The infamous Guardian Music Blog has a posting which starts with “let’s celebrate fifty years of independent music”.
Unfortunately the sub-editor insisted on giving it a title with the word “indie”. So naturally the majority of commenters aren’t thinking beyond scratchy 1980s post-punk or jangly guitar pop. Only a brave few thought of 70s labels like Island or Charisma; apparently the majority opinion was that there was nothing ‘independent’ until punk came along. OK, so the 1980s may have been the heyday of the independent label; but nowadays, ‘independent’ means not bothering with a record company at all.
When you come to ‘independant’ rather than ‘indie’, nothing epitomises the DIY ethic more strongly to me than underground second and third generation prog bands. Here we have a genre ignored or derided by mainstream critics, and sneeringly dismissed by hipper-than-thou self appointed guardians of musical taste. Yet on small prog-orientated labels, sometimes owned by the bands themselves, the genre is not only alive, but thriving.
These are five of the best from the 90s and 00s:
- Marillion – Anoraknophobia (Racket Records)
- Karnataka – Delicate Flame of Desire (Immramma)
- Mostly Autumn – The Last Bright Light (Cyclops)
- Porcupine Tree – Lightbulb Sun (Snapper)
- IQ – Subterrania (Giant Electric Pea)
Marillion may have started their career on EMI, but it was the fan-financed release of “Anoraknophobia” that marked a significant milestone in the way non-mainstream music is created and released. Nowadays getting fans to pre-order in lieu of a record company advance is quite common practice, but Marillion did it first, a fact often ignored by mainstream scribblers.
I think it’s artists like these that represent the future of the music business. Not that everybody is going sound remotely like them, of course. But they represent the growing legions of underground bands, building long-term relationships with their fanbases, controlling their own destinies and completely immune to short-term fads and fashions. Free from having to fund the overheads of a big record company, they’ve proved that recording and touring on a smaller scale can be economically viable.
