Underground music

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The Velvet Underground was an influential underground music act in the late 1960s. Velvet Underground & Nico publicity photo (retouched).jpg
The Velvet Underground was an influential underground music act in the late 1960s.

Underground music is music with practices perceived as outside, or somehow opposed to, mainstream popular music culture. Underground styles lack the commercial success of popular music movements, and may involve the use of avant-garde or abrasive approaches. Underground music may be perceived as expressing sincerity and creative freedom in opposition to those practices deemed formulaic or market-driven. Notions of individuality and non-conformity are also commonly deployed. The term has been applied to artists in styles such as psychedelia, punk, alternative rock, electronica, industrial music, and wider strains of experimental music.

Contents

Overview

The term "underground music" has been applied to various artistic movements, for instance the psychedelic music movement of the mid-1960s, but the term has in more recent decades come to be defined by any musicians who tend to avoid the trappings of the mainstream commercial music industry. Frank Zappa attempted to define "underground" by noting that the "mainstream comes to you, but you have to go to the underground." [1] In the 1960s, the term "underground" was associated with hippie counterculture and psychedelic drugs, and applied to journalism and film as well as music, as they sought to communicate psychedelic experiences and free love ideals. The Fugs have been described as "arguably the first underground rock group of all time". [2] The Velvet Underground and Mothers of Invention later followed suit and are also regarded as the earliest underground rock groups. [3] [4]

In modern popular music, the term "underground" refers to performers or bands ranging from artists that do DIY guerrilla concerts and self-recorded shows to those that are signed to small independent labels. In some musical styles, the term "underground" is used to assert that the content of the music is illegal or controversial, as in the case of early 1990s death metal bands in the US such as Cannibal Corpse for their gory cover art and lyrical themes. Black metal is also an underground form of music and its Norwegian scene is notorious for its association with church burnings, the occult, murders and Anti-Christian views. All of the extreme metal is considered underground music for its extreme nature.

Gothic and industrial music are two other types of underground music originating in the late 1970s and mid-1990s with gothic rock centering around vampires, black magic and the occult and industrial music using primarily computer generated sounds and hard driving beats.

In a CounterPunch article, Twiin argues that "Underground music is free media", because by working "independently, you can say anything in your music" and be free of corporate censorship. [5] The genre of post-punk is often considered a "catchall category for underground, indie, or lo-fi guitar rock" bands which "initially avoided major record labels in the pursuit of artistic freedom, and out of an 'us against them' stance towards the corporate rock world", spreading "west over college station airwaves, small clubs, fanzines, and independent record stores." [6] Underground music of this type is often promoted through word-of-mouth or by community radio DJs. In the early underground scenes, such as the Grateful Dead jam band fan scenes or the 1970s punk scenes, crude home-made tapes were traded (in the case of Deadheads) or sold from the stage or from the trunk of a car (in the punk scene). In the 2000s, underground music became easier to distribute, using streaming audio and podcasts. [7]

The NWOBHM movement emerged which created a multitude of bands that kept heavy metal music alive and where it spread in the underground scene during the period of the mid 70's to the early 80's. [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] Some underground styles eventually became mainstream, commercialized pop styles, such as the underground hip hop style of the early 1980s.[ citation needed ] In the 2000s, the increasing availability of the Internet and digital music technologies has made underground music easier to distribute using streaming audio and podcasts. Some experts in cultural studies now argue that "there is no underground" because the Internet has made what was underground music accessible to everyone at the click of a mouse. A current example of an underground internet music genre is Vaporwave. One expert, Martin Raymond, of London-based company The Future Laboratory, commented in an article in The Independent , saying trends in music, art, and politics are:

... now transmitted laterally and collaboratively via the internet. You once had a series of gatekeepers in the adoption of a trend: the innovator, the early adopter, the late adopter, the early mainstream, the late mainstream, and finally the conservative. But now it goes straight from the innovator to the mainstream. [13]

A music underground can also refer to the culture of underground music in a city and its accompanying performance venues. The Kitchen is an example of what was an important New York City underground music venue in the 1960s and 1970s. CBGB [14] was another famous New York City underground music venue claiming to be "Home of Underground Rock since 1973". [15]

There are examples of underground music that are particularly difficult to encounter, such as the underground rock scenes in the pre-Mikhail Gorbachev Soviet Union, which have amassed a devoted following over the years (most notably for bands such as Kino). However, most underground music is readily accessible, despite most performances being located in unmarked, industrial venues. [16]

See also

Related Research Articles

Punk rock is a music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced short, fast-paced songs with hard-edged melodies and singing styles with stripped-down instrumentation. Lyricism in punk typically revolves around anti-establishment and anti-authoritarian themes. Punk embraces a DIY ethic; many bands self-produce recordings and distribute them through independent labels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Punk subculture</span> Anti-establishment subculture

The punk subculture includes a diverse and widely known array of music, ideologies, fashion, and other forms of expression, visual art, dance, literature, and film. Largely characterised by anti-establishment views, the promotion of individual freedom, and the DIY ethics, the culture originated from punk rock.

Rock is a broad genre of popular music that originated as "rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles from the mid-1960s, particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom. It has its roots in rock and roll, a style that drew directly from the genres of blues, rhythm and blues, and country music. Rock also drew strongly from genres such as electric blues and folk, and incorporated influences from jazz and other musical styles. For instrumentation, rock is typically centered on the electric guitar, usually as part of a rock group with electric bass guitar, drums, and one or more singers. Usually, rock is song-based music with a 4
4 time signature and utilizing a verse–chorus form, but the genre has become extremely diverse. Like pop music, lyrics often stress romantic love but also address a wide variety of other themes that are frequently social or political. Rock was the most popular genre of music in the U.S. and much of the Western world from the 1950s to the 2010s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hardcore punk</span> Aggressive and fast subgenre of punk rock

Hardcore punk is a punk rock subgenre and subculture that originated in the late 1970s. It is generally faster, harder, and more aggressive than other forms of punk rock. Its roots can be traced to earlier punk scenes in San Francisco and Southern California which arose as a reaction against the still predominant hippie cultural climate of the time. It was also inspired by Washington, D.C., and New York punk rock and early proto-punk. Hardcore punk generally disavows commercialism, the established music industry and "anything similar to the characteristics of mainstream rock" and often addresses social and political topics with "confrontational, politically charged lyrics".

Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent record labels, by the 1990s it became more widely associated with the music such bands produced.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moshing</span> Style of dance

Moshing is an extreme style of dancing in which participants push or slam into each other. Taking place in an area called the mosh pit, it is typically performed to aggressive styles of live music such as punk rock and heavy metal.

Alternative rock is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s with the likes of the grunge subgenre in the United States, and the Britpop and shoegaze subgenres in the United Kingdom and Ireland. During this period, many record labels were looking for "alternatives", as many corporate rock, hard rock, and glam metal acts from the 1980s were beginning to grow stale throughout the music industry. The emergence of Generation X as a cultural force in the 1990s also contributed greatly to the rise of alternative rock.

Popular music of the United Kingdom in the 1970s built upon the new forms of music developed from blues rock towards the end of the 1960s, including folk rock and psychedelic rock movements. Several important and influential subgenres were created in Britain in this period, by pursuing the limitations of rock music, including British folk rock and glam rock, a process that reached its apogee in the development of progressive rock and one of the most enduring subgenres in heavy metal music. Britain also began to be increasingly influenced by third world music, including Jamaican and Indian music, resulting in new music scenes and subgenres. In the middle years of the decade the influence of the pub rock and American punk rock movements led to the British intensification of punk, which swept away much of the existing landscape of popular music, replacing it with much more diverse new wave and post punk bands who mixed different forms of music and influences to dominate rock and pop music into the 1980s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Noise rock</span> Experimental rock music mixed with noise

Noise rock is a noise-oriented style of experimental rock that spun off from punk rock in the 1980s. Drawing on movements such as minimalism, industrial music, and New York hardcore, artists indulge in extreme levels of distortion through the use of electric guitars and, less frequently, electronic instrumentation, either to provide percussive sounds or to contribute to the overall arrangement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American rock</span> Overview of rock music in the United States

American rock has its roots from 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and country music, and also draws from folk music, jazz, blues, and classical music. American rock music was further influenced by the British Invasion of the American pop charts from 1964 and resulted in the development of psychedelic rock.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British rock music</span> Rock music from the United Kingdom

British rock describes a wide variety of forms of music made in the United Kingdom. Since around 1964, with the "British Invasion" of the United States spearheaded by the Beatles, British rock music has had a considerable impact on the development of American music and rock music across the world.

German rock music (Deutschrock) came into its own only by the late 1960s, but spawned many bands spanning genres such as krautrock, Neue Deutsche Welle, heavy metal, punk, and industrial.

Rock music and its subgenres are very popular in Portugal. The history of the Portuguese rock music scene spans several decades.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Music of Denver</span> Overview of music traditions in Denver, Colorado, United States

While Denver may not be as recognized for historical musical prominence like such cities as Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago or New York City, it still manages to have a very active popular, jazz, and classical music scene, which has nurtured many artists and genres to regional, national, and even international attention. Though nearby Boulder, Colorado has its own very distinct music scene, they are intertwined and often artists based there also play in Denver.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neo-psychedelia</span> Music genre

Neo-psychedelia is a genre of psychedelic music that draws inspiration from the sounds of 1960s psychedelia, either emulating the sounds of that era or applying its spirit to new styles. It has occasionally seen mainstream pop success but is typically explored within alternative music and underground scenes.

Psychedelic music is a wide range of popular music styles and genres influenced by 1960s psychedelia, a subculture of people who used psychedelic drugs such as DMT, LSD, mescaline, and psilocybin mushrooms, to experience synesthesia and altered states of consciousness. Psychedelic music may also aim to enhance the experience of using these drugs and has been found to have a significant influence on psychedelic therapy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the punk subculture</span>

The history of the punk subculture involves the history of punk rock, the history of various punk ideologies, punk fashion, punk visual art, punk literature, dance, and punk film. Since emerging in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia in the mid-1970s, the punk subculture has spread around the globe and evolved into a number of different forms. The history of punk plays an important part in the history of subcultures in the 20th century.

A number of overlapping punk rock subgenres have developed since the emergence of punk rock in the mid-1970s. Even though punk genres at times are difficult to segregate, they usually show differing characteristics in overall structures, instrumental and vocal styles, and tempo. However, sometimes a particular trait is common in several genres, and thus punk genres are normally grouped by a combination of traits.

References

  1. ↑ Chokshi, Niraj (2010-08-17). "What the Web Means for Underground Music". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2021-04-13.
  2. ↑ The Fugs at AllMusic
  3. ↑ "The Velvet Underground: The band that made an art of being obscure". BBC News. 2021-10-13. Retrieved 2024-01-11.
  4. ↑ "1970-04 What Ever Happened To The Mothers Of Invention?". www.afka.net. Retrieved 2024-01-11.
  5. ↑ "April 2004 Underground Music is Free Media By MICKEY Z." Archived from the original on 2008-06-19.
  6. ↑ "Essortment - Free Online Articles on Health, Science, Education & More". Archived from the original on 2008-06-24.
  7. ↑ "Underground Music Podcast". mirPod. Archived from the original on 2017-11-07. Retrieved 2008-06-19.
  8. ↑ "The Official Black Sabbath Website :: The History of Black Sabbath". www.blacksabbath.com. Retrieved 2023-07-06.
  9. ↑ "hmsoundhouse.com - The Heavy Metal Soundhouse and Bandwagon". 2015-11-17. Archived from the original on 2015-11-17. Retrieved 2023-06-27.
  10. ↑ "The Living Archive of Underground Music: Sean T. Wright". The Living Archive of Underground Music. Retrieved 2023-06-27.
  11. ↑ Tucker, John (2006). Suzie smiled...The new wave of British heavy metal. Church Stretton: Independent Music. ISBN   978-0-9549704-7-5.
  12. ↑ Weinstein, Deena (2009-08-05). Heavy Metal: The Music And Its Culture. Hachette Books. ISBN   978-0-7867-5103-7.
  13. ↑ "Meet the global scenester: He's hip. He's cool. He's everywhere". The Independent. 13 August 2008. Archived from the original on 24 September 2017.
  14. ↑ BubbleUp, LTD. "CBGB - Birthplace of NYC's Rock, Folk & Punk Music". CBGB & OMFUG. Archived from the original on 2003-11-19.
  15. ↑ "Security Check Required". Facebook . Archived from the original on 2018-05-11.
  16. ↑ Malnig, Julie; R. Sommer, Sally (2009). Ballroom, Boogie, Shimmy Sham, Shake: A Social and Popular Dance Reader. University of Illinois Press. p. 294. ISBN   978-0-252-03363-6. JSTOR   10.5406/j.ctv35r3tpj.20 . Retrieved 5 October 2024.
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