"A Guide To Essential Indie Rock"

I just finished reading this article from Sound Recording Reviews, written by Vincent J. Novara and Stephen Henry, and I am proud to say that I am now enlightened. As a fan of rock in general and most of its sub-genres, it was interesting to say the least, to actually read someone try to define indie. Now, like most people who aren't dumb, I was aware that indie stood for independent, and with that information you can basically figure out what the genre's all about. Similar to the DIY era of punk, but indie soon turned into more than just independent bands who recorded, managed and produced for themselves, but a specific sound.  I am a fan of things that go against the mainstream, but personally, I don't get to drastic with it. I dabble a little with alternative hipster type clothes, but where I really shine in that area is music. I have so much respect and admiration for bands and artist that make music that's against the mainstream. I think that they are so brave. The way I see it, mainstream artists know that they'll be accepted into pop culture, or it won't be that much of a struggle for them. But for indie and alternative artists, they are fully aware that it will be hard, or that it will take more than a one-hit-wonder to get them recognized. To go against the "grain," as some would put it, is always difficult since the majority of the population is not accepting of things that go against mainstream. The way I grew up was with top 40, rap and old R&B slow jams. I've always had a strong appreciation for music, and those were no exceptions.  As I entered middle school, some of my new friends introduced me to bands like Pierce The Veil, Dance Gavin Dance, The Cab, All Time Low, and Cobra Starship. Others, like Sonic Youth, The Kooks, The Arctic Monkeys, Limp Bizkit, Sublime, the Misfits and Green Day (which ended up being my favorite band, still today) I discovered on my own. It was a real journey for me, since I did most of this on my own. It was hard because my family, especially my sister and mom, was not very supportive in my music choices, but I managed. I found that my taste for music expanded very broadly. Just about a year or 2 ago I started finding some metal and post punk outfits that I really liked, and after that, I had basically the whole genre covered. Once I started taking guitar lessons, that was the time in my life that I was really content with my itunes library. 1204 songs and counting :)