History of Indie Rock - Hollie

Indie rock can be loosely defined as a punk genre, guitar-based rock music. The means of producing that music,  originated in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s and early 1980s as an alternative to the mainstream music of the time. The indie genre could be claimed, that it was mainly inspired by the Sex Pistols and the punk rock movement in the UK, which led to a more 'do it yourself' approach to music and inspired young people to form bands. 

Many of the musicians who attended the two famous gigs by the Sex Pistols went on to form some of the important and critically acclaimed bands of the era. People who are believed to have attended these gigs include The Smith's front man Morrissey, Factory Records founder Tony Wilson, members of the Buzzcocks and The Fall's Mark E Smith.

In the United Kingdom, independent record labels were started, like Factory Records and Rough Trade. These labels released music by artists who perhaps the major labels weren't too interested to begin with - until they realised that there was actually a big market for the style of music. However, 'indie labels' gave a band more credibility than if they went with an unfashionable large and money-led label.

Some definitive British indie bands of the late 1970s and 1980s were The Smiths, The Specials, The Stone Roses, The Cure, Happy Mondays,The Jesus and Mary Chain , Orange Juice, My Bloody Valentine, Siouxsie along with the Banshees, whose classic music during this time directly influenced 1990s alternative genres such as shoegazing and also Britpop - which eventually went on to become independent and major labels. In the mid-1990s, led by Oasis and Blur, a list of Britpop indie bands dominated the singles and album charts in the UK. More conventional 'pop acts' were often beaten in sales by more guitar based indie acts. The Britpop genre included artists such as Pulp, Supergrass, The Verve, and Radiohead. This trend has continued into the present day, with bands such as Artic Monkeys, The Strokes, The Libertines , Klaxons etc, are still able to chart in the upper reaches of sales charts.