This round is the second of three specialty rounds to be drawn.  .

You may choose any song that was released during a time when an artist was unsigned or signed with an independent label

What this means is virtually all current indie artists (which includes 99.9% of Soundclick, Garageband, DMusic, TheSixtyOne etc--most bands have this info on their individual pages), all of us (Including The Great Luke Ski, Lemon Demon, Nuclear Bubble Wrap, and yeah the few original songs I did technically do qualify--you cannot parody a parody to get around the indie rule though (I know Matthias would mention it if I didn't etc)) all artists who have signed with a non-major label and songs released by artists who are no longer indie back when they were (Early Green Day, Offspring and No Doubt etc)  Here are so examples of songs that do qualify, if you are unsure, please check with me and I can check for you. . .but like I said if you are unsure, a good thing to do would be to check out soundclick.com where almost everyone, even those who are signed, are indie.

Please note that you may not use a song that you used for any other round, it is possible that some songs (IE if you take me up on the early Offspring, Green Day or No Doubt songs for example) may qualify for this round that are by artists with their own rounds.  Similarly if you use a song in this round, you can not use it again later when that artist is drawn.  Please note that just because a band is now indie doesn't mean they always were either.. .IE Radiohead, Radiohead is indie now, but they weren't when they released hit songs like Creep, they were with Capitol records. . .which is clearly not an indie label.  Like I said the safe thing to do on this one is to go outside the box, such as Soundclick or to use a song on this list, but I more than welcome you to do research to come up with something totally different and unique that I'm missing.

**Please note the Wikipedia artist list is NOT a good source for this round, it lists many artists who, in the opinion of those who added them, sound indie, but are not in fact indie, and have no released indie records.  I love Wikipedia, but this is a good example of why it's not accepted for reports in most class rooms as a source of information**

Come out and Play by Offspring

Bodysnatchars by Radiohead

Closing Time by The Cardigans

Danger-High Voltage! by Electric Six

Mr. Brightside by The Killers

Head Like a Hole by Nine Inch Nails

Beverly Hills by Weezer

Everything Right Is Wrong Again by They Might Be Giants

I Am Superman by R.E.M.

Trapped in a Box by No Doubt

Welcome to Paradise by Green Day

Soccer Practice by The Gay Pimp

BACON! by The Great Luke Ski

Amnesia Was Her Name by Lemon Demon

Draining the Lizard on a Dead Gay Wizard by Nuclear Bubble Wrap

V for Victory by DJ Particle

My Storm by Below Average Dave

Gamer Funk by Rob Balder

Despair by Sindustry

William Fitzsimmons

Please feel free to ask me if a song qualifies, I will check it's label. . .also if you have favorite unsigned artists definitely tell me, I'll add them to the list.

Lovely description of what defines 'indie' (I would've been wetting myself otherwise), but...what defines a 'non-major label'? I know sod-all about labels, so this would help a great deal.

Lovely description of what defines 'indie' (I would've been wetting myself otherwise), but...what defines a 'non-major label'? I know sod-all about labels, so this would help a great deal.


An indie label is usually not a member of the RIAA
An indie label will not own it's own distributive channel
Most Indie labels will have less than 5% of the world market share of label revenue generated by music and merchandise

Major labels include: Sony BMG, Warner, EMI, and Universal.  Also, for the purposes of this contest, I am considering Disney a major label because it's music was largely represented in the first round, and not labeling a major label is really a close call

Many labels are owned in part by larger labels, but that doesn't necessarily mean they aren't indie, if they are not majority owned by a major label (less than 50%) they are still classified as indie, such as Interscope . . .while Capitol is part of major labels as they are owned entirely by the major labels, Most artists who are independently labeled will not sound as commercial and usually composes of songs that are written by members of it's band. 

Think old Green Day VS New Green Day, or Old Offspring VS New Offspring, and you can definitely tell the changes that came along with signing with a major label.  If you have any question on any particular label, definitely ask, I can usually tell you off hand if it's indie or not, and if not it will only take me a minute to look it up through the database to see who owns it. . .

Oh, okay...I'll think I'll play it safe and parody the same song I did for the Indie round of the second Decathlon: "Heart's A Mess" by Gotye. This time it should be better as I don't have to fit it into a crappy genre. Maybe it'll be "Room's A Mess". I think I had a chorus for that at one time...

(I've been waiting forever to release this one onto the public. I know Below Average Dave loved it but that's because it's a parody of his song...)

"X-Man's Love Letter" parody of Below Average Dave's "My Storm"

http://michellelaurenbooks.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/storm-x-men.jpg

http://www.amiright.com/parody/2000s/belowaveragedave1.shtml

I'll be doing a parody of Weezer's "Beverly Hills" called "Holiday Bills", unless someone's already done that title switch. Let me check.... nope! Surprisingly no one did this parody before. After my Bronze in Elvis Artistry, I'm definitely entering this contest more.

http://www.getliberty.org/content_images/Cartoon%20-%20This%20Clunker%20(500).jpg
Great Idea For A Song: 111th Congress Version

When I wrote this the other day, little did I realize that I could use it so soon.  It was a hecka fun to write but I guess people steer clear of political parodies if they don't bash one side or the other (as evident by the lack of any votes or comments :( )  I think I would consider Worm Quartet indy.

Is there a "traditional" round? If so, we ought to exclude traditional songs from this one.

Is "Polar Music" a major label? I was thinking of entering a parody of Lambretta's "Creep", but I think Polar Music had been turned over to Universal by then.

Ant

Is there a "traditional" round? If so, we ought to exclude traditional songs from this one.

Is "Polar Music" a major label? I was thinking of entering a parody of Lambretta's "Creep", but I think Polar Music had been turned over to Universal by then.

Ant


Traditional does not actually have a round, so if you know of a traditional song by an indie artist, by all means run with it.

Unfortunately Polar Music is 100% owned by Universal, one of the four major labels. . .however they haven't always been, anything released on Polar Music before 1993 was indie--including believe it or not, old ABBA stuff, the song Creep came out 8 years after the company was purchased by Universal--then MCA Records


Worm Quartet is an unsigned artist, they definitely qualify!

Just to make sure... Below Average Dave is an Idie Artist right? I haven't talked to you in quite some time Dave just wanted to know if you weren't on a Major Record Label yet.

Just to make sure... Below Average Dave is an Idie Artist right? I haven't talked to you in quite some time Dave just wanted to know if you weren't on a Major Record Label yet.


LOL, yeah, I wish I had that kind of money. . .yes I'm definitely indie

The Retired Trencherman (expanded)
http://www.amiright.com/parody/2000s/thedecemberists1.shtml

Parody of The Decemberists' "The Mariner's Revenge Song", from the album Picaresque released on Kill Rock Stars, 2005.

DKTOS? Sail onward to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaNV7eCU2R0

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_eqkC4iaC5QI/SKU1bUW5asI/AAAAAAAAQVY/2PSS7q-Iiis/s1600/messy-room-03.jpg

Room's A Mess

Vid for "Heart's A Mess" by Gotye

http://www.amiright.com/parody/2000s/kevinlee4.shtml

A parody of "Save Me Tonight" by Kevin Lee from "Flip the Switch", Sigus Records 2006.