Indie Rock Sayings

#1. Hip-hop is mostly what I listen to, other than jazz. I've given up on pop music and indie rock.

Jess Row

#2. I really do listen to all types of music, not only rock, but everything from good pop music - which is usually older pop music - to R&B and indie rock. I love indie rock more than a lot of the commercial stuff that you'd expect.

Amy Lee

#3. In indie rock, there's the phenomenon of: "Oh, this guy seems totally normal, but he's actually crazy." There's more of that out there than you'd think.

Tom Scharpling

#4. I feel like I'm a rock artist. I don't feel like I'm a pop artist. And I'm alt rock. I'm indie rock. I'm punk rock. Because it comes from the pots and pans. It's a lot of me, but I've got multiple personalities.

CeeLo Green

#5. I put on the Hank Williams and the Patsy Cline and the Rosemary Clooney on vinyl - I'm not trying to be some cool indie-rock person, I just love the way it sounds - and throw on a T-shirt and jeans. In Texas, we practically come out of the womb in jeans.

Kelly Clarkson

#6. There was no indie rock band in the 90s at the level of, like, Grizzly Bear. I listen to their records and it's crazy how good they sound. That really freaks me out.

Travis Morrison

#7. I think the indie-rock world is very creative. They're always looking for something new, and I think of all the instruments we have in the world, the ones that are the most creative and interesting are the electronic ones. There are so many sounds and plug-ins you can use.

Tiesto

#8. Indie rock is very healthy, there's a lot of diversity and a lot of creativity, but it does not have the revolutionary spirit of the late-70s punk scene in regards to design and politics and fashion and stuff like that.

Bruce Pavitt

#9. I was trained at classical piano as a youngster back in PA. To rebel, I bought a drum set and played in some rock & roll bands. In college I picked up a guitar and became obsessed with practicing which led to playing guitar in indie rock bands in the mid 90's. Which led me to Los Angeles.

Jeff Cardoni

#10. This indie rock stuff, I mean I like it, too - it pushes all my buttons: sex appeal, dissonance. It's emotive, disenchanted.

Ketch Secor

#11. I like the glamorous indie rock look, like The Libertines. But you know, without the heroin needle sticking out of my arm.

Ed Westwick

#12. The second 'Postal Service' album is threatening to become the 'Chinese Democracy' of indie rock. It will come out eventually, or maybe it won't.

Ben Gibbard

#13. I'm so disconnected from an indie-rock community that I am the hermit people used to guess I was.

John Darnielle

#14. When I was a teenager, I went to Europe on a backpacking trip by myself, and I met a woman who was following Sebadoh. It was the early 1990s, and that was my introduction to indie rock.

Jenny Lewis

#15. I've always found that whatever you say about indie rock, it is the most inclusive genre or title for anything. It doesn't pin you down too much, like other labels would. It's just newer, it has less baggage. I'm happy to be in that category.

Andrew Bird

#16. What's cool about indie rock is that one band can do effectively the same thing as another band, and one band nails it, and the other one doesn't. I like that elusiveness.

Andrew Bird

#17. We grew up listening to alternative music from the '90s, and there was no shame in being on a major label and still making the music you wanted to make. I feel like rap rock came around and drew a line in the sand, and everybody that was like me ran away from that and started making indie-rock.

Nate Ruess

#18. When I was a kid, you listened to a certain genre. Now it's like, "I love indie rock, I love hip-hop, jazz, funk." Also, we knew it couldn't be the same thing each year.

Jonathan Rhys Meyers

#19. Now that the generation that grew up on '80s indie-rock has attained influential positions in the culture, that music is the new yardstick. And that will shift yet again some day.

Michael Azerrad

#20. The idea of having an indie rock "career" while living in a remote backwater like Seattle was too ridiculous to contemplate. It was simply about having adventures, one day at a time, one song at a time.

Bruce Pavitt

#21. We create music to express ourselves and when the world relates, that's a beautiful thing. We're all trading off each other's culture, so no matter what lines you put-country indie rock, rap, we're all somehow gonna find a way to come together.

Jay-Z

#22. In small towns, bored teenagers turn their eyes longingly to the exciting doings in the big cities, pining for urban amenities like hipster bars and farmers' markets and indie-rock festivals. Like everyone else, they want the vibrant and they will not be denied.

Thomas Frank

#23. Even the indie rock world - which is supposed to be about truth and independence from corporate mindfulness or something - is totally subject to the paraphernalia of celebrity.

Justin Vernon

#24. I have a car in Nebraska. When I bought it, they gave me a satellite radio, and there's an 'indie-rock' station. It's just nothing I'm interested in.

Conor Oberst

#25. I guess my music taste is pretty predictable: I like new indie rock stuff, older stuff.

Aziz Ansari

#26. I didn't grow up with indie rock - I mean, I listened to bands that are considered indie rock, but I think that term is dead and uninteresting.

Justin Vernon

#27. I can pour myself into Bon Iver. It's a thing about self- and mental discovery, and those are all important things. But it's not 148-shows-over-a-year-and-a-half important, though. It's a machine, and it's money, and you just get put on this indie rock cart, and it's embarrassing.

Justin Vernon

#28. One of the best moments of any Liars show is hearing the crowd squawk 'We're doomed! We're doomed!' on cue during 'We Fenced Other Houses with the Bones of Our Own.' Maybe not the most uplifting audience sing-along in the indie rock world, but one of the most reliably entertaining.

Rob Sheffield

#29. It's just weird that indie rock heads and so on are connecting to my music.

Prefuse 73

#30. I always thought of indie-rock as being rock music by bands that were on independent labels, and that's a great thing.

Britt Daniel

#31. I do get the sense sometimes that if I draw things too nice, maybe I won't be indie-rock enough anymore.

Bryan Lee O'Malley

#32. But, then again, I wouldn't call myself an indie-rock supporter even if there are some really good bands out there and there will always be some real good new bands.

Stephen Malkmus

#33. I'm like the Fugitive, running from the one-armed indie-rock community!

Billy Corgan

#34. A lot of the music I listen to is indie rock. It's not on the radio.

Laura Bell Bundy

#35. Indie rock is just as susceptible - if not more susceptible - to all the gross things about people becoming total ass clowns in music, and only worrying about money and image. I'm not interested in being a part of that.

Justin Vernon

#36. I don't really listen to the radio anymore, but some of the more contemporary people I like are Stereolab, Spiritualize, Yo La Tengo and Bedhead. There are other things too, like Pavement. They're a great band, with really good lyrics. But generally, I'm not overwhelmed by the state of indie-rock.

Dean Wareham

#37. Eventually, that feeling fades, but there is always the memory of those days. When you're young, everything is butterflies. What I mean is - it's all new. I guess he was telling you to still believe, to hold on to your butterflies.

Brian Joyce

#38. Christopher was wearing a suit and adorned make-up. As long as I had known him, he never wore a suit or make-up. The look of him defenseless to his appearance saddened me.

Brian Joyce

#39. Character isn't something you talk about; it's something you show through your actions-through your every day habits.

Brian Joyce

#40. Popularity is like a girl in class that you can't ignore. She give you eyes when no one looks then turns to her friends and laughs some more.

Brian Joyce

#41. Dream-start with dream. Start tonight-become who you want-dream big!" He became animated at this point, "No money needed for dreams. Dreams are free.

Brian Joyce

#42. I listen to all those kinds of music, from classic soul to hip-hop to Brazilian music to, you know, jazz to indie to alternative. So whatever. I listen to all if it. Classic rock and classic pop, all of that.

John Legend

#43. The price of coming from a small town is that everyone knows your story. Your book has been read, shelved, dusted, and re-read by everybody.

Brian Joyce

#44. There are moments in our lives that define the people we will become in the future, like a symptom before an ailment, or the catalyst before the cure.

Brian Joyce

#45. It's funny how books can change you. You open up a book and one minute you are who you've always been, then you read some random passage and you become someone else.

Brian Joyce

#46. I listen to a lot of indie or rock music.

Jennifer Damiano

#47. That night, he laid in his bed thinking about all the possibilities. They came like waves in his mind. At first they came slow, then gradually built up speed, cresting into full on dreams, until finally, they broke onto the shore with all of their reality. First dreams, then nightmares.

Brian Joyce

#48. In times such as these, life often begs us to seek answers when in reality there are only questions available.

Brian Joyce

#49. Society gets by from the help of its citizens.

Brian Joyce

#50. You know-portraits are odd things." "How do you figure?" I asked. "Well at the time, that portrait told the whole story. It told the truth. We were a family-a happy family. Now that same portrait just looks like a lie.

Brian Joyce

#51. I guess what's most important is that we chose to live with our hearts open and to let our experiences show us the way towards our brightest days.

Brian Joyce

#52. What were we, but kids with apartments and jobs anyway?

Brian Joyce

#53. Couples swayed and embraced to the beat as the singer's vocals soared above a group of confused teenagers and twenty-something's.

Brian Joyce

#54. I guess it was only fitting that to them PUNK was a four letter word. However, to people like Dylan and I-punk was our hearts-our souls. We grew up with a lot of uncertainties. To be a teenager isn't always pretty, and our music reflected that.

Brian Joyce