Sorry for not responding sooner. No my vitriol isn't directed at you, but your comment brought up the issues with which I've had opinions for some time now, so my apologies for making it seem targeted at you. I appreciate your response!

Regarding the mods: if they want to make the sub consistent, then there needs to be an open discussion about exactly what we want from this sub, and not under the guise of the whole ~what is indie~ debate that pops up every so often without much progress made. Without making this place become too restrictive and redundant (which it has dangerously approached, what with new threads every day geared to create the same responses [e.g. fave album of april? fave album of 2015 so far? fave album of the last 12 months? favorite spring album? fave summer album? favorite essential album? fave sufjan stevens anything? etc etc]), I definitely think it should be more open to interpretation as to what 'indie music' means. Without having created too much a thesis, some of my thoughts...

Indie, in its roots, obviously comes from 'independent,' stemming from an era in which large recording companies exerted almost absolute control over what music was commercially available, since music was only available through commercial means (as in, through records purchased or concerts attended) due to the limited availability of recording equipment and very few means of promoting one's work. Punk came as the first direct response, and when the labels that put out these first protest records were bought up by the big fish in the late 70s, residual sentiment spilled into the 80s with 'college rock' bands, who still retained the anti-corporate, low-cost, DIY 'independent' ethos. There was a general aesthetic quality that one can trace in bands like the Replacements, Pixies, The term is almost meaningless these days, even more so than other fan favorites like 'alternative rock' and, more annoyingly, 'hipster.' Indie, for one, has never been much of a favored term, even by 'indie' artists themselves. Pavement have disavowed the term many times, insisting they always saw themselves as a 'rock band' and even entertaining major label signings in the '94-'95 popular run they made post-Crooked Rain.