Sekrit Origins

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

One of the persistent themes in the Now polls is "wow this is my first NOW album" (frantically ticks everything). Another persistent theme is "OK at this point I'd got into indie" (ashamedly ticks nothing). So in the endless search for shared experience let me ask you this question:

How did you get into indie?

and as a bonus question - let's try not to make this too loaded -

If indie is less central to your music listening now than it once was, why do you think this is?

Define the i-word however you like.

I think I have asked similar qns on ILM, but this is a new kettle and these are new fish.

Comments

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

I got into indie because freakytigger decided to wean me off heavy metal and made me listen to Doolittle by Teh Pixies. It was all downhill from there. So I suppose some of the reasons were social, and although metal and indie co-existed for a while, the ideology of indie eventually worked its unpleasant charm and persuaded me that metal was somehow immature and I should not be listening to LA Guns etc. (Oh and Metallica went shit.) I also found other friends were into e.g. Sonic Youth, Mudhoney and so on (Tom was always more on the arty and UK side of indie) so it made for a good topic of conversation outside our little circle. Of course freakytigger was never quite as beholden to the indie-mentality I don't think and used to still like the pop music which I had already rejected when I got into metal. At one point I may have accused him of only liking something to annoy me, which I still maintain has a grain of truth in it. It wasn't real pop at that point, anyway, but indie-approved canon (Bowie, PSBs) and he listened to John Peel just as much as I did... As well as notoriously accusing a reggae song which mentioned Manchester of jumping the bandwagon!

I realised that the indie-ideology was too narrow and got into other stuff. First big step back to life was getting into e.g. Omni Trio and Richie Hawtin in my second year at uni. The awfulness of Modern Life is Rubbish by Blur had been what really made me realise I needed to change my horizons, I think.

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

Actually Cypress Hill had come by then; I never stopped liking Licensed to Ill or A Nation of Millions which I got into when I was much younger (Beastie Boys) and at school (PE). So however indie, I always liked hip-hop sounding and cut-up / housey stuff (from Cameo -> Acieeed house) on the charts, just never went out and bought it / talked about it much.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

This is all true, I don't remember the reggae incident but it sounds horribly plausible.

HOWEVS at that time I don't think PSBs were indie-approved, or I didn't think they were exactly, I remember getting grief for liking Actually, on one of the few times I did try to talk music outside our circle. They became more credible after Introspective, and certainly were by Behaviour.

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

Indie approval was def with Behaviour. Instrospective was still very much pop/dance/house when indie/dance was going elsewhere