The journey of indie in the US is a fascinating story. While it had its roots in the country's fertile underground punk scene, it was really popularised by the highly influential college rock radio stations of the 1980s, before merging and blurring with the alternative-rock boom of the 1990s and going on to produce some of the biggest stadium guitar bands of all time.
As all behemothic musical movements do, US indie spawned any number of sub-genres all of its own. So how, exactly, are you meant to define the growth of a genre that could reasonably include the gruff, angry hardcore punk of Husker Du, noise freakouts from Sonic Youth, the lo-fi acoustic folk of Elliott Smith or Daniel Johnston, the angular, slacker rock of Pavement, the pure blues of The White Stripes, or the introspective grandeur of The National into such tight parameters? It's a tough job, for sure, but we think we've cracked it. Below, the albums that define US indie's story so far.
