h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I have been reading H2G2 for nearly 2 years and have never ever felt angry at the tone of a article however... your article on Indie Music is about as inaccurate and insulting as it gets (musically).

1) Indie Music is so called because a lot of musicians who were liked by the same people/magazines appeared in the Independent Charts. These charts were called "independent" because they showed the sales of releases from record labels that used "independent" distribution channels unlike the major record labels who take their own records to the shops.

2) The term Indie has now become synonymous with guitar music that isn't rock, so a band like Blur, although on a major label, are considered indie. In fact the term seems to be a little less used now and has been replaced with Alternative Rock as Indie has progressed into a more "rocky" version of its former self but we need something to differentiate between Mercury Rev and Guns 'n' Roses don't we?

3) Kylie was once listed in the Indie Charts as she was on PWL a label that was independent. Odd eh?

4) Why have you written such a negative entry?

I couldn't agree more. I could happily write an entry slagging off the pomposity and dirge-like qualities of most commercial 'rock' music and musicians. But I haven't and I'm not going to. It would be unnecessarily negative and completely pointless.

Why has such an ill-balanced entry made it into the edited guide?

If it's going to stay in there, at least let someone write a positive view of indie alongside it.

This article is absolute rubbish and should be detroyed. It always pains me when anyone uses the term 'indie' to describe a style of music, which, no doubt is usually just sub standard sixties copying dirge. See Ocean Colour Scene, Oasis, Cast and the other mainstream nonsense which is used to formulate this genre.

The biggest selling Indie album of all time? Offspring's - Smash for Epitaph. Hardly shoegazing music is it? People need to stop reading and believing what the NME writes, trying to make you believe you are a part of some independent music scene when you are buying EMI, Warner etc owned artists.

Ba!

Although this isn't - and has never been - accepted into the Edited Guide, there used to be a link to it from the Edited Guide entry on London Indie Clubs. Which made most people, including me, believe that the bilge you've just read WAS part of the Official Guide.

This also made everyone believe that the Edited Guide entry on Indie had already been written. It hasn't. Seeing as you're here, you're probably interested in working on creating it, and you'd be very welcome. The work is in progress here - A893892 - and it's in the Collaborative Writing Workshop for your comments, which would be very welcome.

Cheers,
Number Six