Alternative is a music genre encompassing a number of sub genres including Indie Rock, denoting rock artists signed to independent (indie) record labels, often equated with alternative rock. Reasons for remaining with indie labels as opposed to major labels varies from artist to artist, whether it be a desire to retain complete editorial control over one's work, loyalty to the underground DIY culture from which independent labels grow, or an anti-corporate ideology espoused by the artist and a desire not to contribute to the financial interests of corporate-owned major labels. In recent years, however, the word "indie" has been appropriated as something of a marketing term used by major labels and music magazines to refer to any artists of the alternative rock genre. However, in the traditional sense of the word, indie rock is not a "genre", but rather a status, indicating the rock artists of independent music. Alternative music, then, is recognition that certain musical forms exist that are unique and cannot be catagorized any where else!
In the United Kingdom, indie music charts have been compiled since the early 1980s. Initially, the charts featured bands that emerged with a form of guitar-based alternative rock that dominated the indie charts, particularly indie pop artists such as Aztec Camera and Orange Juice, the C86 jangle-pop movement and the twee pop of Sarah Records artists. Some definitive British indie rock bands of the '80s were The Smiths, The Stone Roses and The Jesus and Mary Chain, whose music directly influenced 1990s alternative movements such as shoegazing and Britpop. In fact, it is quite common in Britain for all alternative music to be referred to as "indie" instead of "alternative."
In the United States, the music commonly regarded as indie rock is descended from an alternative rock scene largely influenced by the movements of the 1970s and early 1980s and their DIY ethos. In the '80s the term "indie rock" was particularly associated with the abrasive, distortion-heavy sounds of Hüsker Dü, Dinosaur Jr (who coincidently are often mentioned as an influence on the shoegazing movement, though they were hardcore punk bands), Sonic Youth, Big Black, and others that populated American indie labels, separating them from jangly college rock bands like R.E.M. and 10,000 Maniacs, who, by the end of the decade, were signed to major labels.
During the first half of the 1990s, alternative music, led by grunge bands such as Alice in Chains, Nirvana, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam, broke into the mainstream, achieving commercial chart success and widespread exposure. Shortly thereafter the alternative genre became commercialized as mainstream success attracted major-label investment and commercially-oriented or manufactured acts with a formulaic, conservative approach. With this, the meaning of the label "alternative" changed away from its original, more counter-cultural meaning to refer to alternative music that achieved mainstream success and the term "indie rock" was used to refer to the bands and genres that remained underground. One of the defining movements of '90s American indie rock was the lo-fi movement spearheaded by Guided by Voices, Pavement, Sebadoh, The Grifters, Liz Phair, The Elephant 6 Recording Co., and others, which placed a premium on rough recording techniques, ironic detachment, and disinterest in "selling out" to the mainstream alternative rock scene.
Today, Roots Of Rock keeps the genre "Alternative Rock" rather than "Indie Rock" as an area where any artist, whether they be signed to any record label at all, who is writing and performing original and different rock music with an independent spirit, can be found!
www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indie_Rock