Genre Deep Dive: What is indietronica?
Learn about indietronica in the fifth edition of Epidemic Sound’s Genre Deep Dive.
We’ll cover:
- What is indietronica?
- When did indietronica start?
- Where did indietronica start?
- What’s the difference between indietronica and EDM?
- What’s the difference between indietronica and folktronica?
- How to find the best indietronica music for your content
What is indietronica?
Indietronica is a loose subgenre that folds electronic music into indie-adjacent styles like shoegaze, post-rock, and indie rock. Indietronica-type beats are typically less club-ready than traditional electronic music, preferring a more relaxed, trip-hop feel.
Indietronica often favors digital percussion, leaving the live instrumentation to the “indie” part of the music. This lo-fi, DIY approach draws comparison to other subgenres like dream pop and bedroom pop. While guitars are a staple of indie rock, they’re dialed way down for indietronica.
If this all sounds vague, you’re not wrong. Indietronica has fairly flimsy parameters, and is classified more by feel than qualities. Does it feature digital percussion, sparse guitars, soft synth, and vocals wracked with emotion, each cranked up or down to varying degrees? If so, it’s probably indietronica.
When did indietronica start?
Indietronica started around the turn of the millennium, when artists could more easily access digital audio workstation (DAW) technology, samplers, and drum machines.
Stereolab and Broadcast made waves on a smaller scale, while mainstream pop and rock artists like Björk and Radiohead slipped dream-like, subdued electronics into their music. Genre-busting records like the former’s Homogenic (1997) and the latter’s Kid A (2000) spurred other artists to experiment.
From there, indietronica bands like The Postal Service, Hot Chip, and Metronomy reshaped the subgenre in the mid-2000s, threading the needle between programmed electronics and raw, heart-on-sleeve indie. DAWs became more affordable and commonplace in the 2010s, making indietronica possible for pretty much anyone with a computer and a guitar.
Acts like Tame Impala and James Blake have since carried the indietronica torch onto massive stages across the world, peppering their work with loops, beats, and textures often associated with the subgenre.
Where did indietronica start?
Indietronica isn’t a conventional “scene,” but UK-based bands like Stereolab and Broadcast are credited as early innovators. Nowadays, it’s an internet-native genre in the same way as hyperpop, regularly reviewed and dissected by superfans across the world. In particular, indietronica is a popular genre tag on RYM (Rate Your Music), a social cataloging website.
What’s the difference between indietronica and EDM?
Electronic dance music (EDM) is a massive genre used to describe electronic music geared for, well, dancing. This covers everything from techno to house, dubstep to Afrobeats. Indietronica isn’t usually designed for dancing, despite its reliance on beats.
What’s the difference between indietronica and folktronica?
Folktronica mixes folk music with electronica, focusing on fingerpicked guitars, organic percussion, and earthy vocals. These low-key, intimate characteristics shake hands with the synth, loops, and beats you might find in indietronica.
Indietronica casts its net much wider, incorporating sub-genres like post-rock, synth-pop, and more. Folktronica is more niche, highlighting the relationship between folk and electronic music.
You could class folktronica as its own genre, but there’s enough crossover to consider it a sub-section or sibling to indietronica. For example, artists like Bon Iver are often labeled interchangeably as folktronica and indietronica.
How to find the best indietronica music for your content
Epidemic Sound’s catalog features more than 55,000 world-class tracks, and there’s a whole host of indietronica in there. Check it out below.
Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s close out with a five-track indietronica playlist, featuring elite-tier music available with an Epidemic Sound subscription.
LeDorean – Wasted
Wasted is anything but wasted on our audience. In fact, LeDorean’s house-inflected banger is one of Epidemic Sound’s best-performing indietronica tracks. The trio’s crisp production, smooth basslines, and slick beats counteract that rough, downbeat “The price I pay” hook like a trucker hat on top of a tuxedo. It’s just the right mix of downcast and danceable, with syncable moments to match a ton of moods.
Chris Shorooi – IDWW
Is your content a Good Time™? Chris Shorooi’s got the official soundtrack: IDWW gives indietronica a fresh lick of paint, filling in the corners with old-school, funky house vocals and guitar. It’s the sound of sunshine.
GEMINII – Blame Game
GEMINII’s dramatic indietronica smashes the intimacy of bedroom pop against sweeping, orchestral bombast. Blame Game’s honking, Hans Zimmer-style cinematics lend the vocals even more vulnerability, throwing in some Knife-esque synth for good measure. It’s indietronica in the same way The Shawshank Redemption is a prison film: that category only scratches the surface. Given how much ground Blame Game covers, it makes sense that it’s enjoyed a ton of sync spots.
Ooyy – Pink Space
Ooyy’s worked with Epidemic Sound since 2018, touring the various villages and towns housed under the country that is electronic music. Pink Space starts from the bottom and shoots for the stars, swelling from muted arpeggios and shuffling drums to soaring synth, floor-filling beats, and a vocal hook born for sync placements.
bomull – näckros
bomull means “cotton” in Swedish. Seems like a good description for näckros, with all its soft woodwind, hazy beats, and rich strings. This track leans more into folktronica than pure indietronica, but it’ll go down a treat for any mellow, optimistic content you have in the pipeline.
Music makes your content sing. Epidemic Sound’s catalog is packed with all the indietronica you need, but if it’s not quite the right match, don’t sweat it. We’ve got you covered.
Explore our catalog with filters like genre, mood, BPM, and more, or search with a reference Spotify link for instant suggestions. Then, fine-tune our tracks with AI-powered tools to find the perfect fit.
And even better? Our catalog is high-quality, affordable, and safe. An Epidemic Sound subscription goes beyond royalty-free music, removing the headache of licensing and freeing you up to do what you do best.
You can enjoy the safety of our license hand-in-hand with our catalog of 55,000 tracks, covering just about every genre you can think of. You’ll also gain unlimited access to our advanced search functions and editing tools — finding the right sound’s never been easier.
It’s better than royalty-free. It’s worry-free. Get started with Epidemic Sound below.
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