What are the different genres of indie guitarists ?

It may sound contradictory to assign genres to indie guitarist as, by definition, indie artists rather explore and stay away from mainstream. However some of them managed to create something new that became a genre and that attracted other artists and bands.

Some indie guitarists contributed to create subgenres of indie rock

I was collecting some information and building up a view of indie genres when I found out on reddit that someone already did it rather successfully. I agree with most of that overwiew, so I took it over and I added what I think was missing. As a result, here is a list and a description of the main indie rock subgenres with the names of the guitarists who contributed the most. Maybe it will also be a chance for you, like it was for me, to get to know new subgenres and to learn linking artists to genres.

List of the indie subgenres including the main bands and their guitarists (in parentheses) :

• Anti folk includes bands like The Moldy Peaches (Kimya Dawson & Adam Green) and early Beck (Beck Hansen). It aims to poke fun at the serious attitude of conventional Folk and typically features tongue in cheek, humorous lyrics and Lo-Fi production.
• Art pop includes bands like St. Vincent (Annie Clark) and Talking Heads (David Byrne). It is pop that takes influence from classical music or pop art and it takes pop music in a more artistic direction.
• Dream pop includes bands like Cocteau Twins (Robin Guthrie) and Beach House (Alex Scally) and is incredibly dreamy but clean sounding pop music that is heavily reverberated and it uses typical pop structures.
• Emo includes bands like American Football (Mike Kinsella & Steve Holmes), Cap’n Jazz (Mike Kinsella), Sunny Day Real Estate (Dan Hoerner) and Emo Revival bands like The world is a beautiful place and I am no longer afraid to die (Tyler Bussey), and A Great Big Pile of Leaves (Pete Weiland). It evolved from Hardcore and Post Hardcore and features confessional emotional lyrical themes, yearning vocal styles, sad atmospheres and Punk Rock style instrumentation.
• Folk includes bands like Fleet Foxes (Robin Pecknold & Skyler Skjelset), Bon Iver (Justin Vernon) and Nick Drake. It features mainly Acoustic Instrumentation and is usually based around acoustic guitar with introspective lyrics.
• Freak folk includes bands like Joanna Newsom and Neutral Milk Hotel (Jeff Mangum). It takes folk music and adds in weird sounding elements like unconventional vocal stylings, instrumentation and strange lyrical themes.
• Garage rock originally existed as a term to describe 1960s bands that played rock music usually in a garage such as The Kingsmen (Jack Ely) and The Sonics (Larry Parypa). It experienced a Revival in the 2000s with bands such as The White Stripes (Jack White), The Strokes (Nick Valensi & Albert Hammond, Jr.), The Hives (Niklas Almqvist & Mikael Karlsson) and The Vines (Craig Nicholls). It features Lo-Fi production, fuzzy guitars, short fast paced often aggressive sounding songs with simple song structures and an amateurish aesthetic.
• Grunge includes bands like Nirvana (Kurt Cobain), Pearl Jam (Mike McCready & Stone Gossard), Alice in Chains (Jerry Cantrell) and Smashing Pumpkins (Billy Corgan & James Iha). It features heavily distorted guitars, angsty lyrical themes and mood, heavy riffs, sloppy instrument playing, mixing elements of Punk rock with Metal and Classic rock.
• Hardcore includes bands like Black Flag (Greg Ginn), Dead Kennedys (East Bay Ray), Minor Threat (Lyle Preslar) also initiator of the straight edge movement, Fucked up (Mike Haliechuk & Josh Zucker) and The Minutemen (D. Boon). It came about shortly after the rise of Punk rock and experimented more with the genre. It has an incredibly anti-commercial stance and it is typically more aggressive, abrasive and experimental than Punk rock but it retains the standard elements of Punk.
• Jangle pop includes bands like The Smiths (Johnny Marr) and Aztec Camera (Roddy Frame). It features ringing, jangly, clean sounding guitars with traditional song structures and usually makes use of 12 string guitars and the chorus effect.
• Lo-Fi isn’t necessarily a genre but it is often used as a tag for bands and it can be seen as a somewhat overarching genre as it was a reaction against the ultra processed and slick production of pop music. Bands like Pavement (Stephen Malkmus & Scott Kannberg), Beck (Beck Hansen), Neutral Milk Hotel (Jeff Mangum), Neon Indian also initiator of Chillwave genre, and Times New Viking (Jared Phillips) all fall under Lo-Fi.
• Math rock includes bands like Battles (Ian Williams & Dave Konopka), Don Caballero (Mike Banfield & Ian Williams), Hella (Spencer Seim) and Foals (Yannis Philippakis & Jimmy Smith). It is a more calculated style of music and is often based on timed formulas and unusual rhythmic structures. At first, it gives the listener a feeling of mess compared to the usual fixed rhythmic structure of rock.
• Noise pop includes bands like The Velvet Underground (Lou Reed), Yo La Tengo (Ira Kaplan), Dinosaur Jr. (J. Mascis) and The Jesus and Mary Chain (Jim & William Reid). It is a mix of pop structures and experimental sounds like distorded guitars and different types of noise. So it’s as catchy as pop music but features indie rock sounds.
• Noise rock includes bands like Sonic Youth (Thurston Moore & Lee Ranaldo) and Big Black (Steve Albini). It features abrasive atonal noise and feedback and typically non musical noise as musical elements.
• No wave includes bands like Swans (Michael Gira) and early Sonic Youth (Thurston Moore & Lee Ranaldo). It is named after it being in part a reaction against the popular New Wave genre which was seen as too commercialised and it typically features abrasive sounds, repetition, and an emphasise on texture over melody.
• Post hardcore includes bands like Fugazi (Ian MacKaye & Guy Picciotto), At the Drive-In (Omar Rodríguez & Keeley Davis) and La Dispute (Chad Morgan-Sterenberg). It came about after Hardcore and aimed to progress and experiment more with the genre. It typically features emotional lyrics, breakdowns, more unconventional song structures and it often features screamed or yelled vocals while retaining the standard elements of Hardcore.
• Post punk can be split up into late 70s – 80s post punk like Joy Division (Bernard Sumner), Gang of Four (Andy Gill), The Cure (Robert Smith), Wire (Bruce Gilbert), and 2000s post punk revival like The Strokes (Nick Valensi & Albert Hammond, Jr.), Interpol (Paul Banks & Daniel Kessler) and The Arctic Monkeys (Alex Turner & Jamie Cook). It’s basically punk rock but evolved further with more experimentation, it typically has a very angular sound with short simple song structures and alternative vocal stylings.
• Post rock includes bands like Sigur Ros (Jónsi Birgisson), Godspeed you black emperor (Efrim Menuck, Mike Moya & David Bryant), Explosions in the Sky (Michael James, Munaf Rayani & Mark Smith), Slint (David Pajo) and Mogwai (Stuart Braithwaite & Barry Burns). It is based around atmosphere and texture and is usually instrumental and it is essentially using typical rock instrumentation to create non rock music.
• Proto grunge includes bands like Mudhoney (Mark Arm & Steve Turner) and Dinosaur Jr (J Mascis). It is music that has elements of Grunge music, angsty lyrical themes and mood, heavily distorted guitars, mixing elements of Punk Rock with Metal and Classic Rock, but it existed in the underground before the term Grunge was used.
• Proto punk includes bands like The Stooges (Ron Asheton), MC5 (Wayne Kramer & Fred “Sonic” Smith), The Sonics (Larry Parypa) and The Velvet Underground (Lou Reed & Sterling Morrison). It is music that shares the same elements of Punk rock, short simple song structures, rough production, rebellious, fast paced and guitar based songs but it didn’t really exist as a scene and existed before the term Punk rock was coined.
• Psychedelic includes bands like Animal Collective (Avey Tare, Panda Bear & Deakin), Tame Impala (Kevin Parker) and Of Montreal (Bryan Poole & Andy Gonzalez). It features trippy, strange sounding atmospheres with odd sounding instrumentation and song structures.
• Punk includes bands like The Clash (Joe Strummer & Mick Jones), The Ramones (Johnny Ramone) and Television (Tom Verlaine & Richard Lloyd). It features stripped back instrumentation, short and simple song structures, often anti-authoritarian rebellious lyrical themes, sloppy often distorted guitars performed with aggression and energy. It came about as a reaction against the over produced, over complex and commercial and soulless music of the time.
• Shoegaze includes bands like My Bloody Valentine (Kevin Shields & Bilinda Butcher), Slowdive (Neil Halstead) and modern bands like A sunny day in Glasgow (Ben Daniels) and Young Prisms (Ashley Thomas). It is incredibly dreamy and features heavily reverberated and distorted guitars mixed with whispered vocals.
• Slacker rock includes bands like Pavement (Stephen Malkmus & Scott Kannberg) and Speedy Ortiz (Sadie Dupuis). It features Lo-Fi production, sloppy instrument playing and sloppy singing, it’s presented with an attitude of carelessness.
• Slowcore aka Sadcore includes bands like Codeine (John Engle & Chris Brokaw), Low (Alan Sparhawk) and Sun Kil Moon (Mark Kozelek). It features gloomy melodies, slow tempos, dark lyrics and minimalist arrangements. It sounds like there is a commitment to take the time for a deep introspection aiming at the essence of things.
• Synth pop includes bands like New Order (Bernard Sumner), Chvrches (Iain Cook) and Future Islands (William Cashion). It is based around the use of synthesizers used to create songs with pop structures.

Indie guitarists cannot be all categorized by a genre of indie rock

Obviously a lot of major indie guitarists are not mentioned in this list since they haven’t created a new indie trend or they haven’t followed an existing one even though they have a great contribution to indie rock. But I think it’s worth giving a view of the most famous genres of indie rock and also a perspective on the guitarists that initiated these genres. Giving an overview of indie rock subgenres helps understanding indie guitarists.