--- title: Defining Indie Rock at the Pitchfork Music Festival | TIME description: More than 50,000 music lovers attended Chicago's Pitchfork Music Festival, a staple of the indie scene, to see a wide array of artists ranging from dance rock to hip hop canonical: https://time.com/video/gPiki6Bd/ og:title: Defining Indie Rock at the Pitchfork Music Festival og:description: More than 50,000 music lovers attended Chicago's Pitchfork Music Festival, a staple of the indie scene, to see a wide array of artists ranging from dance rock to hip hop og:url: https://time.com/video/gPiki6Bd/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/gPiki6Bd/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Defining Indie Rock at the Pitchfork Music Festival twitter:description: More than 50,000 music lovers attended Chicago's Pitchfork Music Festival, a staple of the indie scene, to see a wide array of artists ranging from dance rock to hip hop twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/gPiki6Bd/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Defining Indie Rock at the Pitchfork Music Festival > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Defining Indie Rock at the Pitchfork Music Festival [Watch (HLS stream): Defining Indie Rock at the Pitchfork Music Festival](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/gPiki6Bd.m3u8) (3:17)  _Published 2010-08-13. More than 50,000 music lovers attended Chicago's Pitchfork Music Festival, a staple of the indie scene, to see a wide array of artists ranging from dance rock to hip hop_ --- Jul 25, 2023 4:19 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [The Sundance of Indie Games: Welcome to IndieCade](/video/cnSvKmro/) ### The Sundance of Indie Games: Welcome to IndieCade [TIME Talks To IndyCar Champion Dario Franchitti](/video/p9Aj3sEG/) ### TIME Talks To IndyCar Champion Dario Franchitti [Jesus \(Music\) Freaks at the Creation Festival](/video/PSwfybO3/) ### Jesus (Music) Freaks at the Creation Festival --- ## Transcript >> Whether it's LCD Soundsystem's Dump Truck, Raekwon's hiphop, or Pavement's [ unk ], indie music does not fit easily into a box. >> I would describe indie rock, in general, in one sentence: one big [ unk ] mess, really, honestly. >> The genres of the music are all pretty nebulous. >> Just straightforward American guitar rock played by poorly dressed, sheltered white people. >> It's all part of the 5th Annual Pitchfork Music Festival; a staple of the indie music scene ran by the online magazine, Pitchfork. This 3- day event in July drew 54 000 people to Chicago's Union Park. While other summer festivals had to scale back, sometimes, even cancel their shows due to slow ticket sales, Pitchfork tickets, at $ 40 a day or $ 90 for the weekend, sold out. Indie music is thriving and with over 45 acts, there's definitely something for everyone. >> So, what band do you most want to see today and why? >> Pavement, honestly, because the most-- most what I'm familiar with. >> Why? and Pavement-- >> And Modest Mouse. >> and Tallest Man on Earth and Broken Social Scene-- >> And Sleigh Bells. >> All of them, dude, all of them. >> Pitchfork is not just a good place to catch the latest music, but also, just about hipsters in action-- you know, 20 something in vintage clothes, big glasses, 80's haircuts. >> Would you consider yourself a hipster? >> I suppose I'm not supposed to deny it, so then, yes. >> Am I a hipster? It is a badge I will wear with pride because it gives me an excuse to just look as goofy as possible. >> But fashion aside, the most important thing at the festival is, of course, the music. >> Good music [ unk ] you, and dance, and jive. >> And just everyone here just loving the music and not about anything else. Just-- >> The music. >> loving the music. Yeah. >> These bands maybe small, their songs might not be played on the radio, but thanks to Pitchfork, tens of thousands of people still want to see them. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Defining Indie Rock at the Pitchfork Music Festival","description":"More than 50,000 music lovers attended Chicago's Pitchfork Music Festival, a staple of the indie scene, to see a wide array of artists ranging from dance rock to hip hop","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/gPiki6Bd/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2010-08-13T19:56:40.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/gPiki6Bd.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/gPiki6Bd/","duration":"PT3M17S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/gPiki6Bd/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```