Jordan Cummins | University of Technology Sydney (original) (raw)
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Australian Indie music is just one of the various global offshoots of the post 1980’s trend towar... more Australian Indie music is just one of the various global offshoots of the post 1980’s trend towards more localised, lived-experience based, cultural product creation (Cummings, 2008). A useful resource in conceptualising what constitutes Indie music generally is David Hesmondhalgh’s 1999 analysis of the importance of the word indie, found in volume 13 of Cultural Studies;
“The mid-1980s’ coining and adoption of the term, an abbreviation of ‘independent’ (as in independent record company) was highly significant: no music genre had ever before taken its name from the form of industrial organisation behind it. For indie pro- claimed itself to be superior to other genres not only because it was more relevant or authentic to the youth who produced and consumed it” (p.35)
This formulation of what it means to be ‘indie’ is integral when considering the effect transnational forces might have on Australian indie music. The main question then, is how can something so firmly rooted in ‘the local’ possibly survive the breaking down of global barriers associated with the rise of transnational media? Can something so contingent on local social structures and cultural infrastructure retain its level of perceived “superiority” and “authenticity” when faced with the now near-free flowing exchange of cultural ideas which globalisation has brought us?
Australian Indie music is just one of the various global offshoots of the post 1980’s trend towar... more Australian Indie music is just one of the various global offshoots of the post 1980’s trend towards more localised, lived-experience based, cultural product creation (Cummings, 2008). A useful resource in conceptualising what constitutes Indie music generally is David Hesmondhalgh’s 1999 analysis of the importance of the word indie, found in volume 13 of Cultural Studies;
“The mid-1980s’ coining and adoption of the term, an abbreviation of ‘independent’ (as in independent record company) was highly significant: no music genre had ever before taken its name from the form of industrial organisation behind it. For indie pro- claimed itself to be superior to other genres not only because it was more relevant or authentic to the youth who produced and consumed it” (p.35)
This formulation of what it means to be ‘indie’ is integral when considering the effect transnational forces might have on Australian indie music. The main question then, is how can something so firmly rooted in ‘the local’ possibly survive the breaking down of global barriers associated with the rise of transnational media? Can something so contingent on local social structures and cultural infrastructure retain its level of perceived “superiority” and “authenticity” when faced with the now near-free flowing exchange of cultural ideas which globalisation has brought us?