Sometimes used interchangeably with "guitar pop rock",in the mid-1980s, the term "indie" (or "indie pop") began to be used to describe the music produced on punk and post-punk labels.Some prominent indie rock record labels were founded during the 1980s. During the 1990s, grunge bands broke into the mainstream, and the term "alternative" lost its original counter-cultural meaning. The term "indie rock" became associated with the bands and genres that remained dedicated to their independent status. By the end of the 1990s, indie rock developed several subgenres and related styles, including lo-fi, noise pop, emo, slowcore, post-rock, and math rock. In the 2000s, changes in the music industry and in music technology enabled a new wave of indie rock bands to achieve mainstream success.

In the early 2000s, a new group of bands that played a stripped-down, back-to-basics version of guitar rock emerged into the mainstream. The commercial breakthrough from these scenes was led by four bands: The Strokes, The White Stripes, The Hives and The Vines. Emo also broke into mainstream culture in the early 2000s. By the end of the decade, the proliferation of indie bands was being referred to as "indie landfill".

Main articles: Post-punk and Indie pop

See also: College rock and Jangle pop

The Jesus and Mary Chainperforming in California in 2007

The BBC documentary Music for Misfits: The Story of Indie pinpoints the birth of indie as the 1977 self-publication of the Spiral Scratch EP by Manchester band Buzzcocks. Although Buzzcocks are often classified as a punk band, it has been argued by the BBC and others that the publication of Spiral Scratch independently of a major label led to the coining of the name "indie" ("indie" being the shortened form of "independent").

"Indie pop" and "indie" were originally synonymous. In the mid-1980s, "indie" began to be used to describe the music produced on post-punk labels rather than the labels themselves. The indie rock scene in the US was prefigured by the college rock that dominated college radio playlists, which included key bands like R.E.M. from the US and The Smiths from the UK.These two bands rejected the dominant synthpop of the early 1980s,and helped inspire guitar-based jangle pop; other important bands in the genre included 10,000 Maniacs and the dB's from the US, and The Housemartinsand The La's from the UK. In the United States, the term was particularly associated with the abrasive, distortion-heavy sounds of the Pixies, Hüsker Dü, Minutemen, Meat Puppets, Dinosaur Jr., and The Replacements.

In the United Kingdom the C86 cassette, a 1986 NME compilation featuring Primal Scream, The Pastels, The Wedding Present and other bands, was a document of the UK indie scene at the start of 1986. It gave its name to the indie pop scene that followed, which was a major influence on the development of the British indie

Genre of music, nicknamed after the independent labels which support lesser-known bands. Typically, the independent labels allow more "musical freedom", which results in a truer, less cookie-cutter sound that mainstream listeners do not immediately identify with. Indie rock draws inspiration from bands such as the Beatles, The Velvet Underground, and Radiohead. 

Many indie rock bands are characterized by the use of unique or less-popular instruments. Subjectively (since music is subjective), indie rock cds typically sound less "perfect" than mainstream music, which typically grabs the attention of indie rock enthusiasts. 

Indie rock is a mixture of many other genres, including alternative rock, folk music, electronica, even pop. It also tends to be very positive music, despite popular opinion.