Indie pop

Independent [ˌɪndiˈpɛndənt] (English for "independent"), or indie for short, is a collective term for cultural goods created by independents, who thus formed a genre of their own, such as independent film or independent music, as well as a description for precisely those independent authors or producers who "usually break new, idiosyncratic artistic ground independent of general contemporary taste".

This can reflect creative forms of expression that are characterized by efforts to gain independence from the culture industry. It extends into all areas of postmodern art, pop culture and entertainment, so above all music, film, but also literature, computer games or fashion, and is today sometimes used synonymously with the underground.

Musical level

On a musical level, "independent" stands for the general trend since the 1980s to steadily expand the possibilities of expression in the pop and (mainly) rock genres on the basis of punk, psychedelic rock, industrial or new wave.

It's about an aesthetic demarcation from the musical mainstream, although the bands today can certainly be represented on major labels - but the independent movement arose beyond the major labels. For major labels, these sounds were originally too daring, too critical, not suitable for the masses and thus not financially profitable. Often, however, they did not even know of their existence.

Since the 1980s, independent has also been referred to as alternative as a term for music outside the mainstream and is also applied across the board to genres such as punk, industrial, avant-garde, wave, gothic rock, noise rock, shoegazing, IDM, electro or Madchester rave. In a narrower sense, it is usually understood to mean a rock-oriented form of music eclectically mixed with other styles (see indie rock).

Computer game section

Independent game developers are game developers who typically develop smaller computer games (indie games), so-called indie games, as they usually work without financial support and dependence on other companies/publishers. Usually only individuals or smaller interest groups are behind the games, sometimes via crowdfunding also larger game enthusiast groups (e.g. via the Kickstarter platform).

Indie games often rely on innovative but marketing risky game concepts, an approach that tends to be avoided in larger, publisher-funded games. Indie developers can thus also be seen as a reaction to the trend towards casual games and "streamlining" of games forced by publishers for better marketability to as broad a customer base as possible. In order to keep the cost price and thus the financial risk for the small developers as low as possible, the developers therefore mostly rely on digital distribution, the sale via online platforms on the Internet through downloads (digital distribution), which eliminates the physical distribution costs.

The number of indie developers, along with indie games, only increased sharply at the end of the first decade of the 21st century due to the increasingly diverse possibilities of digital distribution, such as through Steam or the Humble Indie Bundle. While indie games originated in the computer space due to the open development platform of the PC, in the game console space this market did not become accessible to developers until much later. For example, game console manufacturer Microsoft opened up its own market in 2005 with its Xbox Live online platform by providing developers with a special software tool. Some indie developer studios have already been able to develop commercially very successful games, such as Minecraft.