Indie Pop - Sub Genre of Pop Music

Indie Pop is a subgenre and subculture of alternative rock / indie rock that appeared in the late 1970s in the UK. He was inspired by DIY punk ethics and was associated with punk ideology, spawned flourishing fanzines, indie labels, clubs and concert tours. Indie pop is different from indie rock in that it is more melodic, less abrasive and relatively not dreary. His subgenres include Twee-Pop and Chamber Pop.

Twee-Pop

Twee-pop or simply twee is a sub-genre of indie pop, whose representatives are characterized by primitive simplicity of sounding. Unlike indie pop, twee-pop enjoys moderate fame and success.

According to the definition, twee-pop is something “excessively or pretending to be fancy, charming, sentimental”. The term itself is presumably derived from the child's mispronunciation of the word sweet. While “Twee-Pop” is considered a derogatory term in the UK, it is quite acceptable for Americans.

Music journalist Marc Spitz reports that Twee’s roots are the post-war music of the 1950s. While culture classifies itself under the nickname “indie,” many major representatives of the Twee genre have received critical acclaim for their contributions to this movement.

History

Twee-pop origins lie in the postpunk of the late 1970s and early 1980s, in the sound of The Raincoats, Television Personalities, Young Marble Giants, Orange Juice and Aztec Camera. The recordings of these groups made a cultural shift. A new generation of musicians, not having ambitions to become pop stars, saw how underground music can exist far from an aggressive, hyper-sexual mainstream. And when The Smiths first made their way to Top 10 UK with the single "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" it became clear that the time had come for a change.

Twee-pop comes from compilation C86, published by the British weekly NME in 1986. It included such groups as McCarthy, The Wedding Present, Primal Scream, The Pastels and The Bodines, which were equally influenced by The Smiths jangle guitar, the Ramones three-chord naivety and the sweet sound of the 1960s women's groups. The C86 movement itself was short-lived, but it gave rise to a large number of groups that turned into Twee-Pop. In Britain, the center of the tweeter scene for many years has been the now legendary Sarah Records label, which released The Field Mice, Heavenly and The Orchids. In the US, the center was K Records, whose owner is a member of the group Beat Happening Calvin Johnson.

The twee-pop scene is currently growing, indie bands from Sweden have made a big contribution to this. Among the representatives of Twee-Pop, the following stand out: The Shop Assistants, The Pastels, Beat Happening, The Field Mice, Tiger Trap, Talulah Gosh, Belle and Sebastian, Acid House Kings, Camera Obscura and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart.

Chamber-pop

Chamber pop or orc pop (abbreviated form from orchestral pop) is a rock music style characterized by an emphasis on melody and texture, an abundant use of string, wind, piano, vocal harmonies and other elements from the 1960s orchestra pop music . He mainly based on the work of Brian Wilson from The Beach Boys (especially influenced by the album Pet Sounds) and composer Bert Bacarach. Producers Henry Mancini, Lee Hazlewood, Phil Spector and singer Scott Walker also contributed.

In the mid-1990s, chamber pop developed as a sub-genre of indie pop or indie rock, where musicians opposed distortion, lo-fi aesthetics, and simple arrangements characteristic of alternative music and modern rock of that era. In Japan, a parallel current called the Shibuya-kei, an indie genre that was formed on the same basis of influences, appeared.

History

Among orc-pop examples, Craig Rosen points out the performers Yum-Yum, The High Llamas, Richard Davies, Eric Matthews, Spookey Ruben, Witch Hazel and Liam Hayes (Plush). At the same time, Eric Matthews and Richard Davies are also known for their work in the Cardinal group, recognized as the leader of the orc-pop movement. Maria Sherr from Popmatters writes in a review of the reissue of their debut album: “In some circles he is called the answer of the grunge era to the Pet Sounds (1966) of The Beach Boys”. Music critic Jim DeRogatis links orc-pop and chamber-pop with bands such as Yum-Yum, Cardinal, Lambchop and The Decemberists.