When I started out as a music journalist, at the end of the 1980s, it was generally assumed that we were living through the lamest music era the world would ever see. But those were also the years when hip-hop exploded, beatbox disco soared, indie rock took off, and new wave invented a language of teen angst.
— Rob Sheffield
Perspective Indie Rock quotations
The second 'Postal Service' album is threatening to become the 'Chinese Democracy' of indie rock. It will come out eventually, or maybe it won't.
In the beginning I was just a makeup artist and I never really pictured myself doing anything else. But now that I have so many doors open, I kind of want to be that indie rock Paris Hilton - but with actual intelligence - she's just stupid.
Generally I try to read anything but indie rock journalism or anything about music at all, especially in the summer.
You kind of have to be like " What have you been working the last five years for? Why are you complaining?" It's essentially me talking myself out of being a crybaby indie rock butthead.
Even the indie rock world - which is supposed to be about truth and independence from corporate mindfulness or something - is totally subject to the paraphernalia of celebrity.
In high school I was in a band called Goodfight, but it was more me running around on stage. It was very punk inspired. Then I started to get into indie-rock and older music and decided I wanted to write my own stuff. I quit the band. Around 16 or 17, I started recording myself at home on keyboard and piano.
Indie rock is just as susceptible - if not more susceptible - to all the gross things about people becoming total ass clowns in music, and only worrying about money and image. I'm not interested in being a part of that.
I really do listen to all types of music, not only rock, but everything from good pop music - which is usually older pop music - to RB and indie rock. I love indie rock more than a lot of the commercial stuff that you'd expect.
When I was a kid, you listened to a certain genre.
Now it's like, "I love indie rock, I love hip-hop, jazz, funk." Also, we knew it couldn't be the same thing each year.
I listen to all those kinds of music, from classic soul to hip-hop to Brazilian music to, you know, jazz to indie to alternative. So whatever. I listen to all if it. Classic rock and classic pop, all of that.
But, then again, I wouldn't call myself an indie-rock supporter even if there are some really good bands out there and there will always be some real good new bands.
Now that the generation that grew up on '80s indie-rock has attained influential positions in the culture, that music is the new yardstick. And that will shift yet again some day.
I like the glamorous indie rock look, like The Libertines.
But you know, without the heroin needle sticking out of my arm.
I'm so disconnected from an indie-rock community that I am the hermit people used to guess I was.
I played in rock bands in college and then right out of college I moved over to Europe and lived in Ireland for about four years playing in indie rock bands. I love and miss being in a band, I still am in a band but pursuing that as a career I definitely missed it but I felt like that ship had sailed.
Of course you want to keep making good records, but I think there were certain aspects to the indie rock situation at that point where we were pushing the envelope a little bit too far. We weren't happy with the distribution we were getting, and a few other things. So for a lot of ways it made sense for us to jump to a major label right then, and it made sense in terms of challenging ourselves to put ourselves in new situations.
You have to be open-minded, because it's so diverse nowadays.
I used to be a deep trance DJ, and now I've transformed into something eclectic. So you can expect any kind of music, from house to electro to indie-rock to techno and trance. I have very wide musical tastes nowadays.
I'm real critical of myself. I think a lot of what I've done is boring indie rock. I didn't intend it to be that way, but somehow milk gets added to everything.
You never know what your work is going to do, man, so really, you shouldn't worry about it. But pop stars have to worry about it, because that's their commerce. If you're not number one or selling units, you're not going to be able to make a record next year. For us, it's more like an indie-rock attitude. Put it out, work it, and see what happens. It'll have a shelf life.
People have said on blogs - which is kind of where I decide where to describe my style, from other people telling me - so I don't know, people say it's like, "electro-pop with glam and old rock influences." Or it's "indie pop" or whatever that means.
It's just weird that indie rock heads and so on are connecting to my music.
Licensing is how indie rock people make a living these days, so whatever about that. But I want good films and good placement for the songs because I want to be exclusive. I don't want to just sign it away because I don't want songs to lose meaning, but I'm also...I don't care [that] Wilco sold songs to Volkswagen. That's great. They probably drive Volkswagens.
In indie rock, there's the phenomenon of: "Oh, this guy seems totally normal, but he's actually crazy." There's more of that out there than you'd think.
The idea of having an indie rock "career" while living in a remote backwater like Seattle was too ridiculous to contemplate. It was simply about having adventures, one day at a time, one song at a time.
I didn't grow up with indie rock - I mean, I listened to bands that are considered indie rock, but I think that term is dead and uninteresting.
There was no indie rock band in the 90s at the level of, like, Grizzly Bear.
I listen to their records and it's crazy how good they sound. That really freaks me out.
Hip-hop is mostly what I listen to, other than jazz. I've given up on pop music and indie rock.
I'm like the Fugitive, running from the one-armed indie-rock community!
This indie rock stuff, I mean I like it, too - it pushes all my buttons: sex appeal, dissonance. It's emotive, disenchanted.
I was trained at classical piano as a youngster back in PA.
To rebel, I bought a drum set and played in some rock & roll bands. In college I picked up a guitar and became obsessed with practicing which led to playing guitar in indie rock bands in the mid 90's. Which led me to Los Angeles.
Indie rock is very healthy, there's a lot of diversity and a lot of creativity, but it does not have the revolutionary spirit of the late-70s punk scene in regards to design and politics and fashion and stuff like that.
A lot of the music I listen to is indie rock. It's not on the radio.
I've always found that whatever you say about indie rock, it is the most inclusive genre or title for anything. It doesn't pin you down too much, like other labels would. It's just newer, it has less baggage.
What's cool about indie rock is that one band can do effectively the same thing as another band, and one band nails it, and the other one doesn't. I like that elusiveness.