fall into the indie folk genre there may be a number of different instruments involved as well in keeping with the folk side of the genre.

When listening to indie folk artists and bands I was able to spot a number of different instruments, all of which are string instruments for example 

• Violin.
• Cello.
• Harps.
• Banjos. 

When listening to music, listening out for different instruments may help me determine whether or not an artist or bands falls under the folk genre.