Old Bloke Rattles On About . . . The Death and Rebirth of Indie…

There was a time when describing a band as indie told you almost nothing about what they sounded like. It told you something considerably more useful. It told you how they operated.

Gee Mr Tracy

Independent music was made and released outside the established major label system. That didn’t mean that every band was politicaly radical, commercially uninterested, or determined to overthrow capitalism before breakfast. It ssimply meant they were working through a different set of self-governed arrangements.

And those arrangements allowed for an extraordinary variety of music.

You could have …And the Native Hipsters, Instant Automatons, and Danny and the Dressmakers existing in roughly the same independent universe as The Freshies, Gee Mr Tracy, The Chefs, The Teardrop Explodes,  Spizz, Sudden Sway and Echo and the Bunnymen.

Trying to identify a common music style running through that lot. You’d have more luck trying to teach a wardrobe the finer points of cartesian rationalism.

Some were primitive. Some were sophisticated, Some were pop groups. Others appeared to have only the vaguest understanding of what a pop group was, but they could all find a place within the independent music eco-system. That was important thing. Indie wasn’t a musical prescription; it was a means of making and distributing music without having to satisfy the expectations of the established industry. It also that any debt accrued was visible and usually amounted to the cost of pressing the record and sleeve.

Then, gradually, the meaning changed.

By the mid-80s, indie was increasingly becoming associated with a particular kind of guitar music. Jangling guitars, sl

ightly awkward vocals, introspective lyrics and an air of studied understatement.

The Smiths were enormously influential in this transformation.

I should confess that I’ve always had a complicated relationship with The Smiths. I thought the music was wonderful and remind be of bands like The  Bhundu Boys. Johnny Marr was, and still is, an extraordinary guitarist, capable of making something intricate sound effortless. Unfortunately, the moment Morrissey opened his mouth, I contemplated the practicalities of rupturing my own eardrums. (I have a similar relationship with Alt-J)

If you want an illustration of my problem, listen to Sandie Shaw’s version of Hand In Glove, Shaw recorded it with the three

members of The Smiths that weren’t Morrissey. They even changed the key. The result, to my ears, was vastly superior.

Anyone attempting ti persuade me that Morrissey’s version is better should probably stand well back, unless they particularly enjoy being drenched in spittle from the copious laughter that will inevitably follow.

Nevertheless, before anyone starts throwing  copies of ‘Hatful of Hollow’ at me, I’m not suggesting The Smiths weren’t genuinely independent. They were signed to Rough Trade, one of the most important independent record labels in Britain.

Nor am I suggesting that they were responsible for everything that followed. My Objections to Morrissey’s singing don’t invalidate their influence, however much I wish they did.

Their success helped establish a recognisable sound that became increasingly synonymous with indie itself, and once that happened, something peculiar happened.

Music could sound indie without being independently produced or distributed. Conversely, music that was independently produced could be considered insufficiently indie because it didn’t have the expected musical characteristics – I don’t think bands like Depeche Mode or Soft Cell were ever considered ‘indie’ as such, despite Depeche Mode being on Mute Records and Soft Cell’s first release being independently produced and distributed.

A word that had once described freedom from commercial expectations – in that 1000 copies wasn’t going to get you anywhere near the charts -had become a selection of musical expectations.

I found this rather depressing. Not because I disliked jangly guitar pop; some if it was wonderful, but the enormous diversity that had once characterised independent music was becoming less visible beneath a relatively narrow stylistic identity.

Meanwhile the actual infrastructure of independent music was experiencing difficulties of its own.

One of the most important elements was “The Cartel”, a network of independent distributors – usually associated with an indie label – that help small labels get their records into shops across Britain.

This was considerably more important that it might sound.

Making a record was one thing. Getting into a shop in another part of the country was quite another. Without effective distribution, even the most extraordinary record might remain unknown outside the town where it was made.

The Cartel provided an alternative to the major label distribution system. It helped create a situation in which independent labels could operste nationally without surrendering their independence.

It wasn’t perfect. Nothing involving the music industry ever is, but it worked well enough to support an extraordinary range of releases.

Then it began to fall apart.

The network fragmented towards the end of the eighties, with the collapse of Rough Trade’s distribution operation in 1991 making a particularly significant blow.

And there is an irony here that is difficult to ignore.

At precisely the point where indie was becoming and increasingly marketable musical category, the independent distribution infrastructure that helped make it possible was collapsing.

The name was flourishing. The machinery behind it was falling apart.

I was involved in , shall we say ‘niche’ radio during this period; it was BBC local radio when that meant something. Although our programme operated slightly differently. Most of what we played came from unsigned bands in the surrounding regions, who sent us cassettes directly.

We weren’t particularly dependent on record distributors, so the consequences of The Cartel’s collapse weren’t immediately apparent to us, and when the programme ended in 1993, I stepped away before seeing how the longer term changes played out.

Of course, independent musicians didn’t stop making records. Small labels continued to operate, new distribution arrangements emerged and the underground remains as inventive as ever.

But the means of reaching an audience were changing.

Indie had become an established genre with recognisbale conventions and expectations.

And I still think of it as an approach to making music.

A musical movement isn’t simply a collection of people making music, it also depends on the connexions between musicians and the people who might want to hear them.

Record shops, fanzines, independent distributors, specialist radio programmes, and enthusiasts recommending records to complete strangers were all part of the same eco-system. Take away enough of those connexions and the music doesn’t disappear; it simply becomes harder to find.

Once again, I had returned to a familiar place and discovered that the signs meant something different.

I don’t think the indie spirit ever disappeared. There are still musicians making extraordinary things without much concern for commercial convention, but the word that brought all those disparate people together no longer describes them particularly well.

Independent music didn’t disappear when indie became a genre. It simply lost the exclusive possession of it own name.

The bands are still out there.

The just aren’t necessarily where the sign said they would be.