I don't listen to indie music so I dunno if this is legit, I just thought it was kinda fun.

Stages in the life of an indie music snob

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[–] 40 points 1 year ago (7 children)

got my first indi album in 1997(?) when my parents sent me into a radio station to pick up tickets we had won on one of those call in radio contests. while I was in the lobby some Internet walked out with two CDs in her hands. she told me to pick one. and then she handed me that one and walked off.

It ended up being Pavement, brighten the corners. for a kid in highschool it ended up being pretty life changing.

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  • [–] 9 points 1 year ago* (4 children)

    Not bad. Can top though. I was maybe 6 or 7 and had some birthday money. May have been Kmart or target but my grandparents took me there to spend it on whatever. Being that age I ended up picking out School House Rocks Rocks. Ween, Daniel Johnston, Pavement (who do an amazing cover of No Kings btw), Skeelo, Biz Markie, etc all doing covers of the songs I loved to watch and hear at my babysitter

    Needless to say, it took many years for me to actually recognize that the artists I enjoy most were actually there with me at the very start of my personal music journey.

    Still have the CD. Even found a cassette copy some years back.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    I don't know what happened, but your message seems to have a lot of extra empty lines, and it's spanning tens of screens on my client... I'm curious, was this intentional? I have no idea how that'd happen accidentally, but it'd be pretty funny

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  • [–] 27 points 1 year ago

    you telling me I'm going to enjoy music again one day? I'm not even mad

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  • [–] 13 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    Wait, cage the elephant is considered indie and obscure? They were the intro to borderlands lol, that's where I heard of them

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  • [–] 13 points 1 year ago

    I’m old enough that my baby shit is now revered as works of absolute genius by the millennial amateur music historians.

    We’re all dust in the wind, but if you aren’t a stuck up cunt, you get to have a cool soundtrack you enjoy.

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  • [–] 12 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    I took a weird path, starting with death metal as a young teenager and ending up listening to indie music anyways.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago* (2 children)

    Same kinda. Reject any music played over the radio and seek my own journey.

    I ended up with listening to Lady Gaga, and going "ohh... she's actually got some nice bossy tunes. oh wait this might be why she was popular."

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Yeah I did the same thing with movies too. These days I feel like I can appreciate the artistic value in just about everything. I don't have to spend energy 'hating' on music and movies, and can just enjoy something simple, or move on if it's not for me.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago

    I realise that the only thing that annoyed me back way back when was the hype and promotion surrounding these songs.

    For example, Ed Sheeran. I'm sure he's a good singer, I'm sure his songs are genuinely game changing.... but the sheer amount of hype surrounding him makes me not want to listen his songs, because I know he will not live up to it

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  • [–] 23 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    my problem is i don't understand how to categorise the music i listen to based on genre labels. Also I don't use a music service that has analytics or listen to playlists so I have no clue how mainstream my tastes in particular artists are

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  • [–] 18 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    You should try https://everynoise.com/

    If you type an artist's name in the search bar it'll give you relevant genres. You can then click one of those genres and you'll get a word cloud of artists. Clicking an artist name gives you a short sample of their music. You can also go back to the home page, do a ctrl+F for a genre, and see similar genres grouped up close by to it

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    That website was not made for phones at all

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago*

    It's definitely not ideal on phones, but I don't think the intended usage of the main page is to manually scroll around on either phone or PC. The massive word cloud looks exactly the same on a bigger screen. Use a "find in page" to jump to a genre you want to check out and then see what's near it. The audio all works the same as it does on PC (for me, at least)

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  • [–] 11 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Wdym machine girl is obscure why is it on the before last tier

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  • [–] 18 points 1 year ago (6 children)

    Yeah, I've been through a similar journey but with metal.

    Starting with pop-punk and nu-metal as a young lad, I went to more and more extreme stuff over the years to reach stuff like Slam Death, Gorenoise, DSBM or drone, that are barely tolerable even for seasoned metal fans.

    But when you reach transcendence (or the bottom of the cesspool, in that case...), you go full circle and listen to pop music again.

    At that point I'd say I listen equal part of the cutest k-pop stuff you can find and brutal slam or hxc beatdown; which highly confuses recommendation algorithms!

    Anyway, there is light at the bottom of the rabbit hole, so go all the way in, you might find interesting stuff along the way!

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Even my current playlist ranging from anime OPs to metalcore confuses the algorithm. I can't imagine your situation.

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  • [–] [S] 3 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    drone

    Dunno much about drone, but I've recently started listening to noise and dark ambient that's sometimes also labeled drone. Any recommendations?

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    It's been a while, and I never dug that much on this one, I guess the only projects I listened properly was Sunn 0))), but it's fairly well known.

    Otherwise, it's not exactly drone but the Hagbulbia album by Portal is terrifying imo. Highly recommended if you're looking for this kind of mood.

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  • [–] 9 points 1 year ago (12 children)

    Bro, how dare you put snail mail as more popular than ok computer!

    Radio head is like THE indie band everyone knows. I'd put it above tame Impala on this list.

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  • [–] [S] 9 points 1 year ago (11 children)

    Radio head is like THE indie band everyone knows.

    Yeah, but everybody only knows "Creep." (Source: I only know "Creep".)

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (6 children)
  • [–] [S] 0 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    Just listening to it now. Never heard it before.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    Or "15 Step" from In Rainbows? That entire album was amazing

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Just listening to that one now, never heard it before either. Wait, is this a trick to get me to listen to the entire Radiohead catalog?!?

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  • [–] 8 points 1 year ago (8 children)

    100 gecs is cool, but idk most of the other shit (Carly Rae Jepsen does have some great tunes, though I know not all). Guess I skipped ahead

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago (7 children)

    Emotion is the best pop album in the last 10 years and it's not even close.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    not even close? how about Imaginal Disk? Brat?

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (2 children)

    I'm pretty sure Brat has too much club energy but I'm very excited to check out that Imaginal Disk.

    I'm just a sucker for synth pop saccharine crush romance.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    yeah, Brat is club dance pop. Magdalena Bay seems closer to your taste but it's also hugely psychedelic. but i cannot recommend enough their both LPs and mini-mixes. and i also have a feeling you might love Chairlift and solo albums of Caroline Polachek. so you wouldn't at least think "it's not even close" anymore :)

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago* (2 children)

    Don't think I've heard it in full. Supernatural (Danny L Harle) is what brought her back to my attention, all the way from Call Me Maybe (not sure if I've heard anything else from her between those)

    From the moment I heard Supernatural, I was hooked. I kinda love this sound that feels like pure pop, perfect pop. Needless to say, PC Music had me

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Give it a shot! I'm only making bold claims for engagement. The album is really good though. It's less dancey than the one you linked, different vibe but you might like it.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    Well, maybe I'll see if I can find a spot, put it in rotation. I did (and still do) really like The Loneliest Time (the track. Not sure if I listened to the album). Which I'd say is less dancey, but still great. Just sounds so… idk, so perfect. So good. I should probably make a collection of perfect pop

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  • [–] 8 points 1 year ago

    One of the coolest drummer friends i had, who was punk as all hell used to say he thought the best musician ever was Sara Bareilles (you know her 1 hit, trust me) and was unironically excited to have saved up to see her play.

    I still argue its Paul Simon. That afterlife song is still one of the most punk things i have ever heard.

    The great thing about music is its about finding someone giving their emotions so strongly it turns into something beautiful that others can empathize with to not feel as alone in our feelings. Its all good as long as someone can connect with it.

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  • [–] 8 points 1 year ago

    oof the fantano line stings but its true

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    (Lizzo does slap).

    I was a fan of the moldy peaches and Frank turner before their big breaks, and that’s my only music cred.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Frank Turner is still alright if not a little more poppy now after the success of the way I tend to be.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Yeah, I feel like a real hipster saying this, but I liked both of them better before they got big.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    It happens to us all. When Avatar was new in theaters a friend asked me I haven't seen it and my legit knee jerk reaction was "because it's so popular" I immediately got flamed for that response, but I meant I just don't want to be in a crowded theatre. If I do watch a movie in theaters it's usually because it's been out for a while and the crowds are smaller.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    That neutral milk hotel album is a bit of an indie meme at this point tbh, especially if you collect vinyl it's basically in everyone's collection.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    But at least it's a good album worth listening too. It's good that a meme gets people to listen to new interesting things. Or one of the other big meme albums like in the court of the crimson king, or maggot brain.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago

    Yes indeed scary red face is the other big one. Both excellent albums for sure! I'm personally so past the stage of not allowing myself to like stuff because it's popular so totally agree with you.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago

    Then there’s me: buying up 45s and cassettes, putting them up on !recordpics@piefed.social.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago

    post-ironically

    that got a solid chuckle out of me

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago

    But how about instrumentals??

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  • Beach bunny’s emotional creature is legitimately fire tho I mean it’s srs bsns prom queen, like for tame impala if every song on that album was mixed with sexy back https://youtu.be/4xW5dqEZQu0

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  • I recognize every album from the third entry but none from the second

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  • Just listen to what sounds good to you, everyone else can fuck off

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    I suppose I listen to "Indy" music, more so that I started a few years ago when I started driving and would listen to whatever Spotify autoreccomended to me after a playlist ends and if I like it I'll add it to a playlist or something. YouTube recommendations are good for finding new genres like vocaloid.

    I don't really care if a song is popular at all, a song from somebody named "Sophiaaaahjkl;8901" whos pfp is a furry eating a hamburger will be more important to me than something from Grandson.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    Xiu Xiu! I suppose I’m jaded adult. I saw Xiu Xiu in the mid 00s and I’ve never cried that much at a concert before or since.

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  • I get to see Pretty Girls Make Graves today <3

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    Its always so pathetic meeting someone that needs to have The Correct Opinion on music.

    A song is good because I like it and thats always been enough for me, i dont need to prove or gatekeep shit and neither does anyone else.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago*

    I never understood what Indie actually means, conceptually. Like, some people only listen to music if the musician depends on someone else, and some people only listen to independent ones.
    Don't you guys just listen to shit and decide if you like it?

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    *No More Kings

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    What does it mean if you only know albums from the bottom half?

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