2026/04/16 by Dan DiPiero · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Gender, Feminism, and Media #Music History and Culture #Sound Studies and Aurality
paper · doi:10.1093/9780197760284.003.0039
openalex publication_date 2026/04/16 · openalex created_date 2026/04/17 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
Abstract Whether considered as a matter of political economy and logistics or else as a genre of music, academic discussions of what indie is tend to default to a focus on indie rock, and by extension, men and masculinity. But beneath the surface, pop music has had a long and overlooked role in indie cultures, one becoming more visible as new generations of women and queer musicians take up its influence. Surveying indie history, this chapter asks, What is the “pop” in indie pop? In what follows, Dan DiPiero first compares indie rock and indie pop discourses, arguing that the relative obfuscation of the latter was one consequence of a conflation between pop music and feminized attributes rendered undesirable, including amateurism, emotionality, and tenderness. Subsequently, he argues that contemporary indie’s embrace of pop sensibilities continues the original indie pop movement’s key intervention: feminized performances of softness. Though vilified in its initial manifestations, contemporary indie music has undergone several important shifts that have allowed what Andi Schwartz theorizes as “soft femme aesthetics” to become newly relevant and valued in wider culture. Finally, DiPiero turns to these shifts themselves, outlining three characteristics he sees as indicative of contemporary indie, including its feminization in music discourse, return to DIY roots, and the ways that its expansive approach to genre opens potential for crossing over into mainstream popularity. While apparently contradictory, the idea that music can be widely popular while remaining recognizably “indie” for listeners is supported by shifts in the term’s usage over time.