LOCAL INDIE, GLOBAL INDUSTRY: THE ENTANGLEMENTS OF BEING AN INDIE MUSICIAN IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

This thesis aims to make sense of the Singaporean indie musician’s participation in a historically and rhetorically anti-commercial mode of popular music making while embedded within a global, increasingly digitalised indie music industry. Based on semi-structured interviews with 11 individuals who are either musicians or record label overseers within the Singaporean indie scene, I argue that despite placing immense value on unrestrained creative expression, indie musicians are participants in and reproducers of indie’s commercialisation, no longer perceiving artistry and commerce to be mutually exclusive. As indie music production occurs within the sphere of economic exchange, musicians must negotiate their interests with that of commercially minded record labels and digital streaming platforms. Additionally, musicians must engage in online self-promotion, through which they build the social and cultural capital necessary for access to financial resources. Their embeddedness within this industry finally drives indie musicians towards adapting their creative output to suit market demands, and further complicates their construction of identity. This thesis contributes to existing literature which attempts to make sense of indie music by placing as much value on the practices of indie musicians as the systemic forces which constrain and enable them.