A genre in music and other forms of media intended for an elite audience, that is often characterised by it's high levels of originality and experimentation, and does not conform to typical standards, trends, or hypes as set by the popular mainstream media."
- Music that isn't found on the TV or big Radio stations
- Concerts aren't in stadiums or arenas
- Not found in chain record stores, more than likely will be found at Tower Records
- Released on 7" vinyls rather than CD's
- Not featured in magazines such as Kerrang! or Rolling Stone
- Music isn't recorded in a fancy studio
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Underground+Music
Underground music is non commercial / non popular music. For music to be classified as underground it has to not be part of the corporate label music scene.
http://www.newundergroundmusic.com/what-is-underground-music/
This website contains a lot of underground music bands: http://www.undergroundmusic.fm/trending
Basically any song which is not being legally commercialised is considered Underground. This music usually has freedom of creative expression unlike commercial music and relates to sincerity and intimacy. The Underground Music Scene also has an appreciation for artistic individuality as opposed to mainstream trends. Most types of Underground music are completely hidden but recordings or performances are still around for people to get hold of. The majority of Underground Music genres did not leave the non-mainstream scene such as hardcore punk band Discharge. However, some styles became mainstream over time such as the Underground Hip-Hop style of the 1980's. Cultural studies experts believe that there is no longer an 'Underground' because the internet has made what was underground music available for everyone at the click of a button meaning Underground Music is easier to distribute and access.
'... 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.' - Martin Raymond, The Independent.
The term 'Underground Music' has recently been defined by any musicians who avoid mainstream commercial music industries but was formerly applied to various art movements such as the psychedelic music movement of the 1960's. Frank Zappa defines the Underground Music Scene as 'Mainstream comes to you, but you have to go to the underground.'
In the 1960's 'Underground' was associated with the counterculture of the young hippies which dropped out of college whilst in modern Popular Music 'Underground' refers to performers and bands that are signed to small independent record labels. In other music styles 'Underground' is used to state that the music is illegal or controversial, for example the early 1990's death metal bands such as Cannibal Corpse. Black metal is part of Underground Music and are well known for their association with The Occult, murders, church burning and their anti-christian views. Because of it's extreme nature, extreme metal is considered underground music.
There are 3 common misconceptions about the 'underground' and they are that; it refers only to the rave / electronic scene, that it can be described with the definition of 'anything which is not mainstream. and that the Underground Music Scene is kept a secret. - Shlomo Sher - Philosophy For Artists.
UK Underground
The British Underground Scene developed in the mid 1960's and was linked to the hippie subculture of the USA. The movement generated it's own magazines, bands, newspapers and alternative lifestyle which was associated with cannabis and LSD use. The artists in the underground Movement were influences by 1950's Beatnik Beat generation writers such as William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg. The underground movement was symbolised by the use of drugs and these drugs varied and most names and effects were unknown.
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