Slang and Jargon in Indie and Rock Journalism
Introduction
Jargon is a specialist vocabulary belonging to a particular pursuit; it allows members of a select group to understand each other with speed and ease, often with the result of making their communication incomprehensible to non-initiates. Slang is a lexicon of non-standard vocabulary which is found in informal communication. The specialised language of guitar-based alternative rock - known as 'indie' - appears to be a mixture of jargon and slang: whilst the words are common amongst musicians and fans, there is an awareness that many of them are marked as colloquial. This may because of their taboo etymology; it is a feature of minority, youth-based subcultures that much of the slang makes reference to sex or drugs.
As with all slang, humour is an important element, and the words examined here often display a playfulness with language and inventive word-formation. Jargon can inadvertently create a barrier for outsiders, but it can also be used deliberately as a 'gatekeeper' to exclude others. The latter is frequently the case for indie jargon, which can be used to create the impression of a secret culture, unknowable to parents and adults. More often, however, those being excluded are other young people who are not fans of indie music; jargon can be deployed to test the extent of their knowledge or ignorance. All young people have a tendency to form cliques and a specialised language is a binding force within these groups. This is particularly strong among 'indie kids,' who see themselves as pursuing an alternative to the mainstream and so place great importance on solidarity.
I shall be examining all these aspects in this study and I hope that the unusual blend of the serious and impersonal nature of jargon with the friendliness and jocularity of slang will prove an interesting and enlightening subject.
Etymology and Sense Development
Borrowings from Other Branches of Music
The etymology of most of the specialist vocabulary of rock and indie derives from other, earlier music genres, jazz in particular being a major influence. However, they have usually undergone some sense development as their collocations have changed.
From choral and classical music the word 'anthem' has been borrowed, but the meaning has developed from 'song based on scripture' or 'song of praise' to a looser definition of a song that inspires a certain jubilation when it is heard. It can also be used to mean a song that is a paradigm of its style, for example, 'an indie anthem' or 'a mosh anthem.' Also from more conventional musical areas are 'chorus' and 'refrain,' both of which have been used to mean the repeated part of a song for many centuries, and 'falsetto' and 'staccato,' musicological terms that have gained currency in indie jargon. 'Concert,' the most formal term used for a performance of rock or indie music, was originally applied to renditions by orchestras or classical soloists. A 'festival' was first a series of performances of this sort; it was borrowed into indie jargon to mean an occasion lasting two or three days where a variety of rock or indie groups play live sets. A 'number,' meaning a song in a set, is taken from the language of nineteenth-century music-hall, where it had a broader meaning of, 'an item in a programme of musical entertainment.'
Many of the core words of the jargon lexicon come from black music in America; this is especially true of the names of genres of music that are heavily used in combination, such as 'rock,' 'soul' and 'funk.' Among the vocabulary coming from blues and jazz - themselves sometimes borrowed into the jargon - is 'boogie,' which is used not only to mean a style of rhythmic guitar or piano but as a verb meaning simply 'to dance.' 'Combo' was used in jazz to mean 'a small instrumental band,' but it survives in indie jargon in the frozen collocation, 'beat combo,' which is used jocularly for its dated effect. The expression of approval, 'cool,' has gained currency throughout youth culture, but it was originally popularised by blues musicians and those influenced by them. 'Stomp' is often used in compounds such as 'glam stomp'; it comes from a jazz style of lively dancing to a stamping rhythm. An absolutely defining word for the guitar-based genre is 'rock,' which can imply much more than a musical style; it can mean passion and talent, or it can be used as a verb: 'Led Zeppelin rock!' is an expression of approval more than a comment on their playing style. The word is a clipping of 'rock'n'roll,' which itself was being used to describe a simple, beat-heavy style by blues musicians from the 1930s.
Many lexical items which refer to the more technical aspects of playing instruments come originally from the American rhythm and blues scene and their senses have not developed much; words such as 'gig,' 'jam' and 'riff,' which are central to the vocabulary of the guitar-player, were first used by jazz musicians in the 1920s. The origin of 'gig,' meaning 'an engagement for a musician or musicians,' is uncertain, but it has been used by jazz and dance bands since early in the twentieth century. Possible derivations are that is from the small, two-wheeled carriages called 'gigs' that musicians may have used to travel to performances; it may be a corruption of 'jig' or 'gigue,' a type of lively dance music; or it might be a clipping of 'giggle,' referring to the players' enjoyment in their performances. A 'jam' is a period of improvised music, or a gathering of musicians who extemporise in this way. Its origin too is unclear: it may come from the sense of many things coming together at once (as in 'traffic jam') or from the meaning of something sweet and desirable (as in 'jam tomorrow'). In jazz usage 'riff ' means a musical pattern repeated as the background to a solo improvisation; in rock and indie it is more likely to be used to mean the lead guitar phrase, although it still implies repetition.
Finally, there is the proprietary name, 'Muzak.' This was a system of 'piping' unobtrusive music into a room through hidden speakers, invented in 1938. It is a blend of 'music' and the best-known brand-name at the time, 'Kodak.' Gradually the name - modified with a lower-case 'm' - came to mean the often poor-quality recordings and unimaginative music that typified Muzak's output.
Borrowings from Other Parts of Culture
Music, of course, is not the only division of culture which carries specialist vocabulary. In some cases it has proved useful to take words from the technical language of literature, sport and the visual arts.
Probably the most influential field is that of theatre. Amongst the technical words borrowed from backstage jargon are 'date,' which now means 'a theatrical or musical engagement'; 'limelight' and 'spotlight' are used metaphorically in music to mean 'fame' or 'attention,' as in 'hogging the limelight' or 'the spotlight falls on...' The phrase 'on the road' applied first to touring theatrical productions; it now commonly refers to a touring band. 'Onstage' is a compound adjective first used in the theatre; indie jargon has expanded it from being a complement, as in 'going onstage,' to a premodifying adjective, as in 'onstage presence.' The word 'scene' has undergone a large sense development through a metaphorical transfer, from the original meanings of a subdivision of a play or the stage dressing used to suggest a location, to the current informal meaning of people and places associated with a particular activity, such as 'the goth-rock scene.' Words such as 'alternative' and 'underground' which epitomise the indie community's thinking about itself have their closest antecedents in fringe theatre, whereas 'experimental' music, which makes itself deliberately difficult to listen to, probably borrows its name from the challenging experimental theatre of the 1930s.
Loans from the showbusiness side of theatre are also plentiful; calling musical performers 'acts' is a clear reference to stagecraft. Indie bands may return to the stage for a 'finale' or 'encore,' whereas the most famous act will play last and will be said to be 'headlining'; they may go on to an 'aftershow party.' More obliquely, the epithet 'hit' was applied to successful plays before it was applied to songs or records. A band who are ostentatiously entertaining might be called 'vaudeville' after the Victorian music-hall style; the word itself in a corruption of 'chanson du Vau de Vire.' A band who have a theatrical presence on stage or whose songs are melodramatic and showy are commonly described in the music press as indulging in 'histrionics,' which makes explicit the link between the arts of acting and music.
As might be expected, there are also loans taken from the related language of cinema; significantly, the shortening of 'independent' to 'indie' was first applied to films without any major corporate backing, then by analogy to the music industry. Cinematography supplied the word 'crew' for a group of technical assistants, when in indie jargon refers to the tour support, and 'soundtrack,' which has come increasingly to mean only the music that accompanies a film. Some artists even purport to make 'imaginary soundtracks' for films that do not exist. Also from film culture is 'promo,' which in the cinema is a trailer for a forthcoming feature but which was brought into indie slang to mean the short film made to accompany a song so that it can be shown on television. The word 'star' first came to prominence to describe film celebrities; since then it has been borrowed into many fields of culture, including popular music.
There have been loans from other visual arts such as painting and photography. The word 'album' is most widely used to mean 'a book of photographs' but it originally meant any blank book in which to collect souvenirs. The musical sense comes from this idea of a collection, it being a long-playing selection of songs. The epithet 'artist' for a musician or group of musicians evidently comes from art, the implication being that the songwriter is creative, like a painter. An artist of either sort may produce an excellent work which is considered to be a 'masterpiece.' 'Kitsch,' which can be applied to Sixties-influenced or eccentric music, was first associated with objets d'art. A band which professes a return to the origins of its music may proclaim itself to be 'old-skool'; this is a comic form of 'old school,' playing on the word 'school,' where one is taught to spell. The phrase is borrowed from the philosophy and history of art, where the 'old' school of thought is periodically revived.
Indie jargon also borrows from literary culture: a ballad is a narrative poem, which is in itself a deviation from the Old French meaning of 'a dancing song.' It soon regained a musical sense in English, and in rock jargon its meaning has been further restricted to 'a slow, sentimental, romantic song.' It is sometimes used pejoratively to imply that the song is too slow and sentimental. Taken from poetry too is 'epic,' which was originally a lengthy poem describing a hero's adventures, such as Virgil's Aeneid. It is now applied descriptively to a composition which is long and ambitious; it often also implies self-indulgence as it is associated with the progressive rock era of the 1970s. The words to a song are usually called its 'lyrics,' which stems from the practice of setting lyric poetry to music. The idea of a bohemian 'beatnik' as someone who is well-informed and 'cool' is common in indie music, but the original Sixties beatniks were mostly poets rather than musicians. Also much pondered upon in the music press is the search for the 'zeitgeist,' which comes from German 'time' and 'spirit,' and it is often used in relation to major literary works. Essentially it is the prevailing attitudes and feelings of the contemporary era, and bands who are felt to 'capture' or embody the zeitgeist are usually singled out for praise. Journalism itself has loaned a word into indie jargon: 'gonzo' was first applied to a personal and drug-influenced style of reporting, and then to the style of psychedelic music that the writers favoured.
Music jargon also borrows from more unlikely areas of culture, such as sport. A successful band may do the 'arena circuit' or a 'stadium tour.' Clearly this draws on the classification of different sizes of sport venues; in fact, sometimes sports facilities are hired out to bands. The language of the music business is very reminiscent of sport contracts: a group who are recruited to a record label are its new 'signings,' just like newly transferred footballers, and when either starts to under-perform they are liable to be 'dropped.' The people in a band at any one time are referred to as its 'line-up,' as are those selected to play in a sports team. The word 'fan' (a clipping of 'fanatic') was first used for sports enthusiasts but is now most commonly applied to followers of music, especially a particular bands (as in 'Manics fans'). The memorable section of a song is sometimes called the 'hook' and a song with many hooks would be 'catchy'; this terminology has probably come via metaphorical transfer from fishing. 'Leftfield,' which is an adjective meaning 'taking an unconventional stance,' appears to have come from baseball, where most batsmen hit to right field. Perhaps the most interesting loan from sport is 'jock-rock,' which is a style of unintellectual and frequently chauvinist rock. It incorporates 'jock,' a shortening of 'jock-strap,' which is a somewhat derogatory American term for sports players.
Perhaps most unexpectedly, there are a handful of terms borrowed from military jargon: 'band' was first specifically applied to a group of musicians in the sense of a military marching band. The term often used for innovative and progressive art and music, 'avant-garde,' was originally the French for 'vanguard,' the group of soldiers leading an advancing army. Finally, although the musical genre of 'heavy metal' has nothing to do with military life, the phrase itself was initially formulated to describe the material used to make guns or large shot; heavy metal fans would probably pleased to know that they share properties with a cannonball.
Taboo etymologies
As mentioned in the introduction, the slang aspect of indie jargon is created largely by the prolific use of taboo words; a typical extract from a specialist music paper such as New Musical Express will nowadays contain direct or oblique references to sexual practices and drug use as well as a smattering of four-letter words used as nouns and intensifiers. This is not uncommon amongst press aimed at young people; however, some of the more specialised musical words also have dubious origins. The well-known phrase 'sex and drugs and rock'n'roll' demonstrates the inextricable ties between rock music and taboo activities; this tendency is personified in the 'shock-rocker,' although of course what is considered shocking changes for each generation.
Amongst the core terms deriving from sex are 'jazz,' 'punk' and 'rock.' The sexual connotations of 'jazz' are well known; it is a slang word for sexual intercourse, or, as a verb, to copulate, and it derives from 'jasm,' a Black American variant of 'gism,' semen. Although punk rock probably took its name from the sense of 'a worthless person or thing,' the word has a long history of sexual meanings, from 'strumpet' in the 1600s to 'catamite' in the twentieth century; it may derive from 'puncture' or be related to 'spunk.' 'Rock'n'roll' was being used to describe the sexual act many years before it was applied to music; by 1948 it referred to both sex and dancing but it was not until three years later that 'We're Gonna Rock' became the first record to use it without any sexual implications (Hudson 1983: 40). The two components, 'rock' and 'roll,' can also refer to copulation in their own right.
Less central words that draw on sexual slang are 'frug,' a vigorous dance, which may be an alteration of 'frig,' to masturbate; and 'jock-rock,' which puns on two nicknames for the male genitals. An interesting formation is 'fretwankery,' which is a compound of 'fret,' a division on the neck of the guitar, 'wank,' to masturbate, and the abstract noun ending '-ery.' The word refers partly to the obvious masturbatory simulation of running one's fingers up and down the fretboard, but also to the metaphor of onanism for indulgence, since 'fretwankery' is usually an ostentatious and unenjoyable display of skill through an extended guitar solo. Also interesting and highly sexual is the notion of 'sucking corporate cock' which occurs frequently in the music press as a metaphor for a band artistically 'prostituting' themselves, usually by signing to a major label or accepting brand sponsorship.
The drug usage of many rock musicians has also influenced the lexicon, most notably with the word 'psychedelic,' which was once only descriptive of hallucinogenic drugs, particularly LSD. The meaning was soon extended in slang to include things that produce an effect held to be similar to the sensation of an acid trip, which could be said of much of the strange music being produced at the height of the drug's popularity. The press frequently coins new genre terms that involve drug slang; recent examples include 'skunk-funk' which makes reference to a pungent type of strong marijuana, and 'smack-rock' which incorporates a slang term for heroin. 'Stoner rock' is apparently made by and for heavy users of cannabis, since 'stoned' usually means 'intoxicated with marijuana.'
Rock jargon draws on a variety of other taboo subjects. Deriving from the disagreeable topic of dirt is 'funk,' which is a back-formation from the adjective 'funky,' meaning 'musty and smelly.' 'Grunge,' a distorted and disaffected style of rock, borrowed its name from a term of disparagement for something repugnant or unpleasant, possibly referring to the unkempt appearance of its musicians. 'Scuzz-funk' includes what is probably a colloquial clipping of 'disgusting,' whereas 'infectious' carries an overtone of disease even when used in a metaphorical sense. A goth- and glam-influenced style of indie was nicknamed 'new grave'; this is a pun on 'new wave,' an early 1980s genre, but obviously also plays on the morbidity of its exponents. The 'blues' derives from a colloquial name for depression, and the music in its early forms was always mournful and expressive of sadness; the contemporary coining 'sulk-rock' also makes reference to this. A lot of emphasis is placed in indie music on 'selling out,' which is a very nebulous idea but basically means sacrificing principles and integrity for the promise of fame or wealth; the phrase has be used in the sense of 'political betrayal' since 1862.
Sometimes a word with a taboo derivation is meliorated when it is borrowed into jargon. This happened with 'gonzo,' which comes from the Italian for 'foolish' or the Spanish for 'goose,' but has lost its derogatory sense to mean merely 'bizarre' or 'exaggerated.' 'On the road,' a prepositional phrase which is used neutrally to describe a band on tour, does have pregnant uses related to vagrancy. 'Kraut,' a shortening of 'sauerkraut,' is used offensively in everyday slang to mean 'a German, especially a German soldier,' but in indie jargon it is used without any disparagement in compounds such as 'Kraut-rock.' This is probably due to the positive cross-cultural influence of German bands such as Can and Kraftwerk in the 1970s.
Morphology
Compounding, Blending and Reduplication
Indie jargon lends itself particularly to word formation by compounding, as new trends within genres can be labelled by adding a descriptive word to the head word. Thus there are almost limitless compounds based on 'rock,' such as 'doom rock,' 'glam rock,' 'prog rock,' 'pub-rock' and so on. Other common head words include 'funk,' 'punk' and 'pop'; the model of 'heavy metal' is also very productive, spawning 'death metal,' 'sports metal,' and 'thrash metal.' The habits of musicians and fans are also prone to compounding: gig-goers may 'crowd-surf,' 'head-bang' or 'slamdance' in the 'moshpit,' while the guitarist (or 'axemeister') may be admired for his 'fretwork,' the 'frontman' might be a 'limelight-hogger,' the 'setlist' may be 'ear-splitting,' 'downbeat' or 'up-tempo,' and the band will retire to their 'tourbus' for the 'aftershow party.' As becomes obvious, the specialisation of many of the activities associated with rock music requires the vocabulary used to talk about them to become more specific over time, and forming compounds is the most effective way to achieve this.
Another method of forming jargon words is by blending existing words together; this a much more playful process than simple compounding. Genre names formed by blending include 'avant-glam,' a merging of 'avant-garde' and 'glam rock'; 'squeezy-listening,' a humorous blend of 'squeeze' (in the sense of an embrace) and 'easy listening'; 'baroque'n'roll' is a mischievous merging of 'baroque' and 'rock'n'roll'; and 'industrial'n'bass' is a verbal and musical blend of 'industrial metal' and 'drum'n'bass.' Something that is very focused on indie could be said to be 'indie-tastic,' a blend of 'indie' and 'fantastic.' Via a blend with 'marathon,' an extended period of stomping could be called a 'stompathon'; on the model of 'sing-along' are formed 'chant-along' and 'clap-along,' while 'sound-alike' is a mixture of 'sound' and 'look-alike.'
Reduplication is a type of compound in which both elements are the same or phonetically similar. Frequently it is onomatopoeic: 'bebop' is imitative of the typical rhythm of this type of jazz, the ablaut-motivated 'jingle-jangle' is mocking of the light sound of some indie, and 'wah-wah' is a sort of guitar pedal which distorts the sound into muted bursts. 'Indie-schmindie,' which is usually applied to unambitious and simplistic indie, is formed with the reduplicative Yiddish element 'schm-' which conveys disparagement or derision. Rock slang also has a tendency to pair words that rhyme, creating a playful effect similar to that of reduplication; examples are 'jock-rock,' 'mop-top' and 'skunk-funk.'
Affixation and Conversion
New words can be formed through affixation, the addition of an element at the beginning or end of the base form to modify its meaning, and conversion, when a word changes class without changing its form. There are a number of prefixes and affixes which are rare in everyday language but fairly common in indie jargon.
The prefix 're-' is of course found everywhere, but it has a few specialised instances in indie jargon: a band who 'reform' do not improve their moral character but rather start working together again after an official break-up. A 'remix' of a particular song is usually the result of intervention by another artist, who recombines the existing elements of the track and perhaps adds some of their own. Because so many genres and sub-genres are formed by adding 'new' to an existing formulation, music journalists sometimes vary the effect by substituting 'neo-' as in 'neo-hippy' or 'nu-' as in 'nu-metal'; the latter is particularly interesting for its psuedo-phonetic rendering of the American pronunciation of 'new,' which stresses the sub-genre's basis in the USA. The prefix 'post-' is also common in the creation of genre names, for example in 'post-punk' and 'post-rock,' although the meaning is rather vague as the music is defined by what has come before it rather than by its own characteristics. Intensifying prefixes are used heavily, giving a colloquial flavour to the language: one expects to read about 'superstars,' 'megastars,' and 'superfans' in the tabloids, not in specialist papers.
Suffixation is also needed to create new classes of word from jargon terms. Often a genre name is used on its own in the adjectival position, for example, 'a metal band,' but the inventiveness of slang provides alternatives: there is currently a trend for using the scientific word 'metallurgic' in the above context. The suffix '-y' is used to create adjectives from genre names, as in 'bluesy' and 'punky'; it is found in a different form in 'oldie' and 'newie.' A rarer adjectival affix is '-oid,' which denotes resemblance rather than the exact properties of its parent noun; hence something 'punky' is more like punk than something which is 'punkoid.' The colloquial suffix '-o' is also quite productive, although it creates nouns rather than adjectives: 'combo' is a shortening of 'combination' and 'industrio' is an alternative term for 'industrial rock.' 'Muso' originally meant simply 'a musician' or someone particularly interested in music; it has, however, acquired a derogatory meaning of someone who is more concerned with technical proficiency than with enjoying music.
Agent nouns can also be created in a variety of ways. The simplest is by the suffixation of '-er,' as in 'rocker,' 'songwriter,' 'teenybopper' or 'ligger'; the latter is interesting for its use of a dialect word for 'lie' to mean 'to freeload.' This ending is sometimes extended to '-ster,' as in 'popster,' or diminutive forms can be used: a 'popstrelle' is 'a small popster,' probably with a play on the bird name 'pipistrelle.' The suffix '-ie' can also occur in agent nouns: a fan who follows groups around is a 'groupie,' and a 'roadie' assists a band on tour. The suffix '-nik' has been used since the 1960s to denote a person associated with the specified thing or quality; it carries with it certain overtones of pretension. Examples in indie jargon are 'beatnik,' a member of the beat generation, 'guitarnik,' a guitarist or someone in a guitar band, and the elided 'motorik,' someone influenced by road and motorcycle culture. Rock jargon sometimes has problems creating convincing abstract nouns for the qualities it describes, so there is a great variety of suffixes to choose from. The ending '-a' signifies items associated with a place or activity, as in 'Americana' or 'electronica'; '-ism' denotes a principle or a movement, such as 'miserablism' or 'revivalism.' 'Riffage' and 'tuneage' display the suffix '-age,' which creates qualities which can be found in some songs from the simplex words 'tune' and 'riff.' Other abstract noun suffixes such as '-ship,' '-y' and '-dom' are also used when the phonetic circumstances are convenient.
Some jargon words lend themselves to conversion, which is a natural development in English, as well as being very useful in increasing ease of expression. Hence the activity of frequenting night-clubs becomes 'to go clubbing,' making a demo tape 'to demo,' performing an instrumental solo 'to solo,' and a band who make particularly good rock music can be said to 'rock.' The groove for a needle in a vinyl record becomes identified with the danceable qualities of a record, and so to dance becomes 'to groove.' Conversion in the other direction occurs with the verb 'to hit' in the sense 'to hit a target,' which is converted to the noun 'hit' in the sense 'a popular or successful record.'
Clipping, Abbreviation and Acronymy
As with all slang, abbreviations are very common in the indie lexicon because of their convenience and informality; they can also be very confusing for an outsider. There is a very strong tendency to clip words so that they end in '-o' ; hence 'demonstration' becomes 'demo,' 'electronic music' is clipped to 'electro' and 'promotional video' becomes 'promo.' 'Retro,' a style of music that is heavily influenced by the Sixties, is a clipping of 'retrograde'; the loss of its full meaning has allowed for the introduction of the seemingly contradictory term 'retro-future,' which refers to how people in the past thought the future would be. The preference for '-o' endings even reaches to non-jargon terms: a song with a resounding refrain might be said to have an 'enormo-chorus.'
Genre names to have received clippings are 'glam' for 'glamour rock,' 'alt-rock' for 'alternative rock,' 'mod' for 'modernist' and 'goth' for 'gothic.' Technical words are often abbreviated because of the need to repeat them so often: thus the 'reverberation' effect on guitar becomes 'reverb,' miming to a record for television is 'to lip-synch,' and a microphone is referred to as the 'mic' or 'mike.' For the seller of musical equipment there is a distinction to be made between 'hi-fi' or 'high-fidelity' and 'lo-fi' or 'low-fidelity,' whereas record companies are concerned with the 'A-side' and 'B-side' of a single rather than its lead and supporting tracks. Even verbs are clipped, and if necessary inflections are just added to the shortened version. Examples of this are 'to bop' from 'bebop,' 'dub' instead of 'double' and 'to pogo' for 'pogo-dance.' 'Festival' is abbreviated curiously in compounds to 'festi-,' as in 'festi-pleasing,' whereas the annual festival at Glastonbury in Somerset is often clipped to 'Glasto.' Another unusual case is 'credible'; in the early 1990s 'cred' was a popular clipping used to mean basically 'cool' or 'coolness.' When the abbreviation became outdated, journalists found that the concept remained valid and so simply restored the word to its full length.
A specialised form of abbreviation is acronymy, which is the creation of a word from the initial letters of other words. It is especially widespread in jargon because of its gatekeeping function. In indie slang record formats are often given as acronyms: an 'LP' or 'elpee' is a long-player, or album, and a 'mini-LP' is a short album; an 'EP' is an extra-player, or single; a 'CD' is a compact disc, an 'MC' a music cassette and an 'MD' a mini-disc. Initialisms sometimes used derogatorily in the music press are 'AOR,' adult-oriented rock, and 'MOR' meaning 'middle-of-the-road,' or unadventurous and mediocre. From the professional side of the music industry are 'A&R,' a division of a record company responsible for 'Artists and Repertoire'; 'DJ,' the 'disc jockey' who plays records at a club; and 'PA' which can mean 'power amplifier,' part of the set-up at concerts, or 'personal appearance,' which is when an artist makes a guest appearance at an event.
Conclusion
The specialised language of rock and indie music is diverse and varied: it must be so since it covers all areas from the playing of instruments and singing styles to musical genres, from recording and production to the sale of records, from critics to consumers. Each field has different considerations and jargon words are used with a different spin in each case.
Indie jargon saves its users time by abbreviating complicated concepts into small phrases or single words; it is morale-raising in that it binds together its users and allows them to identify one another, whilst reinforcing their preconceived ideas of minority and vulnerability. It also acts as a 'gatekeeper,' keeping out non-initiates by ensuring that they cannot converse on an equal level. The difficulty of penetrating the language acts as a sort of trial for people wanting to enter the indie community: if they can learn to use it properly it demonstrates their commitment to common goals.
However, the above is true to some extent of all jargon, the different functions varying in priority according to the jargon-users' circumstances. The most notable feature of indie jargon is its informality, as opposed to the high-register of most jargon words in other fields of speciality. Often items of indie jargon are slang words that have acquired additional meanings, or technical words that have been reduced in formality by colloquial morphological changes. The relatively high proportion of swear words and words of taboo origin also ensures that indie jargon retains an informal, slang-like status.
The rapidly changing nature of slang words and informal speech means that the definitions I have given for jargon words in the year 2000 will shortly be out of date, but this is the sacrifice that must be made for jargon and slang to retain credibility amongst their users. It is this speed of change which facilitates indie jargon's inventiveness with language and its playful word formation. Although this study is therefore necessarily synchronic, it nonetheless provides an interesting example of how 'technical' jargon and 'informal' slang can mix together without tension.
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