C86 is a
cassette compilation released by the British music magazine
NME in 1986, featuring new bands licensed from British
independent record labels of the time. As a term, C86 quickly evolved into shorthand for a guitar-based musical genre characterized by
jangling guitars and melodic
power pop song structures, although other musical styles were represented on the tape. In its time, it became a
pejorative term for its associations with so-called "shambling" (a
John Peel-coined description celebrating the self-conscious primitive approach of some of the music) and
underachievement. The
C86 scene is now recognized as a pivotal moment for
independent music in the UK, as was recognized in the subtitle of the compilation's 2006 CD issue:
CD86: 48 Tracks from the Birth of Indie Pop. 2014 saw the original compilation reissued in a 3CD expanded edition from
Cherry Red Records; the 2014 box-set came with an 11,500-word book of sleevenotes by one of the tape's original curators, former
NME journalist
Neil Taylor.