Is the dream of the underground dead?

[ultraspatial]

they're inseparable though. to get the other group's attention you'd have to get out there yourself to get noticed, or they're already involved with running the listening club or have some ties to it. being interested in selling, they'll want to promote the listening club as well to get more attention, hype etc.

[nowaysj]

Yeah. I'm speaking of how these things were done, and are still done I guess.

But again, I'm just going to mention, because I think it is missed, that I'm not that interested in getting out and getting noticed, at this point. Let's say I did put on a listening club where a handful of producers could get together and play their recent work, maybe play some tracks that they are listening to, to a handful of people, a couple of alcoholics and a bartender, if something did come of that, like some kind of distinct sound emerged, then I think playing in clubs and entering into the broader musical dialog is worthwhile. But I'm not there. It seems like a lot of you feel like you are sitting on the next big thing, and just need a place where you can express that. If so, let's here it. Let's hear the innovation.

But I'm not there with my own work, and I don't really know anybody local that is pushing a unique sound. I live in a f'ing cultural backwater, known as a top 40 town. Some bands have come out of here, I guess, Stones Throw essentially started here, but that was a while ago, but like for electronic music now, or clubs, it is top 40. SF and LA draw all the ambitious and talented. Which leaves a hole here. I'd just like to fill it, and try and make some type of innovation, without having to please two hundred people a night, or 50 for that matter.

[ultraspatial]

It seems like a lot of you feel like you are sitting on the next big thing, and just need a place where you can express that. If so, let's here it. Let's hear the innovation.

lol don't think anyone here ever said that bro

all i was saying is that "the underground" is just another market

[nousd]

Inside Llewelyn Davis
depicts the essence of the underground pretty well:

intense commitment to a vision
popular rejection of the new expression/interpretation
resilience in the face of dismissal/criticism
willingness to sacrifice materially/personally/psychologically

[DiegoSapiens]

it´s a shame that i wasn´t feelin the music of davis, the film was so on point though

[MXI]

<SURVEY COMPLETED>
I'm currently writing my dissertation on underground and authentic dubstep, to find out peoples perceptions on when it started to enter popular music or the 'mainstream'.
If anyone could fill out my questionnaire it would be much appreciated!!
All information is strictly confidential and will not be used for anything apart from this survey.

If your interested in the results I can post them back up here when the survey is finished.

Cheers!

http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/1558101/A ... nd-dubstep

[AxeD]

I'm currently writing my dissertation on underground and authentic dubstep, to find out peoples perceptions on when it started to enter popular music or the 'mainstream'.
If anyone could fill out my questionnaire it would be much appreciated!!
All information is strictly confidential and will not be used for anything apart from this survey.

If your interested in the results I can post them back up here when the survey is finished.

Cheers!

http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/1558101/A ... nd-dubstep

Done.

[Molzie]

Done.

[thekuku]

intense commitment to a vision
popular rejection of the new expression/interpretation
resilience in the face of dismissal/criticism
willingness to sacrifice materially/personally/psychologically

It's all here http://www.residentadvisor.net/feature.aspx?2021
These guys are awesome

[hubb]

What were the circumstances?

It was probably an uncle handing down some gear compared with a trip to Natives instruments webpage.

[lovelydivot]

but just as the term implies buried and undisinterable,

WHAT!!!! My mind is blowing the fuck out!!

The concept UNDERGROUND comes from classic title
"The Time Machine" by HG Wells....


THE FUCK - AM I JUST MAKING EVERYTHING UP???


My concept of this entire world is just being fully buried by all you people.

You fucking - cream cheese aliens - with your peacocks
and your all day, all the time picnics....

sheep

electric sheep

<iframe src="/forum/video.php?url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVCMLWtVN5E" frameborder="0" style="overflow:hidden; height:auto; max-width:540px"></iframe>

[lovelydivot]

I'm just pretending to be mad...

You guys are flipping my concepts though -
I don't even know....


was I here - was that real
- does it matter

<iframe src="/forum/video.php?url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=217JOBWTolg" frameborder="0" style="overflow:hidden; height:auto; max-width:540px"></iframe>

[rickyarbino]

are most youngsters happy with the £20 + bf pre-packaged 'rave' experience?

Yes, because most of them don't know any better. The PrePackRave (henceforth known as PPR) is accessible, has music by artists they've heard of thanks to daytime radio exposure, and is well marketed via social media sites.

The PPR falls into the same bracket as Beats By Dre headphones and KRK Rokit monitors - if they are your first foray into the given field, they are marketed well, have visible branding, and catering for the common denominator...but if you start to take a more specialised interest in headphones/monitors/raving, you'll soon realise there are better alternatives on the market.

Tbf, I've only been to one rave, but everyone I came across agreed that queuing was bullshit, security was bullshit, 10 pound entry was bullshit, and police walking in at 9:30am when ambulances had been karting off dickheads who couldn't handle their drugs (before they'd even entered the rave) since 12am.

People there were pretty underground, I actually knew two DJs 'personally'. Can't fault you on the social media part, but technically it did reach me via word of mouth

[nousd]

I'm currently writing my dissertation on underground and authentic dubstep, to find out peoples perceptions on when it started to enter popular music or the 'mainstream'.
If anyone could fill out my questionnaire it would be much appreciated!!
All information is strictly confidential and will not be used for anything apart from this survey.

If your interested in the results I can post them back up here when the survey is finished.

Cheers!

http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/1558101/A ... nd-dubstep

Done.

"this survey isn't accepting further input from shithead like you" apparently

[ezza]

I'm currently writing my dissertation on underground and authentic dubstep, to find out peoples perceptions on when it started to enter popular music or the 'mainstream'.
If anyone could fill out my questionnaire it would be much appreciated!!
All information is strictly confidential and will not be used for anything apart from this survey.

If your interested in the results I can post them back up here when the survey is finished.

Cheers!

http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/1558101/A ... nd-dubstep

what course are you doing?

im doing audio technology and i have no idea what to do my dissertation on lol

doing it on underground music sounds like a bit of a cop out though if im totally honest

[lovelydivot]

I think I am having nostalgia about that nightflower sd5...
It bloomed right under my apartment once...

I lived diagonally across the street from the most popular...
and only - late night cafe called "The Paper Moon"

My apartment had a large front balcony with 3 sets of french doors
that openned the entire front of the place to the street...
So my friends and I would be caining records...
and people coming and going to the cafe...
would climb up the balcony and stay...

You could stay there all night - on the sidewalk
or on the balcony and see...
every person in town who was alive.

Then kids in my place started to do their own parties...
Then a guy named Ivan - who just bought an empty tire warehouse
- was going to turn it into artist studios -
asked if we wanted to do parties there sometimes...
and so we all put our equipment in - and rented speakers...
and that was it.

One kid was a video artist - he threw up the wall...
It was 2 stories of dirty dirty sickness.

That was the mandragora....

Eventually I had to leave it - It was going to kill me.

I heard it went on for awhile in different forms.
It was a beautiful time......underground



...it wasn't just me

My neighbor - the guy on the other side of that wall....

...was Dj Jon Norplant from Chicago
...who went on to work with Atomic Babies...

He was studying Graphic Design...


He didn't like me - but I went to all his parties.



I suppose he allowed all the ruckus...
He would buy us records off the Edie and Watts list...

sounded like...

<iframe src="/forum/video.php?url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znLEgiFBkQ0" frameborder="0" style="overflow:hidden; height:auto; max-width:540px"></iframe>

...there was beef and scandal - I'm trying not to talk about that.


trying to go forward - gleaning off the past

...better to have loved...

yadda

cha-cha

you wanna see it - here's the actual apt...

I had the one on the left with the grill....



...we would be out there at like - 5 in the morning
picking bottles off the lawn - in full blown K-holes...

and I'd ask my boyfriend...Did he think the cops would be suspicious?
and he said - but we are cleaning up litter...

and I was like yeah - but this outfit...



joking - I wore adidas and overalls...
Big Ben overalls...we didn't have cellphones back then...



banjos - we had banjos....

<iframe src="/forum/video.php?url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oc-P8oDuS0Q" frameborder="0" style="overflow:hidden; height:auto; max-width:540px"></iframe>

[Phigure]

bit from a new aphex interview that kind of mirrors how ive felt about this topic, first two paragraphs in particular:

Pitchfork: In the '90s, your music existed in a kind of dialectical relationship with rave culture. Do you miss that?

RDJ: Yeah, I do, actually. For years, I could listen to jungle and nick things from them, but they didn't know I existed. It was a separate world. But that world doesn't exist any more. It's all merged into this global Internet world. It's a real shame. I really don't like that. But that's just globalization. It's got good sides as well. But scenes aren't allowed to develop on their own any more. Everyone knows about everything.

The holy grail for a music fan, I think, is to hear music from another planet, which has not been influenced by us whatsoever. Or, even better, from lots of different planets. And the closest we got to that was before the Internet, when people didn't know of each other's existence. Now, that doesn't really happen.

I used to love jungle. I still think it's the ultimate genre, because the people making it weren't musicians. The best artists are people who don't consider themselves artists, and the people who do are usually the most pretentious and annoying. [laughs] They've got their priorities wrong. They're just doing it to be artists rather than because they want to do it. And a lot of jungle people were actually car mechanics and painter-and-decorator types, like, pretty hardcore blokes. I wouldn't want to get into a fight with them. I know a few people who were like that, and I don't think that really exists any more. Maybe those sort of non-musician types do some dubstep stuff, or grime. But it didn't exist in jungle for long. There was only a couple of years where people didn't know what they were doing, and you got all these samples that are just totally not related in pitch. I really hunt down those records. They've got this ridiculous mishmash of things that totally don't go with each other at all. Obviously, after they've done it for a couple of years they learn how to make chords and stuff, and it's not so interesting now.

[nowaysj]

[Dystinkt]

bit from a new aphex interview that kind of mirrors how ive felt about this topic, first two paragraphs in particular:

Pitchfork: In the '90s, your music existed in a kind of dialectical relationship with rave culture. Do you miss that?

RDJ: Yeah, I do, actually. For years, I could listen to jungle and nick things from them, but they didn't know I existed. It was a separate world. But that world doesn't exist any more. It's all merged into this global Internet world. It's a real shame. I really don't like that. But that's just globalization. It's got good sides as well. But scenes aren't allowed to develop on their own any more. Everyone knows about everything.

The holy grail for a music fan, I think, is to hear music from another planet, which has not been influenced by us whatsoever. Or, even better, from lots of different planets. And the closest we got to that was before the Internet, when people didn't know of each other's existence. Now, that doesn't really happen.

I used to love jungle. I still think it's the ultimate genre, because the people making it weren't musicians. The best artists are people who don't consider themselves artists, and the people who do are usually the most pretentious and annoying. [laughs] They've got their priorities wrong. They're just doing it to be artists rather than because they want to do it. And a lot of jungle people were actually car mechanics and painter-and-decorator types, like, pretty hardcore blokes. I wouldn't want to get into a fight with them. I know a few people who were like that, and I don't think that really exists any more. Maybe those sort of non-musician types do some dubstep stuff, or grime. But it didn't exist in jungle for long. There was only a couple of years where people didn't know what they were doing, and you got all these samples that are just totally not related in pitch. I really hunt down those records. They've got this ridiculous mishmash of things that totally don't go with each other at all. Obviously, after they've done it for a couple of years they learn how to make chords and stuff, and it's not so interesting now.

this resonates with me a lot also. I've been going to a lot of smaller nights and teaparties etc recently and I've found that even these kind of supposedly super underground niche parties use social media and the internet (although the party line is still going pretty strong!), and there's little in the sense of true musical innovation anymore, they're just really good nights. I think also that venue owners are much less patient with promoters these days, from my own experience and of others that i know who put nights on. Venue owners almost seem to expect promoters to fill the club on the first ever night, which dont get me wrong is possible but it usually takes a good night a bit of time to get going and build a following.