A (Very) Brief History of Indie, DIY Culture & the Influence of Young Music Fans | 2005-2020 |

In 2005, indie music was struggling.

Brit-pop had been and gone, like a polaroid from a party you can’t quite remember. The brothers Gallagher were still making headlines, but not for their tunes. Mike Skinner and The Streets had revitalised British Garage with the self-produced ‘Original Pirate Material’ and conceptual masterpiece ‘A Grand Don’t Come For Free’, but was battling demons making album three. The Strokes first two albums had changed the face of indie, giving New York it’s swagger back; but the coolest band in the world were struggling to adapt to life as the biggest. ‘First Impressions of Earth’ would come out the following year sounding tired and strained, it was time for the first stars of the download generation. Enter, Arctic Monkeys.

Seemingly overnight, Sheffield becomes the coolest music city in the UK, with four teenagers at the epicentre. Their history is astoundingly straightforward. After two years holed up in a practice room, the ‘Beneath The Boardwalk’ demo tape is recorded quickly and on a budget. The band hand it out for free to anyone who will take it, passing it to mates, who do the same. The tracks end up online, sparking the 21^st Century’s first internet-led musical movement. Bus loads of kids follow them across the country, propelling the band to venues they had no right to fill so young, with no album released. Alex Turner spits northern rhymes like John Cooper Clarke, pinching lines from Alan Sillitoe’s debut novel ‘Saturday Night and Sunday Morning’ (as The Smith’s had 20 years earlier) and framing it against the Yorkshire club scene. While The Libertines are self-destructing down in London, Arctic Monkeys are blowing up everywhere, and it’s the youth making it happen. There is no major label involvement (yet).

Teenagers flood NME message boards, send emails (emails!) and set up fan sites demanding news on Arctic Monkeys. At their first London gig, the NME are in attendance. Rick Martin reports;

‘Frontman Alex Turner, who told me he expected to play to an empty room, finished the show being carried around the venue on a sea of hands. And two nights ago, in Nottingham, NME couldn’t even see the band behind all the people jumping on stage to touch their heroes”.

By the time their seminal single ‘I Bet You Look Good On TheDancefloor’ is released, they are already well on their way to influencing pop-culture. The video, recorded live and featuring the now iconic ‘we’re Arctic Monkeys, don’t believe the hype’ line, would cement their place in British music history. Fifteen years on, head to any Uni freshers week, club or pub and there’s a good chance you’ll see swarms of people dancing to electro-pop like a robot from 1984. ‘Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not’ would become the fastest selling British debut album in history, shifting 360,000 copies in it’s first week. It made the 10 O’Clock news and won the Mercury Prize. This was extraordinary.

The groundwork put in by Arctic Monkeys would usher in a generation of guitar bands, with varying degrees of success. Acts like Courteeners (circa 2008), The Vaccines (2011 ) and Circa Waves (2015) would  go on to be influential in their own right, but in the years since ‘Whatever People…’ transformed Alex Turner and his mates into global superstars, there was a distinct lack of British breakthrough bands reaching anywhere near them. Staring out a Llandudno window in the late 00’s, a young Ryan ‘Van’ McCann was making plans to change that.

It is 2013 and the British stranglehold on pop music is going through an identity crisis. Arctic Monkeys may be the biggest band in the world, but their sound and image has altered drastically. Alex Turner sings in an American drawl, with Elvis Presley hair, skinny jeans and leather jackets on show. The kids in Adidas tracksuits look like Mafia dons and tracks like the mammoth ‘Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High?’ share more in common with their new home of Los Angeles, than High Green, mate. Daft Punk’s ‘Get Lucky’ is the actual sound of the Summer, PSY’s ‘Gangnam Style’ showcases the power of viral dance moves (‘Cha Cha Slide’ anyone?) and Robin Thicke is making everyone uncomfortable with the bizarre ‘Blurred Lines’.

In September we see an indie-fightback, as Scottish synth-pop band Chvrches rack up thousands of plays on websites like Soundcloud and The Hype Machine, new fans inundating Radio 1 with requests to play the band. It’s working, and as momentum grows, Chvrches make the jump from boutique New York indie label Neon Gold to big hitters Virgin. Plans are made to market the three piece around their singer, Lauren Mayberry. As keyboard/guitarist Martin Doherty explained to the Guardian in 2017, this was not a shared vision;

 "We could have sold 200,000 more albums if we'd hidden Iain (Cook, synths/vocals) and I from view and put Lauren on the cover of every magazine. We ended up doing it in an indie band style. We broke through via word of mouth. It was about doing it in an honest, right way."

 Their excellent debut, ‘The Bones of What You Believe’, would go on to sell over 120,000 copies in the UK alone.

On the other end of the success spectrum, an unsigned Catfish and the Bottlemen are in a van, playing non-stop across Britain. They leave demos on car windshields, play pop up gigs outside arenas and make a point of talking to every person coming to their gigs. At their debut performance at Reading and Leeds, there is a dedicated, if modest crowd there to see them. Not only do they know every lyric, but they also know Larry, Van’s oldest friend and band roadie; cheering when he walks on stage to leave out water bottles.

In this new social media age, fans can connect with the band in new ways. They hold Q&A’s in the tour van between gigs, send personal videos from backstage and maintain a personal connection with the people at the barrier. After seven years of building a grass roots following, Catfish and Bottlemen are finally signed to Communion and in 2014, ‘The Balcony’ is released. It goes on to sell over 250,000 copies worldwide.

Discussing their ascension and work rate, McCann told PancakesAndWhiskey.com,

“I want people to have a band to believe in and rely on. When we’re playing all across England, I ask everyone to meet me at the bar and tell me which songs you think are shit and which ones you think are good. We used that to pick the album. It’s all about the people doing it for us”.

By 2018, the music world has changed again. Streaming service Spotify is now the most popular music hub on the planet, even changing how chart data is collected. Youtube is in it’s teens, making celebrities out of anyone with a laptop and a personality. DIY culture as a whole is booming. Artist's are doing it themselves. 

Grime has been resurrected by Stormzy, the Croydon boy who “just went to the park with his mates and charted”, after filming a performance of his song ‘Shut Up’ in his local park. The viral video (99 million plays at last count!) sent shockwaves across the industry and pushed ‘Shut Up’ to #8 in the charts. ‘Gang Signs & Prayer’ is released independently on #Murky Records and sells 68,000 copies, becoming the first Grime album in history to reach number one. 

Up in Scotland, Gerry Crosbie is forging a new career for himself after the collapse of his band, The Cinnamons. He keeps the Cinnamon moniker and attends a regular open mic night in Glasgow, building a fan base week by week. He funds his debut album, ‘Erratic Cinematic’ via Pledge Music, a site where fans can donate money to help an artist afford a release. Rising quickly to the top of the Itunes Chart for singer-songwriters, Radio X soon begin playing his singles to death. When rapper J-Hus pulled out of a performance at Glasgow’s TRNSMT Festival, Gerry Cinnamon takes his place and steals the show. Festival director Geoff Ellis explained to BBC News;

"Not since Oasis have I seen someone go on such a rapid trajectory around here. He's gone from playing to 50 people to a point where he could easily sell out the Hydro [a 13,000 capacity venue in Glasgow]. We had to bring him back."

In December 2019 a ten date arena tour of the UK is announced; it is nearly completely sold out in minutes. As one of the hottest acts in the UK, why does Cinnamon still insist on remaining ‘indie’? His answer is simple.

 "About three years ago I decided to, just do it all myself. The gigs are getting bigger and I'll give the people what they want.” He goes on, "Music's over-saturated by the X Factor and stuff. It's created a conveyor-belt industry of people who get dropped by their major label at the end of the year. People are wising up to that, so there's something happening with real guitar music now."

However you class ‘real guitar music’ or what that means, Gerry Cinnamon has captured the zeitgeist of the moment. Both enabled by the internet and in defiance of it. His fans are reclaiming music to the people, redefining what it means and takes to be a pop star in the modern age.

Last year, a young band from Wigan called The Lathums release their self titled, debut EP. Frontman Alex Moore has an ear for a melody and a poetic approach to songwriting.

On ‘The Great Escape’ he sings, ‘I’ve spent a lifetime trying to find my place, but I’ve had no luck of late, I’ve had to abandon the human race once more’ and later, simply and beautifully, ‘John Lennon shouldn’t have died!’.

Within less than a year of their first performance in a local pub, The Lathums are asked on tour by the likes of Blossoms, Paul Weller, DMA’s and fittingly, Gerry Cinnamon. Amassing over 50,000 monthly Spotify listeners, they are already on the brink of selling out their Spring 2020 tour. A group of Northern teenagers with brilliant tunes and a homegrown following. Where have we seen this before..?

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The Lathums will play Limelight 1, Belfast on Tuesday 3^rd March.

Gerry Cinnamon will play Belsonic Festival, Belfast on Saturday 20^th June.

Taylor Johnson