Simon Reynolds talking about the political/cultural aspect of the scene referred to a "revolt into childhood". Style magazine i-D in an article from 1986 similarly concluded that the followers of the genre had an ingenuous devotion.

Childlike innocence and assumed naivety permeate the Cutie scene – their clothes are asexual, their haircuts are fringes, their colours are pastel. Cuties like Penguin modern classics, sweets, ginger beer, vegetables, and anoraks. Heroes include Christopher Robin…Buzzcocks and The Undertones.^[9]

Rather more caustically, David Stubbs, in a derogatory Melody Maker review of the C86 tape, claimed that these were bands "for whom Camberwick Green is a sort of Palestine"

Musically in his book Time Travel, pop historian Jon Savage traced the origins of C86 and Indie Pop to the Velvet Underground's eponymous third album but perhaps a more obvious musical influence however was the pop side of post punk rock: bands such as The Television Personalities, the Swell Maps and Dolly Mixture and the quirky childlike lyrics of Jonathan Richman. C86 was also rooted in the Scottish post-punk bands of the early 1980s on the independent Postcard label: Orange Juice, Aztec Camera, The Fire Engines and Josef K (although those bands soul/funk/disco influences were usually forgotten). Other influences were the DIY punk ethic represented by fanzines from the period such as The Legend!, Are You Scared To Get Happy?, Baby Honey, Rox, Simply Thrilled, Pure Popcorn and Hungry Beat! who often featured flexis of bands who then became associated with C86. The movement continued to hold sway into the 1990s with many of the riot grrl bands citing C86 as an influence and finally reached a commercial peak with the success of Belle and Sebastian. The most significant punk rock influences are the The Undertones, Buzzcocks and The Ramones, who had catchy pop melodies in their songs.

[

Twee pop and indie pop in the US

In the United States, a similar revolution in underground pop had been taking place in Olympia, Washington. Beat Happening, an indie band fronted by Calvin Johnson and Heather Lewis, who additionally started a record label called K Records, led this "revolution." Their aesthetic was quite similar to their British cohorts, with hand-drawn photocopied sleeves and stripped-down instrumentation playing pure pop gems that were well out of step with the then-current hardcore punk scene. The first Beat Happening record, on K, was released in 1985. Other labels sprang up across the country, including Bus Stop (Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, from 1987); Picturebook (Barrington, Illinois, from 1987), Harriet (Cambridge, Massachusetts, from 1989) and Slumberland (Silver Spring, Maryland, from 1989, later California), bringing together the American sound of Beat Happening, which was a little rawer and more pared-down, with the British indie pop of Sarah and others, which was sometimes softer, more harmonious, and more twee. Important groups included Tiger Trap and Honeybunch.

A punk-influenced variant of indie pop, prominent in the mid-1990s, was dubbed "cuddlecore". Led by bands such as cub, Bunnygrunt and Maow, cuddlecore was marked by harmony vocals and pop melodies atop a punk-style musical backing. Cuddlecore bands were usually, although not always, all-female and essentially represented a more pop-oriented variation on the then-current riot grrrl scene.

In the United States indie pop is also commonly known as twee or twee pop. The term has been rejected and then adopted by many of the bands whose sound has been described this way. This has spawned inside jokes like the T-shirts that read "Twee as Fuck" or "Twee Fucker".^[10] In 2002 Tullycraft recorded the track "Twee," featuring the line "Fuck me, I'm twee."

[

International

In addition to the United Kingdom and the United States, there has been a significant school of bands since 1985 in New Zealand, recording for Flying Nun Records, most notably the trio of The Bats, The Chills, and The Clean. Instantly recognizable for their insistent jangle-guitar strums and sweet, high male choirboy voices, these bands were the model for much of what followed in other countries. Not just English-speaking countries, either; France, Germany, Sweden, Japan, Philippines, Greece, Spain, Canada, Peru and Mexico all have significant indie pop scenes. Elefant Records (Spain) and Summershine Records (Australia) are notable labels in the international development of indie pop.

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Today

In 2004 the UK focused Rough Trade Shops compilation Indiepop Vol 1 effectively documented the history of the sound acknowledging that it pre- and post-dated 1986. Labels such as Matinee, Shelflife Records, Siesta and websites like Indiepages, Twee.net and Indie-MP3: Keeping C86 Alive continue to be influenced by the C86/indie pop sound. As well as releasing or showcasing tracks from new bands, they have reissued and repackaged much of the material produced at the time. British clubs such as How Does it Feel to be Loved?^[11] continue to air tracks from the tape and is dedicated to indiepop from 20 years ago and today. It is Sweden, however, where the sound has most taken hold with a raft of labels and new bands such as I'm from Barcelona claiming C86 and Sarah records as their inspiration.^[12]

[

See also

• List of indie pop artists
• Riot Grrrl
• DIY punk ethic
• Fanzine
• Indie rock
• Sarah Records
• Northern Soul

[

External links

• Radio Indie - Indie radio
• C86 Profile - Indie C86 Archives Blog
• Rough Trade - Indiepop Vol1 Tracklisting
• Creation Records - Indie History 1983-2000
• Pitchfork Media - Article archiving the history of Indie Pop

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Notes

[

References

[

Articles and books

• Bladh, Krister Everything went Pop!, C86 and more, A wave and its rise and wake (pdf) 2005
• Cavanagh, David The Creation Records Story: My Magpie Eyes Are Hungry for the Prize (Virgin Books, 2000) ISBN 1-85227-775-0
• "Fire Escape Talking","Anoraky in the UK,C86, the punk that refuses to die" ("Fire Escape Talking blog", July 7, 2006)
• Fitchett, Alastair, C86 (Tangents Blog, July 25, 2005)
• Hann, Michael Fey City Rollers (The Guardian, 13th October 2004)
• Hasted, Nick "How an NME cassette launched indie music" ("The Independent", October 27, 2006)
• Pearce, Kevin A Different Story; The Ballad of the June Brides(Tangents, March 2001)
• Reynolds, Simon Rip It Up and Start Again: Post Punk 1978-1984 (Faber and Faber, 2005) ISBN 0-571-21569-6
• Reynolds, Simon The C86 Indie Scene is back (Time Out, Oct 23 2006)
• Rogers, Jude Smells like Indie Spirit (The Observer, July 8, 2007)
• Stanley, Bob, Where were you in C86? (The Times October 20, 2006)
• True, Everett C86 Q&A(Plan B Blog July 22, 2005)
• Wire, Nicky The Birth of Uncool(The Guardian, October 25, 2006)

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