Indie/pop never stops

NICOLE KLIEST
Staff Writer

Pop music and indie music have long been two genres that seem to be in a state of friction as how to make the combination of the two an aesthetically pleasing experience without sacrificing their core values.

The big bad corporate enemy of indie, pop music seems to have an overlying theme of commercial success. In essence, it is music made for the masses and is intended to be available and enjoyable for anyone willing to listen.

On the other hand, independent music, commonly known as indie, appears to emphasize the importance of not “selling out” to major commercial record labels as well as approaching music with a do-it-yourself attitude to publishing, recording, and promoting.

So how do you take these two contradicting approaches to making music and make sense of how they affect and influence each other?

Senior music composition major Melissa Leonelli says she believes all genres are influenced by each other.

“No matter how original we try to be with our music, all of our ideas derive from something else,” Leonelli said. “From hard rock to cultural songs, pop divas to Mozart and Palestrina – music is a chain of influence and every genre influences another, whether it happens in a person intentionally or not.”

This brings up an interesting point: just because the road an artist chooses to take when creating music is different does not always guarantee that it will be absent of the sounds of other forms.

Junior Bonnie Smithson has been involved in practicing music on her own as well as with the Pepperdine music program. 

“When these genres combine it makes the music we listen to more interesting,” Smithson said. “Before it was the Britney Spears sound with boy bands, then it changed to sounding more alternative with Simple Plan and All American Rejects. Now the music either has a rap sound or a soulful jazz sound, and all these genres were once seen as indie music but now have made a claim in pop music.”

Evolving in the 1950s, pop music exploded with bands and musicians such as Elvis Presley, The Beatles and The Beach Boys, progressing into later decades with songs such as “Play That Funky Music,” “Eye of the Tiger” and “…Baby One More Time.”

With different stylistic features, pop music is a fascinating genre to observe deeper than the surface. It varies in sound but is all produced with the ultimate purpose to be commercially successful.

“Two elements affect success in any musical genre: first a tenacious quest for excellence and two a personal quality that connects with audiences,” said Henry Price, Pepperdine professor of music. “In the pop world, sometimes talent can play second fiddle to charisma.”

In the realm of indie music, commercial success is not a primary factor – self-expression seems to take a higher precedence.

Indie music has its origins in the post-punk period in the 1980s with bands like Sonic Youth when it started out with very small record companies sprouting with musicians with a DIY attitude and DIY music to go with it.

With successes like The Kooks, Cold War Kids, The Postal Service and The Shins, indie has evolved into such a trendy and familiar way of music that words like “mainstream” have been used to describe what indie music is in today’s culture.

In terms of contemporary influence, both genres are undeniably linked in some way. 

Pop music, which desires mass appeal in nature, craves the widespread attention that the indie scene is receiving. Therefore, it is taking note of the sounds and trends of this culture and is trying to replicate it for what some say is mere profit.

The influence pop has on the indie world is clearly not its approach to appeal and sales but rather pops ability to have a wide variety of sound but still remain relevant and entertaining.  As well, pop music does predate the rise of indie and therefore indie has undeniably recognized the strong influence pop has made internationally.

When these two genres do in fact collide, they produce a sound many refer to as “indie pop.”  This term is a rather slippery phase.

“I guess that’s why there’s a sub-genre known as ‘indie pop,’ as opposed to indie rock,” Leonelli said. “Indie Pop – Independent Popular – kind of an oxymoron, don’t you think? Independent music that has a pop resemblance or independent music that has a rock resemblance.”

With the indie and pop relationship independent music is just losing its independence, Leonelli said. But the idea of being independent and finding a new sound apart from the ordinary is still the core motive for music.

Whatever the case, indie-pop is considered to be indie-label music created with an independent and DIY attitude, but it falls on the pop part of the equation seeking a mass appeal. This music always seems to land on the bad side with critics being deemed insubstantial or unworthy.

So it seems as though both genres are in a bit of a funk. Pop music is struggling to revive that exciting feeling of new music to serve to the masses and indie is swallowing a chunk of pride as their music begins to become liked by, dare I say it, the popular audience.

Perhaps it is time that everyone goes back to what is most important: making music.  Wasting time worrying about who is being most creative, who is selling out, or even how much money you’re making is simply distancing the artist from what they should be most concerned with: their art.

02-21-2008