The indie scene is finally looking at making a breakthrough into the listeners’ narrow mindsets in our country with the aid of social networking, online publishing and availability of better recording facilities over the past few years. It is now that we have three to four gigs happening every week in most metros and an album or EP releasing almost every other week. Quite frankly, if we were to ask any rocker or indie music lover about the situation and whether its encouraging for more people to step into, they would all respond in positive. Major labels are also getting into ‘band’ compilations to see sales rise and indie acts are making their way up the local radio charts. What more could we ask for?

That being said, most true artistes realise the importance of appealing to the ‘common’ crowd. Indie genre loyalists might call us fools but we don’t talk of genres but an independent music scenario instead, as always. Whether a common crowd who like good music (Not the hardcore Punjabi-hiphop lovers which is in no way bad, but different music) would be able to appreciate any of India’s  quality bands is the question that has been raised by many journalists off late. If you ask us, it is pretty obvious for questions like this to be raised about what the band scenario is actually like. This is because the easiest way to report a story and prove a point in the world is to compare. Simply compare a Junkyard Groove to a Switchfoot in terms of earnings per show and albums sold and reach a conclusion that Indian bands are nothing but a joke and survival for bands is difficult in our country. What everyone fails to asses is the background and the road which the indie scene has taken to reach where it is right now. Comparison is just, no doubt but on fair fields. If you were to give a Steely Dan lover a copy of Thermal And A Quarter’s album and check back for feedback after a couple of weeks, we take guarantee that he/she is playing the songs amongst their most played to and from work everyday. Similarly, when a BlackstratBlues track jumps out amongst a guitar geek’s random playlist, one doesn’t seem to notice any disparities in performance or production qualities, not to mention that its sonic impact is of a similar level. The point being that the standard of rendition and production is constantly on the rise making the songs acceptable to any audience here in India or abroad. Survival is definitely important but making music of a high standard which appeals to their audience is the ultimate aim for any artiste or band, whether in India or abroad.

It is common for our indie artistes to get moved by such reports which compare them with other artistes from entirely different genres, backgrounds and scenarios(like the talented Backstreet Boys) and pick on petty issues like survival. Art as such is a field wherein people are driven to succeed and break through in some way rather than just survive. What people and most importantly listeners in our country have started growing up to is the fact that the music is what matters. The media has to report numbers and CD’s sold and concert attendance will always take the cake but even if that number increases by a maximum 50 people a month for indie acts, the sales of bollywood music is going to get a run for their money.  Nevertheless, there are artistes who are solely worried about their survival as performers and they pretty obviously do not last for more than a year or two at most because music cannot be made to serve a specific purpose. The fact that there are albums being brought to the table is a huge positive for the secular music scene in our country and worldwide. Importantly, Indian classical/folk and indie music are the only two forms of non-film music which are currently being released in India and staying on the shelves to some extent so if the press doesn’t give attention to us, who else would they be looking at? We should actually be looking at representing India’s post modern culture in the next few years alongside traditional music and bollywood.

Hence, the media attention(both positive and negative) is a big boon for the indie industry in our opinion. What journalists report is 99% going to be the truth but listeners will hopefully also weight the light in which the events and scenarios are being reported. On the brighter side, the scene gets exposure which eventually adds up to curious listeners hitting up band webpages and listening to Indian indie. As artistes, what we need to do is entertain and be bloody good at that to ensure that no questions can ever be raised about standards or other such quality issues. In that respect, all is well, and is only going to get better.

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