When it comes to indie music, there are many hotbeds of talent but Sweden isn’t normally one you would naturally think of. Unfortunately, the music history of that nation appears to start and end with Abba for many people, but over the past decade or so, there have been a growing number of bands from Sweden impacting on the indie world.
The most noticeable would be The Cardigans who achieved massive worldwide fame with their ‘Lovefool’ single and blend of charming and slightly tween indie-pop. Perhaps as a reaction to their fame, The Cardigans changed their style, their music got harder and Nina Persson went from blonde to brunette. They may not feature on the radio as much today as they used to but the band still draws a fairly large crowd to any festival they perform at.
If that was all that Sweden contributed to indie music, it would be a poor return, but when you consider the following acts, you will realise just how many of your favorite tracks have hailed from Sweden: The Wannadies,
Peter, Bjorn and John, The Hives, The Concretes, Love Is All, The Shout out Louds, I’m From Barcelona, Jose Gonzalez, The Knife.
For such a short space of time that is an impressive list of bands and you may be familiar with some of these songs:
Young Folks by Peter, Bjorn and John
You may not know the title but as soon you hear the whistling section of ‘Young Folks’ you will know exactly what the song is and recall what a phenomenon it was at the time. The track came second in the NME’s list of best songs of 2006 and fifth in the Pitchfork review of tracks from 2006.
Hate To Say I Told You So’ by The Hives
Not many bands could announce themselves as your new favorite band and keep a straight face but The Hives aren’t like many other bands. Filled with a confidence that no other band seems capable of matching this track captured the garage rock revival of the early 2000′s to perfection. The snarling guitar riff and stop-start sections provide the perfect accompaniment to Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist’s trademark yelps and screams.
You Can’t Hurry Love by The Concretes
Starting off with a guitar riff that could almost have come from the Jesus and Mary Chain, it is a shock when the sweet vocals of Victoria Bergsman kicks in and transforms the song into a delightful and melodic upbeat number. The frantic drum build up to the payoff line for the chorus is joyous and although the band has ploughed on since this 2003 release, they have been unable to match its overall quality.
Heartbeats by Jose Gonzalez
Although this song was written by fellow Swedes, The Knife, Jose Gonzalez brought the track to a wider audience. The almost mourning feel of Gonzalez’s downbeat vocals mixed with a quiet acoustic backing ensures this is a song equipped to tug at your heartstrings.
Appearing in a major commercial gave the track worldwide exposure and Jose’s brilliant cover of Kylie Minogue’s ‘Hand on Your Heart’ proved he could take any song and turn it into a downbeat classic.
This is by no means all that Swedish indie has to offer the world but it does offer a fantastic place to start checking this vibrant indie scene in Scandinavia out.
Watch the video related to best indie music
30 great indie songs from bands from 12 different countries!!… if you know a good indie song dont keep it to yourself… comment about it!
Help answer the question about best indie music
What is the best way to find indie music artists?i know a lot of artists have a myspace page, but its hard to browse them. Ive been using http://www.riaaradar.com/zeitgeist/zeitgeist_hardrock_alt.asp as a way to find indie bands. Any more ideas?
@phe_03:
you cant google what you dont know crazy. I know how to find a band's site once i know about them, but im trying to get more into indie bands and less mainstream stuff.
Also i do use pandora but never for indie. Ill give it a try.
i dont mean indie as in the genre i mean artists who are not associated with the music labels.
About Author
Ian Dougherty is a freelance music writer from the UK. Dougherty has written for well known music magazines, Ezines, and websites for over fifteen years. For the latest in indie bands and indi album reviews, visit MadeLoud.com, where bands keep more from each digital music download.
to say the truth not really everyone wants to hear peeps on record labels all of the time some of us want to hear some of the unsigned bands with there own original sound yes its repetitive but most more famous bands and artists are too example: JUST ABOUT ALL RAP MUSIC
Indie music is shit. Sung by talentless musicians with repetitive poor melodies, stupid pretentious monotonous working class accents and no soul whatsoever. Soon this awful ‘rock’ music will be gone with the new decade and hopefully some real musicians with soul will appear again like before the 2000s
i will list some bands and my favourite songs by each
Kings of Leon – The Bucket, King of the Rodeo, Mollys Chambers
Bloc Party – Like Eating Glass, The Prayer, Two More Years
The Strokes – Someday, You Only Live Once, 12:51
Arcade Fire – Wake Up, Keep the Car Running, Rebellion (Lies)
If you are interested in lyrics, you cant go past these two (these bands also have really good musical sounds aswell) i love both these bands at the moment the most out of any.
Manchester Orchestra – I Can Barely Breathe, Where Have You been, and I Can Feel a Hot One, Tony the Tiger
Brand New – Millstone, Play Crack the Sky, Sowing Season, and The Boy Who Blocked His Won Shot
Brand New can come off a little emo-ish at first, but just listen to them, you can really hear the singers emotion and his lyrics are great, especially in Play Crack the Sky – i believe he uses a ship going down at see as a metaphor for a relationship he had
Take a look at the music download sites listed on http://www.mp3obsession.com
They are all legal, safe, virus free and work with any mp3 player, including iPods.
They aren't free to download from though, songs are 5¢ each, but you can get some good freebies when you register with them.
Toronto
Indie music was originally music that was produced independently. Now, however, times have changed and it commonly refers to music that has a similar sound to those few bands that were “indie” (as the original meaning suggests). Also, Arctic Monkeys and Bloc Party are both bands that are borderline indie. And finally, what difference does it make? I like music, and a lot of it tends to be indie. But I don’t like it just cause it’s cool. I don’t ONLY like indie, and, unlike you, I like music
because it sounds good, makes me feel good and has true meaning and emotion behind it. “Indie” has absolutely NOTHING to do with how many people listen to it. You make a good point, but don’t be so shallow about the subject
Bottom line. Pure Volume http://www.purevolume.com/ has the best indie band info, downloads and ease of use to find new artists and explore new types of music. Check 'em out.
panda bear. woot, woot.
travis
pantera
the strokes
machine head
arctic monkeys
lamb of god
kings of leon
devildriver
hot hot heat
deftones
the killers
sepultura
white lies
system of a down
bury your dead
megadeth
down
trivium
avenged sevenfold
eighteen visions
biffy clyro
kingdom of sorrow
hatebreed
kasabian
36 crazyfists
in flames
snowpatrol
Neighborhood #3 (Power Out) is better I think
ralppi1 you are so fuckin stupid. and all other people that say that indie means unsigned bands and shit. indie is a rock genre you stupid fucks! search for indie rock and you’ll see. google is your friend douchebags
Enjoy indie music : )
Then come to youtube . com / machiinate for some of the indie best mixes to come !!
haha
very carefully.
indie bands generally lay low, so good luck!
My favorites are tilly and the wall and eisley (though some other people put them in different catagories)
I'm not sure about the "most proven way," but I always try to find the cheapest method possible. You can sell your MP3s at http://www.myfavoriteband.com for free and the only sales money you lose is the % that PayPal takes (which is about 2.9%). You can also sell your cds, shirts, stickers, etc. on that site, too.
What's the focus of the mag? Networking/promotion, coverage/festival listings, classifieds, subculture identity, etc? With that in mind, you may come up with a more specific name.
Think about this: Say the mag is all about promotion and meeting people and getting the unknown bands known. You got a regular column about grassroots and renegade promotion. One that profiles the best local gig joints nationwide. An article about what to look for in a replacement drummer. You've got dreams of getting an affiliation relationship with well known agencies. You've got extensive well-organized classifieds in the back pages. So what's the name? The Bricks. As in, "hit the bricks, get out of the garage and get some damn gigs." You go to your favorite newstand, "Hey! The latest Bricks come out yet?" Not the most invocative of the music scene, but if the content is quality, it'll be memorable. Think about your focus and go from there.
Of yours, I like:
Amplified – Simple. Telling.
imuse – I like it. Maybe not for an indie music mag per se, but could definitely work.
Mic-life – Direct. You know what you're getting. Lacks a bit of poetry, but it isn't too outlandish either. Even tends to stir the memory of Life magazine, which was a household name for decades, but with a decent bit of individuality as well. Even plays to the subculture identity theory of "if you don't know, I'm not telling" when people who don't know of it say <mick> instead of <mike>.Probably my favorite of these.
Chords – Too specific. Sounds more like a music theory mag.
Retropolitan – good word. not for this mag, though, unless you've got a bent I'm unaware of. Write it down and use it somewhere. Album title, if nothing else.
Other possibilities:
Gignation
Indie Pulse (Edit: Scratch this one. Already used for several properties, music and otherwise)
something with "sharp" or "flat" in it.
Extension Chord
Reverberations
Ear Candy