Before Indie Was Indie

The other day I was thinking who I thought really the first indie bands were. After much debate and listening through my extensive music library, I believe I've come to a conclusion. In my mind one of the first, if not the first indie band was The Velvet Underground and Nico. This music project with Lou Reed by Andy Warhol was the first real indie band. There was no major label that they originally signed with. It was an experiment. That's what all indie music is to me, an experiment. It may not have had a label or even much of a following (I mean that's why it's indie, right), but it was indie. Warhol wanted to use a new canvas to experiment with his art and he did it through Reed, Nico, and the other musicians. The Velvet Underground was a hell of an experiment too. I read a book about a year or two ago called Please Kill Me and it's about this whole punk movement from the 60's through to today. In the book there was an extensive chronicling of The Velvet Underground. According to the book they were major contributors to fueling the punk rock movement of the day, but to me they also unintentionally introduced the world to indie music. Their original album The Velvet Underground & Nico was at first widely ignored. No one had even really heard of the band, but since then it has grown enormously in popularity. It was an experiment, an experiment whose results never truly presented themselves until years even decades later. Anyway, they had an extremely unique sound and weren't widely popular until much later. Also they were an experiment, and isn't that what indie is? An experiment. It's goal is to try and create some music that's not mainstream and utilizes a completely unique sound. On all of these parts The Velvet Underground and Nico were successful.