Over the past 30 years, the underground independent music scene has profoundly shaped and influenced the mainstream. Entire musical styles and genres (such as punk rock and hip-hop) have grown out of disdain for the mainstream. But somehow the mainstream ignored the disdain for itself and punk and hip-hop became mainstream.
Alternative rock exploded in the 1990s and and several bands that were once part of an indie underground scene became the new mainstream. But once again, the music industry got a hold of this style of music and by overhyping soundalike bands, the quality and integrity of popular music was quickly degraded.
The mainstream dealt a blow to the independent cause by blurring the definition of "indie" leading many to believe Indie is Mainstream while that clearly isn't the case. Many "alternative" rock stations today give as much attention to 90's and 80's modern rock as they do to new rock.
Into the new millenium and the advent of the internet, the distribution barriers that once made it difficult for indies to find more listeners are breaking down. Thanks to places like mp3.com, myspace, ITunes and IACmusic.com, even the truly independent can find new listeners from all over the world.
The industry wonders why their sales numbers are way down and continutes to blame P2P sharing and music downloading. They don't realize that by promoting mediocre music and by mastering their recordings too loud (which results in a serious loss of dynamic range) they are responsible for their own demise.
Our predecessors started this revolution over thirty years ago but now more than ever, artists are in a position to give the collective finger to the companies like Clear Channel and the Major Record Labels who have traditionally had a monopoly on music distribution. In order to overthrow the mainstream once and for all, we as independent artists have a responsibility to educate the music consumer on how to search out the best in the indie world. And that's our Indie Rock Revolution.