Idolator

I'm the first one to vote on this poll? How f-in' indie of me.

Haiku is in order:

More indie today
than ever, sold Billy Joel
got Blitzen Trapper

1991 was probably the better year musically, but 1997 was my personal height of indieness.

I'm going with 1997 (tho' 1998 was big for me, too). I have fond memories of seeing a lot of shows that year.

In fact, I don't think I've enjoyed the "indie" music so much...until this year.

What year did Fieled By Ramen start up? That counts as "indie", right?

[OK, I looked it up. It was 1996. And that new P!ATD record is gonna be teh r0x0rz!!!]

@DHMBIB: Sorry, failed to proof-read. "Fueled By Ramen". And that totally ruined my hi-larious joke. Feh.

I voted 2005. I think I spent the last six months of that year and the first two months of the next rotating Wolf Parade, The New Pornographers, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and The Hold Steady in my car stereo. I would have added Sigur Ros to the rotation but for some reason, listening to Takk... while I drive makes me accelerate very, very slowly until I get all the way to 110 mph, at which point I slow down again -- then repeat.

I voted for 2000 (first! yay!) although my deep and abiding love of Cat Power's Covers Record and Yo La Tengo's And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out probably has as much to do with the fact that I was nineteen that year as it does with the music itself. But yeah! y2k!!

I was tempted to say the year(s) that I worked for a major label, but even then, I was digging Sugababes discs out of the recycle bin.

Indie doesn't start until 1986? That leaves me out, I guess.

In 2003, I DJ'd for a college radio station that had recently gotten rid of all of its Pavement and Sleater Kinney because they were "too popular." That was the height (depth?) of my indieness.

2005/2006 for me. I'm 22, just out of college, and it wasn't permissible to be "indie" where I went to high school, so back then I pretended to like Nelly, Dave Matthews and O.A.R., and went home to listen to old jazz and classic rock instead. I never really managed to make friends with any serious music lovers in college, so my tastes didn't really mature until the last two years when I actually started to find out about indie bands. So, my options for best indie year are limited, and 2007 certainly has been, in general, a huge letdown in terms of anticipated albums, so I'm going with 2005 and 2006 as my years of indie discovery/bliss/receiving scornful eye rolls from my decidedly alt-rock friends.

The 1997-2000 range for me. But 1998 stands out for some reason.

2001, though I cheated and factored in indie rap, too. And most of my indie "rock" inclinations were towards not-entirely-rock stuff like Stereolab and Broadcast anyhow. (exception: Lifter Puller.)

Wow, I'm glad to see the '96-'98 consensus, but I think that means a bunch of us are all the same age. Which is to say, OLD.

I've never been much of an indie rock kid. I slightly favored Headbanger's Ball over 120 Min, even though I'm not much of a metal head. The deepest into a scene I ever was was a 4 yr goth phase and, while many of those bands are on indie labels, it probably doesn't count. I'm going to say 1996, I just became legal to go to club shows and really got into D.C. bands, particularly Shudder to Think. I also really liked the Geraldine Fibbers at the time.

You guys are in so much trouble for the Unrest thing.

1997. I went to Terrastock, saw the Olivia Tremor Control in five different cities, and went to shows all the time. And that was just the first half of the year.

By the way, I do realize how stupid it is I never considered fake IDs as a teen.

This is tough. I could either go with '97, when my interest in rap was minor and mostly backpackerish, but my taste in rock was as much major label/alterna/classic rock as it was indie. Or I could go with 2000, when I was into way more than indie but was still listened to a lot of indie, and briefly wrote for Pitchfork.

I voted '94. Crooked Rain and Bee Thousand in the same year? Sold. However, I think this needs to start at '84, not '86. Records missing by not starting at '84: New Day Rising, Flip Your Wig, Tim, Let it Be, Reckoning, Meat Puppets II, Meat is Murder, and the list goes on.......

I think you guys are just going to start posting about the word "indie" every week just to keep your Gawker overlords happy with plump page hits.

That being said, 2003 and 2004 was the height of my attempts to like the most curdling of indie acts, and after that I gave up and just admitted I'm a huge disco queen.

I'm close to Maura -- I picked 1996, even though '97 could've been plausible. Really, my most indie phase was a span from 1995-97 if I'm getting specific, 1993-98 if I'm being generous. So 1996 is right up the middle.

The reason: I was writing constantly for CMJ back then, so I had a steady supply of indie rock landing on my doorstep. That was also the year I entered the sanctum of Matador Records in SoHo to meet Cosloy and interview Guided By Voices. So, yeah, '96 wins, but I could've just as easily picked 2001.

2004. Too soon to discuss the embarrassing details. Let's just say I was really up on the Saddle Creek release calendar.

When people were born is gonna be a huge X factor in this, I think -- you should do a follow-up poll about what age at which everyone was at their most indie. I'd be pretty interested to know if the winner was 17 or 15 or 22 or what.

1994 was my indie year for sure, living in Seattle basking in the rays of the Velvet Elvis sunday matinee -- every band on Sub Pop, eMpty, Touch & Go, Merge, C/Z, Cavity Search, K, Kill Rock Stars, Up Records or Matador had my complete attention. When Kurt blew his brains out, indie rock turned out to be the saving grace of a confusing time.

1996. The end of my college radio years for all intents and purpose. I was getting more and more into difficult music, and I was hosting a radio show featuring only live noise performances until I decided to leave college radio (for many reasons, amicably.)

I think J-Pop may have been the symbolic "fall from indiedom"?

Nah. More likely, it was hardcore/Gravity Records type stuff that made me realize that indie had definitely become more of a flavor than an approach to, ur, musical self-empowerment by '96. The indie of yesteryears had all been snugly signed away to wings of major labels by then, and there was a big wave of great sounding loud music coming from a new (to me, at least) underground. Now I know how the first Crass fans felt in the late 70s.

Anyway, I just remember how fundamentalist Indie Rock was in 1996 -- at least in L.A. The only label with major label relations it was ok to like was Grand Royal. In fact, Grand Royal was untouchable by this point.

1997 was the year I was in an indiepop band. Only for 9 months or so, but in that time we played about half a dozen popfests. That alone makes it my most "indie" of years. I also saw Neutral Milk Hotel a lot that year, saw B&S' first NYC gigs, caught half a dozen Bis shows (they were absolutely incredible in early '97), attended YoYo-A-Go-Go, published the all-time best-selling issue of my zine...lots of good memories of that year.

also, that was the first time I'd ever heard Mary Lou Lord singing "His Indie World" --

"I don't fit in to his indie world
Guided By Voices and Velocity Girl
Eric's Trip and Rocket Ship, Rancid, Rocket From the Crypt
Bikini Kill and Built to Spill
It's plain to see that I don't fit"

I should also note that I was 29-30 years old in 1997, which means I'm an exception to "great" music years necessarily corresponding to youth. But then I've always been a latebloomer.

1997-my last full year of employment at my town's indie-rock/everything else store. Also featured that year--my failed attempt at a 'zine. It doesn't get more indie than that, is there?

I shook Lou Barlow's hand. Sigh.

Hard to top '97 for my personal indie-ness. Got paid to write about the stuff (how many ways can you describe a quartet of 3 white guys, 1 white gal and lots of guitar noise?), was deep into my indierockerchick phase, and had all sorts of discretionary income to spend on mucho mailorder.

That was the year of Perfect From Now On, I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One, Brighten the Corners, and all them colorful indiestrumental EPs from Sonic Youth (vinyl!). It was also just before 69 Love Songs and In the Aeroplane dropped, making 1997 arguably the last year before indie broke.

@dennisobell: 01/02 was also kind of a bellweather year too, in terms of the fact that everyone who is BIG now was just a piddly little act then. (;

97, cuz that's the first year I lived in a city that had a real indie-oriented record store. Before then I only bought from the local distro at shows. Release dates and college radio charts were something that I knew nothing of.

I'm having trouble remembering most of the last 20 years, but I'm pretty sure 86 was a great year for my indieness because two of my all-time favorite albums were released, Big Black's Songs About Fucking and Sonic Youth's Sister.

1994- Dirty, Where you Been, Bakesale, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain were my favs-- though they didn't all necessarily come out that year, they were what my brother always played when we drove to school. I honestly still kind of get nostalgia chills every time i hear the Mascis' opening riff on 'Out There'.

@dennisobell: judging by past comments, i never would have guessed you had that background.

I wish I could have to matador records and interview GBV, thats pretty f'ing cool.

i listened to almost exclusively K releases in 2002, so that gets my vote.

to quote jens lekman (oh how indie!).."it was a strange time in my life"

1994
Archers of Loaf - Icky Mettle
Built to Spill - There's Nothing Wrong With Love
Elliott Smith - Roman Candle
Guided by Voices - Bee Thousand
Low - I Could Live in Hope
Magnetic Fields - Holiday/Charm of the Highway Strip
Pavement - Crooker Rain, Crooked Rain
Sebadoh - Bakesale
Silver Jews - Starlite Walker
Sonic Youth - Experimental Jet Set...
Sunny Day Real Estate - Diary

2007 is winning?! I weep for us all.

'95, easy. I pulled the overnight shift on a community radio station, I'd just discovered zines and record-label mailorder (wassup Ajax, Touch & Go, Road Cone...), I was pretty ignorant about non-gangsta hip hop, and I actually liked Pavement. By '97, I was more-or-less tolerating the stuff. I still get nervous when I put on a record and realize that guitar, bass, drums and wit is all I'm getting.

1996, all the way. Not only was good alternatie rock (indie rock by any other name) being played on rock radio stations, but there was all this amazing Britpop coming out in England that you had to reach a little further to listen to! Indie rock was a lot more fun back then, and didn't have a false veil of exclusivity amongst its listeners.

I, too, don't get why it starts in 1986.

I have to go with 1992. I was program director at my college station (WPRB Princeton, 103.3 FM), going to shows in NYC or Philly or on campus (the infamous "Terrace Club") just about every weekend, and buying over 200 singles between shows and label mailorder and Tim Adams' Ajax catalog. Plus, that's the year that Velocity Girl's "My Forgotten Favorite" and Unrest's "Imperial f.f.r.r." came out and Pavement's "Slanted and Enchanted" originally came out.

And nothing has ever topped the total geek experience of singing the phrase "I know that there are birds buried in my back yard" with 200+ new best friends (including Mike A.) on Small Factory's home turf of Providence, RI.

OK. A couple of thoughts: What happened to 1984 and 1985? Then, a nanosecond later: Christ on a crutch I'm old.

For lack of my first choices. I'll take fall '87 to fall of 1988. Fresh in NYC from MKE- had John Lurie scowl at me. Made the pilgrimage to CBGB's. (The capper was that the day I went, Couch Flambeau was playing. Oh the irony.) Saw GG Allin. My roomie went to highschool with Johnny Rzenick in Buffalo, so we saw him around before they went MOR craptastic....

Back in MKE. Spent the late winter of '87 listening to Terrance Trent D'Arby and Fuzzbox on the same day. My MKE roomie bought some Nirvana; I hated them. Though a few my months later, my now husband's band opened up for them at the Unicorn. Heard every frickin' band in the universe play. Saw the Reverend Horton Heat play in a room of 4 people (I still have Jimbo's marriage proposal written on a 45 somewhere...)Played in bands with folks I had no talent-right to play with. Met Twink. Got drunk and heckled the Austrailian performance artist Stellarc.. No- that was 1991. There's a fog over all this now....I can't say anymore...I'll get my minivan taken away by the plastic wives in the neighborhood.

Yea, didn't Michael Azerrad teach us all that 1981 is the official starting date?

2001, for sure. it was the year I discovered this indie rock thing, started doing college radio, and actually believed reviews on pitchfork. I suppose the case could be made for 2002, but by then I was already starting to be corrupted by the ways of avant-weirdness. plus, it's the central year of the very embarrassing article I wrote for the wprb program guide in 2002 about my becoming an indie rock kid.

I voted for 1998 because that's the year Placebo's Without You I'm Nothing came out, and three songs from that album feature in one of those epic, worn-out tapes that you make that I called simply "Rock". Still, I have another epic tape from that year called "R&B", so I really wasn't that exclusive.

It's more like '97 to '99 for me. I turned 15 in '97, and my exposure to indie rock had grown exponentially after having moved in '96 to a city with a dedicated indie rock station. I also started buying a lot of music magazines (NME, Q, etc.), and reading whatever music-related piece of paper crossed my path. I got into the Manic Street Preachers, Muse were just starting, Placebo released the album that broke them, etc.

The music landscape in 2000 suddenly turned very heavily towards pop. The most representative thing I remember form that year is Destiny's Child's Independent Women. *cringes*

To me, the golden age of indie stopped when Pavement broke up, so anything beyond 2000 is out.
And I mean, really, 2001 or beyond as the best years of indie? Okay, maybe subjectively speaking, but not objectively.

Funny, I thought '94 before I even got through the first paragraph.
Sebadoh, the rise of G-Love (indie 'nuff?), the wane of Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy (indie?), Swervedriver...
Sorry, I thought "indie" was short of "independent-minded."

i think my discovery of .rar blogs and use of rss feeds this year (so maybe i was a little late on that train... don't make fun) has made 2007 my most "indie" year, because i've been able to get on top of every new release that i've been interested in.

my other possibility was 2001, my first year of college, when my new access to the wonders of a constant hi-speed internet connection and soulseek led me to all the 'indie' sounds i'd missed in the radio wasteland of Cleveland over the previous 3 years.

I dunno, Maura, I think you were pretty indie in 1994 when you and I had this brief exchange on alt.music.alternative.

@MattS: oh my god.

No love for 2006? A phenomenal year for indie and music in general, I thought.

Going on the criteria of "most indie albums in my top 10", 1997 was my most indie year, even though I went to no shows and lived at a boarding school in Oklahoma.

If we're talking about going to concerts and being involved, it'd be 2003, when I worked for a label and went to see shows four nights a week. However, my tastes were more varied at that point; I was listening to hip-hop, country, old stuff, and international stuff.

What might be a better poll is to ask how old this audience is. Following the boomer's "music was best in '67" analogy, the older I get, the more I realize that I too think music was best when I was younger. If Wolf Parade turned you onto indie rock, then 2005 is your indie Rosetta stone. If you listened to them and thought of all the bands they sounded like, then your year is more likely '94. I'm on the mid 90's side of the fence (when indie had a whole 'nother meaning) so I'm going to side with Maura at 96.

I have to say '94. I decided that my most important extracurricular activity would be establishing pen-pal relationships with the catalog operations of Matador, Merge, Touch & Go, Dischord and Sub Pop. I think that was the year I got my Sub Pop mechanics jacket w/ 'Loser' embroidered on it.

BTW - Merge & Dischord were always good for the free stuff w/ purchase.

@therichgirlsareweeping: Hah. All the comments are making me feel way young. I think '98 was the year the mainstream stuff scared me away from new music altogether until about 2001/2.

My indiest year might be 2005, except for the summer where my iPod broke and I was stuck in rural Wisconsin with only the local Top 40 and friends who were big country fans. So I might have to go with last year or '04 (the latter of which I only became indie because a friend started feeding me CDs in an attempt to get me to listen to something besides the Flaming Lips all the time).

1994 for me. I had a fanzine and my favorite band was the Grifters. The first Table of the Elements showcase was that April (though I don't think Faust reunions count as indie, necessarily). 7"s made up a significant part of my daily listening.

Then I turned 18, and it's been a long, slow loss of hipness ever since, coinciding with the end of print fanzines and the emergence of downloading. I have way more mersh tastes now.

Yep, I'm old. I'm going with '87 because that was probably when I was at my most self-consciously indie. Not much but Homestead, SST, Twin/Tone, Touch & Go and imports in my collection. Saw Big Black, Butthole Surfers, Pussy Galore, Volcano Suns. But after 87 I began realizing that being indie meant squat to most people

But honestly, I was indie before 86. I was definitely on the early edge with hardcore and Mission of Burma; and I think it was 85 that I saw the Minutemen. And I haven't been indie for over a decade, I definitely find myself back there again but for entirely different reasons.

1994: Cherubs "Heroin Man," Pavement's "Crooked Rain Crooked Rain," Tall Dwarf's "3 EPs," Red Red Meat s/t, Unwound "New Plastic Ideals," Flying Luttenbachers "Constructive Destruction," godheadsilo "The Scientific Supercake," The Clean "Modern Rock," Dead C "operation of the Sonne," Brise-Glace " . . . When in Vanitas . . .," Peter Jefferies "Electricity," Thee Headcoates "Conundrum," Sebadoh's "Bakesale," Jon Spencer Blues Explosion's "Orange," Tortoise s/t; Palace Brothers s/t, Shellac "At Action Park," GBV "Bee Thousand," God is My Co-Pilot "Mir Shlufn Nisht," Thinking Fellers "Strangers from the Universe," Come "Don't Ask Don't Tell," Thee Headcoatees "Girlsville," Grifters "Crapping You Negative," Bedhead "Whatfunlifewas," Magic Hour "No Excess is Absurd," Rodan "Rusty," Silkworm "Libertine," Gastr Del Sol "Crookt, Crackt, or Fly," Antietam "Rope-a-Dope," Brainbombs "Genius and Brutality," Built to Spill "There is Nothing Wrong With Love," Guv'ner "Hard for Measy For You," '68 Comback "Mr. Downchild," New Bomb Turks "Information Highway Revisited," Silver Jews "Starlite Walker," Smog "Burning Kingdom," Liz Phiar "Whip-Smart," Magnetic Fields "Charm of the Highway Strip," Afghan Whigs "What Jails Is Like," Huggy Bear "Weapony Listens to Love," Kustomized "Mystery of . . .," Superchunk "Foolish," Melvins "Prick" and "Stoner Witch," Lungfish "Pass and Stow," Giant Sand "Purge and Slouch," Mouse on Mars "Vulvaland," Freakwater "Feels Like the Third Time," "The Wonderful and Frightening World of the Fall," Dog Faced Hermans "Those Deep Buds." Of course, I graduated college that year and my mother died three months later, so maybe I'm just being sentimental.

How do I even answer this question being, y'know, 19? It's like I have to say this year because my musical tastes are still changing -- this year I seriously started listening to the Sarah catalogue, a good chunk of those tastemaker German electronic labels, and seriously following Kranky and Leaf releases.

I'm in that "Fuck, there is so much music I missed by being young. How am I going to catch up?"

I think I'm going to say 2004, because that was the point where I was listening to all the "cool" indie bands/touchstones of that year and thought I was "oh-so-indie".