INDIE BANDS: THE ART OF BEING … INDEPENDENT!

Indie music = independent music.  How much do you know about it? As for me, I’m sure I love it!

Independent music is music produced independently from major commercial record labels. The term indie is sometimes also used to describe a genre (such as indie rock and indie pop).

Today it is common  to define all music ''indie'' because it includes music of quality, freedom of style, little money and a lot of passion for what could become a job. 

Here are the top five 2016 indie bands, just to help you focus on what indie music practically means.

 

The Radiohead 

The members of British Radiohead met while attending Abingdon School, an independent school for boys in Abingdon. Guitarist and singer Thom Yorke and bassist Colin Greenwood were in the same year, guitarist Ed O'Brien and drummer Phil Selway the year above, and multi-instrumentalist Jonny Greenwood, brother of Colin, two years below.

Did you know that …

• ''Creep'' is one of the iconic songs of the Radiohead. It was written after  Thom Yorke was rejected by a girl, whom he fell in love with in the late '80s, when he was a student at Exeter University.

• According to Thom Yorke, Colin Greenwood and he get to play in a band because they had a bad taste in clothes.

• Philip Selway and Jonny Greenwood appeared in “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” as members of the band “The Weird Sisters”, together with Jarvis Cocker from the Pulp.

 

The Kooks

The Kooks are another English indie pop rock band formed in 2004.

They describe themselves  "whores", because they have drawn on a number of varied sources to create their indie rock sound. People described the band's most recent album Listen as “percussion sonnets”.

Did you know that …

• The band's name is inspired to David Bowie’s song, Kooks.

• Their first album, Inside In / Inside Out has sold a total of 1,200,000 copies.

• After the release of their first album, the band reached the peak of success with the songs ''You Do not Love Me'' and ''Naive'', both written by singer Luke Pritchard.

The xx

They are British too. The four original members of the band met at Elliott School, known for hosting some groups and musicians.  Oliver Sim and Romy Madley-Croft already knew each other for many years and they started playing together in 2005. Jamie Smith added to them in 2009.

The name "The xx" has been chosen by the group for various reasons:

1. The publication of the first debut album all the band members had already completed 20 years of age, which is indicated in Roman numerals as XX;
2. The similarity with the English word 'excess' which is pronounced similarly to the group name.

The Arctic Monkeys 

They are  a band which comes from High Green, Sheffield. Here’s some more info for you: 

Alex Turner (the singer) is the sixteenth richest under-30 in England, he earns almost 10 millions pounds a year.

Jamie Cook (guitarist) worked as a tiler until May 2005. After a triumphant tour with the band he returned to finish a tiling work in a  bathroom.

Thom Yorke of The Radiohead rejects the Arctic Monkeys. He said: "As far as I could be of interest, the fact that poor Arctic Monkeys are having all this attention is purely based on the fact that the mainstream music industry is made up of a bunch of f****** stupid."

The Lumineers

The Lumineers are an American music group, formed in 2005.

They have already sold thousands of copies and earned two Grammy nominations.

About their  name: "It all started from a misunderstanding. There was a concert with a very long lineup   and the guy announced he read the program of the previous week, the wrong name, he announced "The Lumineers''!

Among their fans …Elton John!

 Matteo