A form of music that is less dependent on "media-blitz" and more dependent on whether the music and lyrics have soul.. a sort of personal reflection for the sake of personal reflection rather than the cash-cow that our media has turned songwriting into.

Indie may or may not have a particular sound to it, and the phrase "indie rock" spans across so many genres. It's not really just about rock anymore, although I suppose you could talk about indie pop, indie rap, emo, fuzz pop, noise rock, twee, math rock, prog rock, pomo, and whatever other subgenres come to mind. Basically it's a trend to make music as an art form, and not so much as a money making venture. The mere idea of trying to classify a definitive list of indie bands is absurd considering that there will always be some indie fan out there who will denounce whatever it is you're listening to as being lame.