The Rice University Neologisms Database

Out of the mainstream; not controlled by those in power in a social context. Indie was first used in the 1920s to describe independent films, a clipping of ‘independent.’ By 1945, record companies had adopted the term; over the next forty years, it shifted to refer to a genre of popular music. After the turn of the century, its meaning again appears to be shifting, now referring to anything not controlled by major corporations or the majority in power—the clipping has thus been generalized. One might hypothesize the clipping itself is a metaphor for the groups’ desire to set itself apart—members of the independent group do not even use the more common parent word ‘independent.’