Is the dream of the underground dead?

[m8son666]

i dunno i think it still plays a vital role in londons infrastructure

[wubstep]

No.

There are a bunch of tiers in my mind, nothing concrete but that's the easiest way of describing how I see it.

[ezza]

be cool if underground was actually underground

like in the earths crust

or in mines

[leyenda]

D&B the biggest underground genre that never sold out

[Pedro Sánchez]

D&B the biggest underground genre that never sold out

[Nihilism]

It starts with n and ends with sky.

And he's getting love from the StuBru hipsters.

[ultraspatial]

the underground is way too fetishized imo. doubt there are dudes out there saying "nah man fuck that i don't want to be successful" (except maybe crust punk/noise types)

[Laszlo]

Almost all of you are missing the point.

[Shum]

[Shum]

http://www.beatport.com/release/undergr ... on/1024153

Listen to this comp Underground London from last year too, includes dubstep. dub will forever be underground.

[bennyfroobs]

bigup alphacat just read ur post (skipped it first gtime cos it was 2 long lol))


my opinion is underground schmunderground who actually cares. theres always going to be people doin weird, creative and interesting music, and if u care enough about it youll know how and where to find it. real recognise real n all that.

just stay away from obvious PPR shit like warehouse project and you wont have to encounter increasing numbers of poser arsehole students with faces like slapped arses (noticed shocking increase in the commercialness of that place over the past few times ive been. and an increase in poser spengs)

also i dont think distinctiveness and community ethos is getting erased by the internet at all, theres always going to be little comunities doing their own thing, regardless of what sort of commercial jeb is trying to rape their subculture

[Phigure]

i've sort of thought how the idea of "underground" is of course often overhyped and fetishized by many, but i think it's for a good reason. to me at least, the appeal of underground music has a lot to do with the scenes that surround it. it's cool to see how a few like minded people influenced by their surroundings can create their own unique culture with its own aesthetics and vibes. and not just the culture, but the community. a good example is the formative years of dubstep and how the scene clustered around the few record shops that pushed it and nights like FWD.

i actually think the internet is harmful in this respect, since it sort of homogenizes the landscape of underground music. normally these cultural movements are able to develop and mature a bit on their own and become something cool. but with the internet, i don't think that these movements get enough isolation to become something unique before it gets picked up by randoms around the world. that's not to say outsiders can't make good contributions, but i think the negative ones outweigh the positive (for every gantz making fresh dubstep from turkey, there's 5000 american teenagers simultaneously making utter shit)

i dont think you'll see a scene organically sprout up from the streets ever again (ie, techno in detroit, dubstep in ldn, etc), because before it has a chance to become a unique local culture with unique influences, it'll be watered down by everyone else. juke in chicago might be the last urban sound to develop that way. new genres and sounds will just be hashtags on soundcloud...

thats just my cynical 2 cents tho

Which is why you see ridiculous shit these days fasttracked to total cultural ubiquity; they don't even care if the stuff bubbles up organically from the ghettoes and suburbs like it used to - they're quite happy to synthesize a 'perfect' movement to fit their mathematically modeled zeitgeist, and the commercial EDM circuit is a prime example of this.

definitely agree with this as well, and it's another reason people seek out "underground" movements - because they're more free of this sort of commercial influence

[nowaysj]

What about actively disconnecting your community from the internet? Going dark? It is something I'm thinking about. I'm thinking about doing analog only releases, and local live performance/playing, that doesn't make it to the internet. Doesn't exist there. No preview tracks, nothing. Doesn't even exist. Can something like this happen?

[garethom]

IMO, just keep your head down and keep doing what you want, and that's what the underground is about, I reckon. Might be harder to find, but "underground" is still there. If you make the music you want, or play the music you want because you're dissatisfied with the mainstream, then it don't matter if 500 students come to see you play or whatever, you're still keeping it trill.

Find it weird when the internet gets criticised for ruining scenes or whatever, I can get where people are coming from, but let's face it, 99% of us on here wouldn't have had a clue about dubstep were it not for the internet.

The underground is probs still there in full effect, it's just that we accuse most people at most nights of being posers.

[topmo3]

this so much. the industry has known it for years

[cloaked_up]

i just hate dickheads lol
and peopel who jump on things
and talk about without doing
when you get enoiugh of these cunce they make everyone else pissed off cos the tru headz get crowded

[bennyfroobs]

IMO, just keep your head down and keep doing what you want, and that's what the underground is about, I reckon. Might be harder to find, but "underground" is still there. If you make the music you want, or play the music you want because you're dissatisfied with the mainstream, then it don't matter if 500 students come to see you play or whatever, you're still keeping it trill.

Find it weird when the internet gets criticised for ruining scenes or whatever, I can get where people are coming from, but let's face it, 99% of us on here wouldn't have had a clue about dubstep were it not for the internet.

The underground is probs still there in full effect, it's just that we accuse most people at most nights of being posers.

agree with most of this except i foudn out about dubstep when my london mate came over and was like "here listen to this" and i was like shit man sounds like godzirra. im sure most people heard it via their mates and not randomly on the internet

[garethom]

Yeah, you're right, didn't necessarily mean they were introduced via the net, but they've done most of their dubsteppin via the net (forums, online radio, mixes, buying records, etc.)

[Riddles]

Yeah, you're right, didn't necessarily mean they were introduced via the net, but they've done most of their dubsteppin via the net (forums, online radio, mixes, buying records, etc.)

yeah i learned about it from a mate but i don't think i'd have stuck with it half as much without the forum.

[bennyfroobs]

that is entirely true, sadly ):
this is where the negative side of the corporate reaping comes in, where i lvie the closest thing most people (and when i say most people, i mean barely anyone) understand to be real dubstep is mungos hifi. not that theres anything wrong with mungos. and then the rest of the people think of it as brostep.