Indie cred

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Indie cred, a term similar to "street cred," describes the authenticity of an independent band. Having indie cred is crucial for such a band to be critically and popularly well received by people in the indie scene.

In music, credibility is an ideological concept and may involve notions of universality, complexity, and originality (Green, 1999). Financial and artistic autonomy is probably the most vital for indie credibility, the loss of which is called selling out.

For example, Stephen Thomas Erlewine decried Liz Phair for loss of credibility after the release of her eponymous album, which featured co-production and co-songwriting by teenpop producers The Matrix (as well as indie-credible Pete Yorn and Michael Beckham).