Sunday 22 August 2010

Undergrounds

Stephen Graham has just written an interesting article for The Journal of Music, "Where is the Underground?". It's an insightful socio-musicological look at the nature of the "the underground" as a culture in itself, irrespective of its specific musical content. He says;
The underground is essentially a practice, a cultural philosophy of music that exists outside of the mainstream. This philosophy, rather than being extinguished, has actually been invigorated through new innovations in social media, digital technology and audio culture.
As I was reading, a couple of things occured to me as extending a tangent from Stephen's line of thinking: this is not necessarily just the musical underground, I'm thinking in terms of the "underground" as a resistance to the mainstream, be that music, software, or inner-city bee-keeping.

The internet means you can now "find" the underground and observe it, but taking part is still the true ritual of entry. That is to say, it's easier than ever for anyone to be cognisant of the underground, to explore it, even to talk about it with a level of understanding, but only the experience of "doing" marks you as a member.

The underground has always valorised action. "Practice" is in some ways the political article of the underground, antithetically positioned against the passive consumption of the mainstream: an earlier manifestation of this is clear in the iconic punk graphic below:


But the internet has upped the ante by removing more and more practical barriers to joining the underground, and the removal of these barriers perhaps reveals even more sharply the tribal leap required. The internet is awash with forums, how-tos, and help-sites that say "here are the tools, now take part", and perhaps there is also a lingering sense of "what's stopping you?" behind this that makes this is a social change rather than just a passing fancy. Because with most things in the underground, commitment is the essence, commitment to an individualism that's not mediated by "stuff". It's true that the underground has its own styles and cliches, and by choosing to take part there is an element of trading one set of passive consumptions for another, but I believe there's a greater continuum of possibilities beyond that, and the more one is part of the "practice", the more they develop their own voice: and in turn the greater amount of contributing voices enriches the whole scene, which eventually spills back into the mainstream.

Action and commitment, the gateway to the tribe, you don't become a member until you commit to action, and to sharing the results.

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