Arguably the best sub-genre of modern music today, not that that's saying much. Is highly derivative of 80s college rock and 90s alternative rock. The overall sound is often highly pretentious, and it is clear that many indie rock artists consider themselves to be musical geniuses. Never mind the fact that the songs hardly ever deviate from standard song structure and cliche lyrics(albeit in a pretentious fashion, utilizing ridiculous metaphors and overblown instrumentation). Still, a step up from the pop punk and party rap on MTV.