In 2005, when Self Help Radio was airing on a radio station in Austin with the call letters K O O P, pronounced ko-op, not "coop," it aired a program with the theme "Indiepop A To Z # 1."
The genre of indiepop had not yet begun to be discussed as "independent pop," meaning music made by unknowns that sounded like whatever the current pop music on the radio is. Instead, it was a genre that came into being in the mid-90s in the UK which was a kind of ramshackle pop more in the still of bubblegum or motown than the current "hits" then on the radio. It blossomed & spread around the globe, although never entirely becoming famous or mainstream except in exceptions like Belle & Sebastian. In 2005, the show thought it might be able to feature this "indiepop a to z" as an occasionally recurring feature, & used the band list at twee.net as a kind of outline. The idea was to be a bit more complete & perhaps also to feature bands that influenced indiepop as well.
Now, at the end of 2020, we're at the 64th installment. We're on the letter P. We honestly thought we might be done by now. We know now we may never finish.
It may seem strange to the casual listener, since Self Help Radio only began on KBOO a couple of months ago. But the show has existed since 2002. & different episodes of the "indiepop a to z" series have appeared on every station that has aired Self Help Radio.
Please enjoy indiepop bands from Pale Sunday to the Pastels. If this is your first introduction to the genre, we hope you'll enjoy it. If it isn't, we hope you'll be kind when thinking what we might have missed. If you'd like to listen to previous installments, many of them are available at the show's website, accessible at this link.
Apologies if the last Self Help Radio of 2020 is a bit confusing. But then 2020 was a lot confusing. So really you should expect that by now.
- KBOO