An Indie Takeover

By Kabura Ng'ang'a

Mainstream radio gives us mainstream music and we end up having hundreds of artists and their music going undiscovered. For the longest time these have been alternative and indie musicians.

Indie music was originally a class of music that was released and produced by independent artists/bands and/or labels. This was in the 1970s and 1980s. The genre has however involved to mean music that is more obscure and majorly as a result of their instrumentation and lyricism. Indie artists take to use guitars and build onto original or old riffs, drum and bass arrangements that complement the guitar and use their lyrics to carry every emotion of the song without sounding whiney but still carrying through their obscurity. This evolved meaning has come to merge with the alternative genre of music as both stray from the generic lyrics and intensity of mainstream music.

We have been experiencing a shift with the audience where now people are more drawn to indie music and alternative music. It has forced the key players; awards shows, radio shows, the DJs and many more people in the industry to listen and acknowledge these artists on stage and with accolades.

Some of the artists we have been enjoying are; Florence_+_the Machine who has been topping rock charts album after album, Jacob Banks who has been appearing on different late night shows to perform and our very own Karun who we all love listening to and Wanja Wahoro who’s album Matriarch is the one Kenyan album we didn’t know we needed. The topping sensation now who has been an indie artist for the longest time is Lizzo; she set the BET stage on fire this week, she was nominated for a BET award and her album is every sweet break-up and empowerment anthem. Alessia Cara, who is very alternative and indie about her pop music won best new artist during the 2018 grammy’s and she asked people to pay more attention to real artists, as are indie artists are considered as they are more underground.

What indie artist or album or song is on your playlist?