Anyone in any doubt about just how much crossover existed in early 1980s New York (and London probably) between post punk, ambient, reggae, funk, jazz, R&B, hip hop and what many people derisively consider as mere “pop,” read this Wikipedia article: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Down

We all know Madonna was part of the indie scene at one point pre fame, but I can’t believe I never knew young Whitney Houston was recording no wave covers of Canterbury prog with members of PiL, Robert Wyatt, Brian Eno (two years before he first worked with U2) and (!) Archie Shepp.

Now I’m sure it wasn’t utopian. There was probably a bunch of tokenism in these middle aged white dudes’ desires to work with soul singers and appropriate from various genres (see: Malcolm McLaren).

But it sure as hell contrasts to the mid ‘80s to ‘00s indie establishment enforced by Albini and other anal, angular Midwesterners, and then their more laidback retro folkie successors, both of which defined itself as purely white, rejecting diversity and cosmopolitanism and even making (failed) attempts to reject the blues itself, denying even weirdos like Prince a presence in the scene.

The divide between cosmopolitan, experimental independent music (which has rarely felt comfortable in the term “indie”) versus sundown-town conceptions of indie persists to this day.

Tldr: Whitney Houston was more indie than LCD Soundsystem could ever be, before any of us were even born.