Lo-fi / slacker rock, from the outside in. Each step is a genre and the single record this encyclopedia would put on first. Play them in this order and the last one should sound like a next step rather than a wall.
- 1 The way in
Rock 1954
The whole family: guitar, bass, drums and a beat borrowed from blues and rhythm and blues. Every branch below grows out of this trunk, metal included.
Sung. Melodic singing throughout.
Put on
The Beatles - Revolver, if you want to understand why everything branched so fast.
The Beatles, Revolver (1966) - 2 Then
Alternative rock 1985
An umbrella for everything that grew outside commercial radio and then conquered it. Defined originally by the college-radio network, not by any one sound.
Sung. Melodic singing throughout.
Put on
Pixies - Doolittle. Cobain admitted he was simply trying to write a Pixies song.
Pixies, Doolittle (1989) - 3 Then
Indie rock 1985
Originally an economic description - independent labels - that hardened into an aesthetic: modest production and total freedom.
Sung. Melodic singing throughout.
Put on
Pavement - Slanted and Enchanted. Studied indifference, excellent songs.
Pavement, Slanted and Enchanted (1992) - 4 What you asked about
Lo-fi / slacker rock 1992
Recorded on a four-track cassette with the hiss left in deliberately. Indifference as a method.
Sung. Melodic singing throughout.
Put on
Guided by Voices - Bee Thousand. Twenty songs, most under two minutes.
Guided by Voices, Bee Thousand (1994) - 5 Where to go next
Post-punk revival 2001
The same basslines and the same chill, revived every ten years with contemporary production.
Sung. Melodic singing throughout.
Put on
Interpol - Turn On the Bright Lights. Post-2001 New York, in sound.
Interpol, Turn On the Bright Lights (2002)
Assembled from the tree: every genre Lo-fi / slacker rock descends from, in order. Lo-fi / slacker rock has no subgenres, so the last step is the genre that rates closest to it by sound.