Decade of the Indies...

[countrykidanthony]

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although indie record labels and artists existed long ago, it was not until the later half of this decade that it carried some artists to stardom without giving them away to major labels...

Back in the 90s if Sub Pop didn't let go of Nirvana, Nirvana wouldn't be as famous as they are. It was David Griffin who pushed Nevermind on MTV and radio. Luckily most people liked it but even those who don't ended up liking it....

But recently a sudden shift in the business was observed. The Shins went into international stardom via Sub Pop. Boyce Avenue didn't even have a record label (although here in the Philippines they're distributed by MCA).

But the biggest story of all is the rise of Taylor Swift who was discovered and launched by Big Machine Records, an independent company run by country-music veteran Scott Borchetta.

Her single Teardrops On My Guitar crossed over the pop charts without the help of a major label. She already released her second album Fearless on the winter of 2008 via the indie label Big Machine when suddenly Universal Republic wanted a piece of her success...

Taylor was already big when Universal Republic joined forces with Big Machine in early 2009 so her second album Fearless will get an international treatment...

But even without Universal Republic, Big Machine and Taylor Swift will do just fine (there's a misconception that she's a Disney artist but that's not true although her song Teardrops On My Guitar Remix version was licensed by Disney but overall,she and Big Machine are pretty much the captain of her career)

[Xerxes is Gay!]

Pixies
Sebadoh
Dinosaur Jr.
Pavement
10000 maniacs

and also those other 60 something more bands that im too lazy to type it all here, charted in the mid 80s to mid 90s.. that was the decade of indies IMO..

[countrykidanthony]

yup 80s and 90s had plenty of indies but some of those bands only got mainstream popularity when they signed to a major label. Prior to that, only the "real" music lovers knew their music. The casual listeners had no idea who they were prior to major label success.

Example of this is Goo Goo Dolls. They existed the same time BOn Jovi existed but only got popularity around mid-90s. Even their first few major label songs weren't that much mainstream until Iris. When Iris came out, many pop listeners thought they're a new band.