This is an optional post*
For some brownie points, write a post about an indie news source, blog, band, movie, etc. This is a way to build an archive of things that may otherwise be difficult to find. Include a link to it and respond to the question: What makes it indie (or different from things acceptable by main stream media).
Thanks for an awesome semester!
Stay cool
I will start. *note* I am not writing a response, which you all are required to do if you want the extra credit.
ReplyDeletehttp://rhizome.org/ : Rhizome is an online publication dedicated to dedicated to the creation, presentation, preservation, and critique of emerging artistic practices that engage technology.
http://danielhernandez.typepad.com/ : Intersections is an independent news blog about Mexico City
http://e-flux.com/ : e-flux is an international network which reaches more than 50,000 visual art professionals--it includes essays, exhibition reviews, art-related news. . .
Sorry for the typos, I did this quick
ReplyDeletehttp://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Rubber/70142800?trkid=2361637
ReplyDeleteRubber is a 2010 French comedy film about an abandoned tire in the middle of a desert that comes to life and kills people by blowing them up with his psychic powers. The premise of the film is unusual to say the least, but what makes Rubber different from movies accepted by main stream media is that nothing happens for a reason. Typically mainstream movies try to convey a message or tie the storyline together at the end. Rubber, however, leaves the audience hanging, never explaining any of the strange events that transpire throughout the film. It’s almost like the film was made just for the sake of making a confusing film.
"Brick" written and directed by Rian Johnson. This film came out in 2005 and is a neo-noir thriller. It's about high school students, drugs and murder which all take place in a suburb of California. "Brick" is a reference to heroin, a big part of the film. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is the main character which is even more of a reason to see this :). It's on Netflix.
ReplyDeleteWhat makes this film indie is that it was made on a $450,000 after being raised by friends and family of Johnsons because no production company was interested in the script. The film was also done in a mere 20 days which compared to main stream films is minuscule. There was no professional film crew, Johnson actually recruited the help of local film students in the area where they shot.
I have seen this movie and I thought it was ok but It brought up issues that people really don’t want to talk about. when I think of movies like this, that shows violence that we don’t want to talk about is the movie clockwork orange. This movie was trying to show that psychology behaviorism can be used to make people that were pedophiles rapists and overall violent be conditioned not to want to do those things by using classical conditioning. In real life this could not work but it was an interesting concept. This movie showed a kind of violence that was foreign to me such as the movie “brick” did.
DeleteI havent seen rubber but I'll attest to Brick--it's excellent!!!
ReplyDeleteFleet Foxes, and Indie Folk band, began their small career in Seattle, Washington. They began in 2006 and are still making music presently, however, they are low key. Unlike many artists that are starting today, they became popular simply through word of mouth. They signed a record label with Sub Pop without any manager guiding them along. In 2007 they released their first album, Sun Giant, an album that consists of vocal harmonies with a bluesy feel. This band is indie due to its non-conformist and old fashioned ways. In addition, this band has a different sound and the songs have an old soul. Today, many artists use techno or microphones that change their voices. Fleet Foxes just sing and their relaxing and enjoyable to unwind to. Enjoy!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DT-dxG4WWf4
The Catcher in the Rye, written by J.D. Salinger was written in 1951. It's centers upon an angsty teen who got kicked out of boarding school and ventures to New York City. The book follows this character as he continues to blame everyone but himself for his misfortune. Holden, the main character, harps on everyone, seeming to hold the classic teen attitude of hating the world throughout the entire novel. Although he eventually comes to accept himself in the end, Holden's maturity level never changes because his negative attitude remains. This is unlike most other adult fiction novels, who normally include character growth. Holden's stubborn inability to mature is what makes The Catcher in the Rye an indie novel.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThe Indietimes.com is an independent online news source. The website’s slogan is, “Your source for news in the world of independent artists.” The Indie Times also has a magazine in addition to the website format. The mission of the Indie Times is, “to be the leading provider of information and tools to inspire and support independent artists everywhere” (Indietimes.com) The content includes independent music, books, film, theater, and even cooking! (Indietimes.com).
ReplyDeleteWhat makes this news source indie is that it provides alternative content that is mostly published by independent freelancers. Not that this makes it indie, but, the Indietimes, currently, does not pay independent freelancers for publishing their work. I found this interesting, as contributors submit their work knowing that they will not make money off of it, rather they make it for the sake of their work getting out to those interested.
www.theindietimes.com/submission-guidelines/
“secret” is a movie which made by my favorite Chinese famous singer Jay Chou. This movie is talk about love across time and space. A student who studies music, he fell in love with a girl who is from 20 years ago, no one can see her except him. General main stream movie always have a good ending or bad ending. We can learn something from each main stream movie. Main stream movie are always trying to tell us the truth or talk about some current events. Even if it’s fiction movie, we still can learn something. The reason why this movie is different from things acceptable by main stream media is because we learned nothing from this movie. Also, there is no ending. The producer said everyone would have an ending in their heart, but I don’t think so. This movie is 101 minutes long. I can say this movie is very boring but it’s really Non-main stream.
ReplyDeletehttp://baike.baidu.com/view/973458.htm
Media Matters calls itself: “not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media.” MM is a news source that seems to pit itself against Fox News more than any other outlet, but they do not stop there. I have been following them for a while and I still remember some of the highlights of their reporting. Their viewpoint in itself is what makes them “indie”. They are taking the time to point out the misinformation and bias on Fox, as well as the fomenting, long-running attacks that are gobbled up by Fox’s red-state viewers.
ReplyDeleteThe Republican Party in this country took a big hit in the last election. Old white men and their willing accomplices are getting a hint that there might be another world beyond their own. Media Matters shows the rest of the world what the insular Republican World really looks like. The segment of the country who don't watch Fox News (yes, there are a few) are well served by the light shown, because they would otherwise not know all the lies being told over our public airwaves.
Some examples of MM stories include: today’s story about how Nightly News in America covered the Royal Family more than climate change in 2012; how a Fox News host recently called Rush Limbaugh the most significant Republican in the country; ABC news lied a little in claiming that it had important Benghazi emails, and the list goes on.
I have enjoyed Media Matters for many years, and I enjoy it because I feel like I am actually reading the news when I read it online. What a refreshing change of pace that is
http://mediamatters.org/
I always think of Indie band fans as getting angry when their songs play on the radio, which I can relate to. These bands are less mainstream and more independent. Third Eye Blind is one of my all-time favorite bands, and although they are known for some of their hits such as “Semi-charmed Life” or “Jumper”, they also have songs with deeper meanings that would never be allowed on the radio. Stephan Jenkins often sings personal, detailed stories involving relationships, sex, love, drugs, and drinking. The band even wrote an occupy Wall Street anthem called “If There Ever Was a Time”. It included the bands opinions about the topic and was available for free download on their website, which I was very happy about. They did not record it to gain money or fame, they wanted to get the message out to their fans, free of charge. I recently started to like “Slow Motion” within the past couple of years. It is slow but beautiful. My interpretation is how Hollywood glamorizes drugs and the lifestyle Jenkins has. He sings about how the media promotes drug use, violence, and other deviant behaviors meanwhile these things slowly tear away at a person. Jenkins battles addiction to drugs, and a chain of bad decision making. There's actually some pretty cool and relevant background information on this song. It was first released on their album Blue as an instrumental rendition, with only the chorus for lyrical accompaniment. The Columbine High School shooting happened seven months prior to Blue’s release, so record executives made this decision because the lyrics were of a violent nature. Some include a girl’s nose bleeding a “beautiful ruby red” after doing “two lines of coke he cut with Drain-o”. The full version with lyrics was released on the international album version, and made its way to the US via the Internet. The band released a compilation album during summer ’06 with the full version of Slow Motion, its first official release in the US. I love Third Eye Blind so much because Jenkins sings so passionately about his own life, no matter how screwed up or terrible it was at times. He is 47 years old and they are still making music, currently working on their fifth album. So many mainstream artists throw out hits every couple of months that no one will remember a few years later. Not saying that mainstream artists normally featured on the radio care less about their fans than more independent or Indie bands, but they definitely care more about the money, fame, image, and glamour in my opinion.Third Eye Blind reached their peak in the 90s, but they continue to make beautiful music, and hold small, intimate shows for their fans. Slow Motion would never be on the radio. The mainstream media would panic if such content got out to their children, but that’s what I love about it.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MTbYve31BA
Enjoy!
As a dancer, I love listening to all different genres of music in hopes that I will stumble across a perfect song or two to choreograph a dance to. An artist that I’ve recently been introduced to whose songs I feel definitely have contemporary/lyrical choreography potential are those of Lana Del Rey. Although she is signed to a record label and therefore technically not considered and Independent artist, her music is very far from that of mainstream and she definitely has an Indie persona about. This Indie persona and sound of hers can clearly be seen and heard in her music videos. One in particular that I’m quite fond of is the video for Young and Beautiful. Despite the fact that song is more popular than her other songs because it was just featured in the film The Great Gatsby, the sound/music is undeniably different from those of typical mainstream songs. Majority of mainstream songs have upbeat, dance tempos and feel-good lyrics, whereas most, if not all, of Lana’s songs have a slightly dark and nostalgic sound to them. Even if her lyrics are positive and happy, the music will counteract them in a way to give the song a darker feel, which is the complete opposite of how mainstream songs are.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_1aF54DO60
Slow Club!
ReplyDeleteIn the 9th grade, I discovered my current favorite band after hearing one of their songs on a Lay’s Potato Chip commercial: potatoes burst from the ground, a little girl wheeled a wagon, people crunched chips in their mouthes, and I fell in love. Despite everything written in that last sentence, I am not ashamed.
I discovered Slow Club in the midst of a particularly serious affliction of liking Pink Floyd, a progressive/classic rock band where subtlety was notably not on the docket. They wrote about what I thought then to be the absolute deepest of topics; they discussed totalitarianism, insanity and commercialism with blunt force, preaching, “money: it’s a gas,” or calling out politicians by name: “Hey you, Whitehouse! Ha ha, charade you are!”
Slow Club writes the subtle. They write the honest, the simple, and they have the magical ability to say things without having to say anything directly. If I hadn’t discovered Slow Club when I did, there is little doubt that I would’ve turned out to be a bombastic, brute of a writer, handicapped in the ability to appreciate the beauty of the small and seemingly insignificant.
Their first two albums, Let’s Fall Back in Love EP, released in 2008, and Yeah, So, released in 2009, are bright and bursting with brisk folky melodies and darkly light lyrics. By and large, these two albums are made up of love songs. But they are aching, tragic love songs disguised as cute little ditties, free of cliches, corniness, or anything else that makes your average love song cringe-worthy. They write great love songs, ones that focus on the small stuff, and are insurmountably large in theme to show for it.
It Doesn’t Have to Be Beautiful, Come on Youth, Trophy Room, Dance Til the Morning Light, You Earth or Ash, Two Cousins, When I Go, Apples and Pairs, Horses Jumping, Gold Mountain, Wild Blue Milk, Because We’re Dead, Me and You: I love them all. Our Most Brilliant Friends, a ten minute epic, is made of the finest lyricism I’ve ever heard. The second of its two installments winds and bends through a girl’s lament and uncertainty, narrating with a voice that is both naive but knowing, serious but light, steadfast but delicate. I find it hard to quote anything from this song, because each line begs the next, and the story is too great to break apart.
Also, I make no hesitation in saying that their last album, Paradise, was a truly PERFECT album from start to finish.
Okay, I’m done gushing.
Although the Lay’s commercial stint may run counterintuitive to “non-mainstream” ideology (they also did a Ritz cracker commercial in Canada, and had a song on the TV show Chuck), Slow Club is undoubtedly indie. A two member band, Charles handles main guitar and Rebecca offers the percussion, both of them sharing the vocals. Why are they indie? They maintain their indie status perhaps because of the specificity of their lyrics: they don’t have the purposefully general relatable-ness of popular music, but that’s what makes them great.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2dZSHToVGc
http://www.alternet.org/
ReplyDeletealternet, is indie because it covers story’s that some people might find controversial. This sight covers things from atheists to the destruction of the world by us the people. This sight has a tab for news and politics. This tab has things such as the occupy Wall Street movement. Also this tab as things such as investigations and tea party support these are things that not all news sight cover. Some of the other tabs are world, activism, economy, rights, environment, and media and culture and all cover things that you will not typically find in news sources such as cnn of fox new and if they do you know that they are going to be one sided.
One of my good friends from elementary school to high school has always been very dedicated to music, particularly the drums. He was always the star of the elementary school talent shows with his drum solo and this continued on through middle school and high school when he would have a long solo in the school band concerts. He is an extremely talented musician and has worked very hard at his skills. A couple years ago he joined a band named “The All Ways”. They kept busy with local gigs and were very good at doing covers of well-known songs. This past year they decided to try out for America’s Got Talent. This happened to be one of the best decisions of their lives. They not only made it past the first round of cuts, but ended up making it all the way to the top 48 of the show. Eventually they got eliminated but that was not the end of their career. They recently went on a tour in Russia and had a lot of success with it. Hopefully they will be able to bring their success to the States but for now they are in the right step toward success. I wish them the best of luck, but for now I enjoy following their story and enjoy listening to their music.
ReplyDeleteThis is the link for their homepage! http://www.theallways.com/
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ReplyDeleteThere is a big difference between what can be considered an “indie” film and films that are not main stream. Pretty much any foreign film that wasn’t a success in the U.S. is automatically not main stream.
ReplyDeleteOne “non-main stream” movie I dug up recently was a German film called “Felidae,” an animated film about talking cats, and a film noir murder mystery with graphic sex and violence. There are several animated films (not including Japanese anime, which is an entirely different genre in its own right) that deviate from the main stream by depicting a gritty atmosphere and an “adult” story; “Watership Down” being probably the most well-known example.
What really distinguishes “Felidae” is that the animation looks relatively kiddy. If you sat down and watched part of it with no prior knowledge about what it was going to be like – as I did – you might mistake it for some kid’s movie from the likes of Disney or Don Bluth, and be all the more surprised when it’s NOT. The film isn’t just violent, it’s downright gory. But it has some provocative imagery, a lot of interesting historical and biological themes, and a fairly epic climax which is RUMORED to have influenced the climactic battle at the end of “The Lion King”. Check it out if you like weird animated films, German artiness, or cat movies in general. But be warned, there’s some pretty messed up stuff in there.
One of my favorite blogs of all time has been http://butdoesitfloat.com/ it looks like a very simple blog but it's content is outstanding. You can literally start at the top and just scroll through endless photos or pieces (without having to change pages!) that will continuously wow you. Also, it gives credit to all of the posts so you can instantly be directed to that particular person's website or homepage. I have discovered so many artists and photographers from this blog that I can't imagine I would have found through any other outlet.
ReplyDeleteBecause the website doesn't really have any real way of distinguishing an amount of people who view it (comments, likes, or view counter) I can't really determine whether or not it's considered "Main-stream" but I think after browsing for a couple minutes you can kind of develop the idea that it's not your average blog or would be considered mainstream by many. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
http://homelesstracks.com/
ReplyDeleteHomeless tracks is a websites of a small group of people that use false pen names like Holmes and Poe, the creators, where they post articles on upcoming music artists, songs, and anything about music in particular. What makes Homeless Tracks stand out as indie, or different from the major music journalist websites is the topics they cover and the small number of unpaid writers that do, it for the experience and love of music. On major, popular websites you would normally see interviews of breakout artists or artists and popular artists that most people will know and have heard of before. However, on Homeless Tracks they research into specific genres of music each individual person comprehends, giving you a specialized view into a subculture of many different music tastes, and providing underground, indie, bands a way to promote themselves and try to become successful in the music industry. That is the purpose of Homeless Tracks, finding a home for these unknown and not talked about artists and music.