In The Beginning - A Brief Background

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.