The roots of indie rock began in the 1980s in college towns and in slowly gentrifying neighborhoods like the East Village and Hoboken as wannabe grad students and other slackers preferred the warm sounds of the electric guitar or a metallic, smashing sonic assault on the ear drums that could be produced by a human voice or by a musical instrument. Deliberately cast against the well-coiffed, market-tested look of top-40 bands at the time, most of these artists took to the stage wearing jeans, t-shirts and sneakers. They were lo-fi before lo-fi and grunge before grunge. The music here is quite diverse, from the avant-garde oddities of Half Japanese to the frantic New England pop of The Embarrassment. Yo La Tengo also shows everyone that they are the world's greatest cover band, with their laid-back version of Jackson Browne's "Somebody's Baby." I discovered this CD as a HS senior back in 1988, and I still listen to it quite often. Along with the companion compliation, The Wailing Ultimate, Human Music is a perfect window into the dense world of 1980s indie rock.