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Catching a Rising Star
If you research the term "indie rock," you will immediately encounter a multitude of definitions. Everyone seems to agree that the description was first applied to independent record labels back around 1980. But the genre soon blended with what had once been called "alternative rock"-a catch-all description of the underground music that was played on college radio stations, comprising artists variously known as "punk," "garage," "grunge," "new wave," and even "post-punk." The quintessential indie label was Seattle's Sub Pop, whose flagship band was Nirvana. But when Nirvana moved to a major label, Geffen Records, in 1991, and its album Nevermind hit No. 1, the whole concept of indie rock was turned topsy-turvy. Today, the term is applied to such widely acclaimed and popular acts as Radiohead, Modest Mouse, the Black Keys, and Arcade Fire, indicating that it has lost whatever meaning it originally had.
All this may mean nothing to you if you're interested exclusively in classical musicexcept that we are now seeing the emergence of a category called "indie classical." Proponents of the term, taking off from "indie rock," have used it to describe composers and artists who seem to operate outside the established tradition in both style and technique. They may perform in nightclubs as well as concert halls,...
