A few years back- when BBC Radio 3 still has the wisdom to carry the experimental music show Mixing It – (now happily relocated on Resonance FM as WTSIT–where’s the skill in that)– I remember (and fortunately taped) a great interview with cutting edge producer and performer Steve Albini. When asked about the differences between mainstream and underground music, this was his reply:
“There’s always been a mainstream music scene which is a business enterprise….there has always been an underground which is separate from that. The mainstream and the underground have a little bit of cross pollination but more often than not they can be thought of as completely distinct from one another.
The underground is self defining and doesn’t have an external support network and anything which has no burden can move quickly. So there tend to be quick development and little pockets of hard boiled enthusiasm that will survive forever.
There was a period in the 1990s when the mainstream started trying to co-opt certain stylistic elements and certain personalities from the underground – inflating them into mainstream significance. That little experiment having played itself out, the mainstream has retreated from this kind of music.
So the people in the underground scene are cognisant of the fact that it’s not necessarily a way to make a living but , like figure skating or fly fishing, it’s enjoyable for its own sake, whether or not someone pays you to do it”
