Indie music scene

An independent music scene is a localized independent music-oriented (or more specific indie rock-oriented) community of bands and their fans. Local scenes can become a key role in musical history and lead to influential genres, for example No Wave from New York City, Madchester from Manchester and Grunge from Seattle.

List of indie scenes per region

Australia and New Zealand

Australia

• Sydney: While the independent music scene in Sydney was once second only to Melbourne's, it has suffered from a lack of suitable venues for the last decade or so. Many pubs and clubs are alleged to have found it more profitable to offer gambling machines rather than live music, but a complex and live-music-hostile regulatory environment has also contributed.

• Perth: Perth's isolation as the only capital city on the west coast, has allowed a thriving independent music scene to develop. One notable example is Tame Impala.

New Zealand

• Auckland: Auckland is the headquarters of experimental indie taste-makers Midium Records. Auckland is also associated with indie-by-name-only The Mint Chicks and Cut Off Your Hands. Other indie related artists:State of Mind, Liam Finn, Connan Mockasin, The Checks and The Veils.

North America

Canada

• Toronto, Ontario: In the mid 2000s an influx of independent bands infiltrated the music scene, such as Broken Social Scene, Death from Above 1979, Tokyo Police Club, Metric, Crystal Castles and The Carps gaining notoriety at home and abroad.

• Montreal, Quebec, Canada: The Montreal music scene has given rise to such musicians and groups as Tegan and Sara, Arcade Fire, Stars, Islands, Plants and Animals, Wolf Parade, Sunset Rubdown, AIDS Wolf, Bell Orchestre and Patrick Watson. It is centered around the Mile End neighborhood, in the Borough of Le Plateau-Mont-Royal.

United States

• Athens, Georgia: During the early 1980s, sleepy Athens suddenly exploded with influential post-punk bands such as R.E.M., the B-52s and Pylon. Many successful indie rock bands in the 1990s were formed in Athens, and were often associated with The Elephant 6 Recording Company (or simply Elephant 6). Some notable bands include The Apples in Stereo, The Olivia Tremor Control, Neutral Milk Hotel, and Of Montreal.

• Chapel Hill, North Carolina: The "Chapel Hill" music scene (which also often includes bands from nearby Research Triangle cities Raleigh and Durham) was one of the biggest hotbeds of indie music starting in the mid 1980s with bands like The Connells, Flat Duo Jets and Southern Culture On The Skids. The 1990s saw the rise of such iconic indie rock bands as Polvo, Archers of Loaf and Superchunk which started Merge one of the best indie record labels of the 1990s. The 2000s saw the arrival of bands like Ben Folds Five and Squirrel Nut Zippers. The indie club Cat's Cradle (which originated as a folk cafe in the 1960s) has also played a major part in the vibrancy of the "Chapel Hill" music scene hosting many "little known" acts (like Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Smashing Pumpkins) that eventually went on to become major "alternative" acts in the mid 1990s.

• Los Angeles, California: The Los Angeles indie scene rides the wave through neighborhoods like Koreatown, Los Feliz, Silverlake, and Echo Park, which have given rise to such bands and artists as Elliott Smith, Moving Units, Hopkinson, Rilo Kiley, Earlimart, Autolux, Scarling. and Giant Drag. The Smell scene came up in the 2000s, with bands such as HEALTH, Abe Vigoda, and No Age.

• San Francisco, California: Currently centered around the Mission District with groups like Girls, Deerhoof, The Dodos, Thao with the Get Down Stay Down, Xiu Xiu, and Sun Kil Moon.

• Chicago, Illinois: Being home to a number of independent record labels such as Touch and Go Records, Thrill Jockey Records and Drag City Records. Chicago has one of the most active indie scenes in America next to New York's. Not only being home to the foundations of American hardcore punk, alt-country, house music, noise rock, industrial music, and many other independent music scenes, it is also a city for an independent band to establish a cult following due to its variety of both contemporary and legendary music venues. Notable bands with roots in Chicago include Wilco, Smashing Pumpkins, Cheap Trick, Urge Overkill, Ministry, Tortoise, The Sea and Cake, and Wax Trax! bands such as Front 242. Despite the scene's often distaste for local politics, city funding has allowed Chicago to become America's premier music festival city, hosting several popular indie headliners in the past couple of years such as Superchunk, Black Francis, Pavement, The Flaming Lips, Spoon, De La Soul, Mos Def, Isis, Olivia Tremor Control, Junior Boys; music festivals such as Pitchfork Music Festival, Lollapalooza (since 2005), Chicago Blues Festival, and Alehorn of Power; and most recently a free weekly Monday music series called "Downtown Sound", at Millennium Park's Jay Pritzker Pavilion, featuring popular independent acts performing in a theater commonly used for classical music, allowing them to receive brilliantly engineered acoustics as well as an outdoor performance space. Chicago's music scene varies from neighborhood to neighborhood, but overall has a large focus on independent music due to its influences from local radio stations such as WXRT-FM and Loyola University Chicago's WLUW. Chicago is home to music media giant Pitchfork Media and most recently CHIRP (Chicago Independent Radio Project), a community radio station not only providing the internet with independent tunes, but also an organization bidding for support to convince the United States Congress and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to remove existing barriers to the granting of low power FM radio licenses in urban areas, including Chicago.

• New York. In the late 1970s New York No Wave arose with bands such as DNA, Teenage Jesus & the Jerks and James Chance and the Contortions. A second wave of noise rock brought Swans and Sonic Youth. After 2000 in Brooklyn and the Lower East Side of Manhattan, a new scene developed with bands The Strokes, Interpol, LCD Soundsystem, Dirty Projectors, Grizzly Bear, Yeasayer, TV on the Radio and Vampire Weekend. Many indie bands have also relocated to the active indie music scene such as Animal Collective and MGMT. Booker Todd P plays a key role, placing bands in unusual places.

• Baltimore, Maryland: In the 1980s Half Japanese and in the early to mid 2000's a wide variety of indie bands have stepped into the spotlight, such as Beach House, Dan Deacon, Celebration, Future Islands, Wye Oak, and Ponytail.

• Seattle, Washington: The Seattle-based record label Sub Pop was the first to sign Nirvana, and also signed such non-grunge bands as The Postal Service and The Shins. A number of recent and established indie rock groups have their roots in Seattle, including Modest Mouse, Death Cab for Cutie, Harvey Danger, Fleet Foxes, Band of Horses, Minus the Bear, and Pedro the Lion.

• Minneapolis, Minnesota: Minneapolis has been a hotbed of influential music for decades. The city is home to Prince and Bob Dylan started his career in Dinkytown, a community located on the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis. The city has also had several successful indie acts including Hüsker Dü, The Replacements, Atmosphere, Tapes 'n Tapes, Cloud Cult, Mason Jennings, Brother Ali, and others have helped to make the Twin Cities area one of the most vibrant, music scenes in the country.

• Portland, Oregon: Portland has been a hotbed of indie music since the mid 1990's. In 2007, SLATE Magazine declared Portland as America's indie rock mecca [2]. The late Elliott Smith was one of the first indie musicians to gain notoriety in the area. He has been followed by such acts as The Decemberists, The Shins, Stephen Malkmus, M. Ward, The Helio Sequence, Menomena, The Thermals, Portugal. The Man, Blitzen Trapper, YACHT, Blind Pilot, Sleater-Kinney, and Viva Voce.

• Olympia, Washington: Olympia has also been a founding city of the indie scene, starting with the establishment of Calvin Johnson's K Records in 1982. Other labels in Olympia such as Kill Rock Stars, followed suit, and bands such as Calvin's Dub Narcotic Sound System and Beat Happening, Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, Lync, and Some Velvet Sidewalk.

• Omaha, Nebraska: Omaha has created a large Indie Scene for the past 15 years. Most bands are from the Indie label Saddle Creek Records. Some notable bands include Bright Eyes, Cursive, Neva Dinova, Rilo Kiley, and The Faint. Omaha's success in the Indie music industry has to do with the success that Conor Oberst has had in the mainstream. Conor is also a co-creator of Saddle Creek along with his brother, Justin.

Asia

Japan

Main article: Japanese rock

The indie music scene in Japan is active and Features bands like Asian Kung–Fu Generation, ogre you asshole, Sakanaction, fujifabric and Beat Crusaders among Many others.

Europe

Belgium

Main article: Belgian rock

The indie music scene in Belgium is mainly active in the three biggest cities Antwerpen, Ghent and Brussels.

France

Main article: French rock

• Nantes, In Nantes the yearly Soy Festival takes place in October. The festival has a line-up of mainly avant-rock, noise rock and experimental rock acts and takes place in the city.

• Paris. Festival Villette Sonique is a yearly noise and indie rock festival in Parc de la Villette. The successful band Phoenix originated in the late 1990s, in the city of Versailles.

Germany

• Berlin became a cultural musical centre where artist moved to after 2000. Acts: Peaches, Liars, Devastations. Labels: City Slang Records
• Hamburg was the center of German indie rock in 1990s (the so-called Hamburger Schule). Around 2000, a second wave of notable acts emerged from Hamburg. Acts: Tocotronic, Die Sterne, Die Goldenen Zitronen (they were around since the 80s), Blumfeld, Tomte, Kettcar. Labels: L'Âge d'or, Grand Hotel van Cleef, Tapete Records

The Netherlands

Main article: Dutch rock § Indie rock

The indie music scene in the Netherlands is mainly active in the four biggest cities Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam and Utrecht as well as the northern cities Groningen and Leeuwarden. See Dutch rock#Indie rock for a brief overview of bands, organisations, venues, festivals that create and are connected to the Dutch scene.

Poland

• Katowice – Off Festival is a yearly music festival held at Dolina Trzech Stawów in Katowice. The art director of this festival is Artur Rojek, leader of the band Myslovitz (and formerly in Lenny Valentino).

Spain

• Barcelona is known for its yearly Primavera Sound Festival, partly curated by ATP and Pitchfork Media.

Sweden

Main article: Swedish Indie Pop

United Kingdom

Early music scenes in the UK are Madchester from Manchester (most notably The Smiths) and The Scene That Celebrates Itself, the latter was an musical scene in the early 1990s within London and the Thames Valley area. Independent music currently enjoys a widespread following in popular British culture; prominent examples of major British indie groups include Razorlight and The Libertines, whose controversial lead-singer, Pete Doherty, went on to form Babyshambles, also an 'independent' band. Generally, the term 'indie' when used in the UK, tends to refer to a specific genre of music, rather than the status of their record label; in line with this popular trend, record producers will often coerce their artists into imitating the style of so-called 'indie'.