Mainstream artists are using more and more underground art as part of their fashion agenda in recent years. What do you think about that?
I lost interest in mainstream pop culture a LONG time ago. The only way they it can pretend to be cool is, as was said above, to appropriate imagery of the “underground”...which has already moved on by the time the mainstream catches a glimpse. I’m not “underground”, nor am I
I am totally in favor of mainstream artists wearing underground art, specially if it is my own...
I'd like to share my previous comment on my feed, or twitter, but I can't
underground music is unhindered by industry standards. it could possibly be a reflection of the appreciation we have for previous generations. if you look over the passed 30 years, we seem to be progressing faster than ever in history. The ability to pick your sense of style has never been more influenced, in my humble opinion.
What I am talking about was an underground thing because if you weren't part of it, you didn't know it was happening. You didn't know the people and you didn't know the music or artists...Then of course, like most things, some names began to break out, began becoming big label names, and on Music TV shows etc....But even for awhile, most people didn't know. But inevitably, in time as more people broke out, more people became aware of what was going on. By the time (And just before) Lous Walk on The Wild Side..hit the earlier radio wave.....What it was, was well over or dying. And that kind of ruined things...Although some slipped away. I remember one time, I was performing "For What It's Worth" near the UUU for a crowd and about half way through the song, someone started singing with me.....I turned around and looked and it was David Peel!!! lol.....The crowd (Who knew who he was, loved it, and I got a little notoriety from that performance....But, that's all lol).....But, it's a cool memory for me anyway.......And no, he didn't yell out his infamous "Up Against The Wall Blankety blanks") 😉 The straights who were touristing (Is that even a word lol?? Well, it is now!) the Village at the time, had no idea who he was....Didn't get it at all....Villagers did though! I think today, the closet thing we have to that are the true Indies. It was just something different. It's gone now, for many years.....Something new always comes along though.
'Twas ever thus, and ever will be. Mainstream culture (read: big business) has always appropriated elements of fringe culture in order to appeal to that demographic.
An “undercurrent” and “underground” have slightly different definitions, especially considering the parents that once listened to these artists are now having kids that just have a different appreciation. I won’t deny the era-throwback agenda for artists that are being watched, but I wouldn’t assume that they’re posing until we sat in a room and shared memories about songs. The whole thing isn’t much different than, let’s say, a music-business owner who is photographed playing their acoustic or using BC Rich/Ibanez looking guitars for the relatability.
I don't know what to think about it really. What I do know is, that when I meet Kim Kardashian I will ask her what her favourite Metallica Album is.
When I think Underground, I go back to the 50's-60's scene Lower Manhattan East Side, especically The Village scene, although nobody called it "a scene" then....(Not the Gentrified village of today!) Especially the 60's in my case...When if you were an everyday Joe or Jill....You had no idea what was going on.....St. Marks Pl., The guys blowing the whistles to clear out people when too many folks were inside crowding the UUU because they knew the local undergrounders and street hippies from the tourists etc.....Days when you could say Lou Reed and nobody knew who the heck you were talking about. And yet, still some of them somehow made it to mainstream (To some degree)......Lou for one and more notable others! Still some stay under! Crazy, but fun days!
well that's a paradox - if mainstream uses underground, then underground is mainstream - but underground is not mainstream so mainstream can never be underground lol - Mainstream has always taken from the underground, but the underground is an ever changing movement - yet always the same because the nature of underground is to be non-mainstream. In simple terms - anything mainstream gets from the underground is old school, and that's how the balance is kept! 😋