@bj
This is the first in an occasional series on the history, development and future of Indie music. All comments welcome...
Indie musicians have been around for as long as music itself.
The earliest forms of music were probably simple work and worship chants to a primitive drum accompaniment. By the rise of the first civilizations two types of music had evolved - sacred and secular. Sacred music was extremely formalized with elements of chorus, various flute and harp like instruments and of course drums. On the other hand secular music (folk or popular if you like) was the province of the solo or small group of players often wandering and "getting a gig" where they could.
By the Middle Ages Western sacred music had begun to evolve to formalize with a rudimentary form of written notation known as neumes. The secular musician continued to be more or less improvisatory and still sought gigs where he or she could.
Harmony began to be employed in Western Music soon after this and notation evolved into the format still used today. But it continued to play little or no part in the secular musician's life though.
A huge turning point came with first the introduction of the piano around 1700 and the Industrial Age about 100 years later. This for the first time placed reliable and standardized instruments within the reach of a vast number of people.
So by the beginning of the 20th century, music and instruments were both within the reach of huge numbers of people.
<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q278/al_pckr/passenger.jpg" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket" border="0"></a><br><br><font size="3"><br>Since 1999 I have been in the Australian Music and Poetry Band "Dingo's Breakfast". I originally started out playing keyboards but switched to mandolin and dobro (and my son Corrin took over the keyboards role).<br>These days "Dingos" just get together to play specific gigs and the line-up is quite fluid. Corrin often now plays mandolin as I live quite some distance from the rest of the band and don't play on some gigs.<br>"Woolshed Dances" are one of the fortes of the band and over the years this has taken us to some pretty unusual gigs - here is just one of them. </font><p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3">Glenelg Rock Narembeen: </font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3">We set out early in two cars to travel the 175 miles to Narembeen. On arrival we were told that the dance was not in the Town Hall as we'd been told but to be held in the open air a "few" miles out of town.<br>"You go down that road a bit until you come to a "T" junction and then you turn left".....<br>So we went down that road about 25 miles!.....<br>"Then you go up that road a bit until you come to a dirt road".....<br>5 more miles.....<br>"Then you follow the dirt road for a bit until you come to a big granite rock".....<br>Another 5 miles.....<br>"And then you're there"<br>It was a huge granite outcrop about 50 ft high and several acres in area. At the bottom was parked a semi with a flatbed trailer. The stage. A hundred yards or so away was parked another truck with a generator on it. The power. No people.<br>Anyway we set up and did a soundcheck. Still no people.<br>It got dark.....<br>And then down the dirt road came a procession of more than a hundred headlights. The entire population of the little town of Narembeen was coming to the dance.<br>With the dust from a hundred cars still in the air we launched into our first set. At first only the women and children danced while the men stood in the shadows beyond the lighting and drank beer.....<br>Now the dust of a hundred cars AND two hundred pairs of dancing feet was in the air.....<br>The first set over, we gathered around the BBQ for some dinner.....<br>Then into the second set. The beer was starting to take effect and several of the braver men joined the dancing. The dust grew thicker. By now the audience was just a dusty haze.....<br>The second set over, WE gathered round and drank some beer.....<br>Now it was the last set and everybody was dancing. The dust was so thick we couldn't see each other, let alone the audience.<br>Finally around midnight the dance was over and the 100 car convoy departed for the 30 mile trip back to town. As the dust cloud settled we packed up and set out on our 225 mile return trip.<br>One of the cars ran out of petrol. They had to camp the night.<br>In the leading car we didn't know about their problem. We were listening to Pink Floyd.....<br> Almost 24 hours after setting out we returned home.</font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3"> </font></p>
