Even though I’m in a strong pop/rap/hip-hop phase right now, if I were picking one for the rest of my life I’d fall back on the tried and true classic rock.
I’m another folk guy. If it features a fiddle, I probably like it.
And it makes no sense to consider “true indie” to be a genre. If a major label discovers a band and signs them, do they suddenly start to suck? What about their earlier work, does it retroactively change? And can’t an indie band play any style of music whatsoever?
ambient, probably, but I mean for that to be inclusive of various subgenres of ambient music.
I chose Other but my genre has a made-up name, “Ecto.” It generally, though not always, means a female vocalist who doesn’t usually fit neatly into other genres. Examples would include Kate Bush, Happy Rhodes, Jane Siberry, much of Tori Amos and especially early Sarah McLachlan, Noe Venable, Sarah Fimm, Ashley Maher, bands such as The Innocence Mission, Bel Canto and hundreds of other artists and bands. Male Ecto would include much of Peter Gabriel’s work and Jeff Buckley. There are crossovers and the lines are often blurred but it usually works for those of us who use it. We know the gist.
Female singer-songwriter with a little ecto-indie-folk mixed in.
Other: “college radio.”
I have to go with classic rock…how is that defined, anyway?
I listened the hell out of “classic rock” in the 70s but I haven’t payed any attention to it (except as random radio/background music) in years. In the last couple of weeks, I’ve been on a Hendrix kick. I had the vinyl back in the day, but I went out and got the first three albums on CD. I haven’t really ***listened ***to them in a long time, and they sound great. I could go on rediscovering my old albums and be quite happy.
Funk
Either indie/college rock or soul, neither of which are listed.
melt bond
Classical. But I’d seriously miss oldies, show tunes and standards.
Music in Spanish. 
It is different as it includes many of the genres you’ve mentioned, plus others not even in that list. But my favorite, in the end, is salsa, with many other styles (all in Spanish) not far behind.
If not Spanish I’d be listening to Brazilian music, which again includes some genres mentioned as well as others.
Alternative rock and/or punk and new wave. I voted other.
Well you missed out jingly jangly indiepop. I listen to far too much post-rock too.
TBH Elfin’s point is a load of arse, unless he wants to include ANYTHING that comes out of an independent label (as many of the indie charts in the nineties used to).
Call it indie and it is a specific style/sound with bog all to do with the label they are signed to. I mean seriously, The Wedding Present released “Bizarro” and “Seamonsters” on RCA and they are two of the indiest albums from probably the indiest band to ever exist.
Other - Alternative rock. Think Weezer, Green Day, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, etc.
Classic rock is a close second.
Thought I’d add this. The list of UK Indie Chart #1 albums for 2010:
Note those indie stalwarts, Dizzee Rascal, Simply Red, Katie Melua and Adele. This is why the concept of “indie music comes out on indie labels” is a load of arse.
Pop, because that’s what most of Ke$ha’s songs are.