Underground Culture

"The mainstream comes to you, but you have to go to the underground." ― Frank Zappa

An illustration representing and satirizing various subcultural movements and music scenes, by Your Scene Sucks.

Underground culture, or simply the underground, broadly refers to movements that exist outside the mainstream of society. These cultures may self-identify as distinct from the mainstream, or be perceived as such by others. The term "underground" carries historical connotations of resistance and secrecy, drawing parallels to movements operating in clandestine ways under oppressive regimes.

This association with secrecy and resistance stems from historical examples like the Underground Railroad, a 19th-century network that helped enslaved African-Americans escape to freedom. The term was later revived in the 1960s to describe networks aiding Vietnam War draft dodgers fleeing to Canada. It was also used in the 1970s in connection with the American Indian Movement's clandestine activities in and out of occupied Native American reservation lands, notably during the Wounded Knee Occupation.

The term "underground" has since broadened to encompass various subcultures. Filmmaker Rosa von Praunheim documented the 1970s New York underground scene surrounding Andy Warhol in films like Underground and Emigrants (1976) and Tally Brown, New York (1979). Since then, the label has been applied to diverse movements such as mod culture, hippie culture, punk culture, rave/techno culture, and underground hip-hop. These examples illustrate the wide range of subcultures that can be considered "underground," united by their position outside the dominant cultural norms.

While "underground" can overlap with "alternative," underground distinguishes itself through an emphasis on secrecy and resistance against mainstream norms, whereas "alternative" more broadly describes non-mainstream cultures without necessarily implying clandestine activity or direct opposition.

History and Usage

The word's first recorded use in this context, signifying activity outside public cultural norms, refers to resistance against repressive regimes. The Underground Railroad, a 19th-century network aiding enslaved African Americans' escape, exemplifies this. The phrase resurfaced in the 1960s concerning anti-Vietnam War groups assisting draft dodgers fleeing to Canada. In the 1970s, it described the American Indian Movement's clandestine movement of people and goods.

Jean-François Bizot, in his book Underground, l’histoire, suggests that figures like Spartacus and Jesus could be considered early examples of "underground" figures. Bizot argues that the term describes individuals or movements that "threatened" to introduce new perspectives to the established world. He posits that underground figures often represent a modernizing element within society, introducing novel ideas, revolutionary art, and distinct interpretations of religious cults. Even today, critics often view the "underground" as a realm born in secrecy under oppressive political regimes, necessitating its distance from mainstream attention.

The evolution of the underground reveals both positive and negative networks, offering insights into historical contexts and the motivations behind their creation. Leaders of underground movements are often seen as resisters against mainstream society and culture. From Spartacus to Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Galileo, Benvenuto Cellini, Giordano Bruno, and, more recently, Baudelaire, Rimbaud, and Monet, their ideas have reshaped aspects of society, giving rise to various subcultures and influencing cultural evolution. These figures, initially considered outcasts of their time, are now recognized as avant-garde personalities.

Frank Zappa famously stated, "The mainstream comes to you, but you have to go to the underground." In 1953, scholars documented the use of "underground" in reference to specific subcultures emerging from World War II resistance movements against Nazi Germany's agressive expansionism. This term remained unmodified and was subsequently applied to political, social, and countercultural movements beginning in the 1960s. Since then, "underground" has been used to describe subcultures like the Beat Generation, mod culture, hippie culture, punk, hacking, grunge, hardcore punk, goth, heavy metal, and hip-hop.

Despite the difficulty of defining "underground," many critics agree with Zappa's sentiment. The underground is often seen as a realm that has not yet reached mainstream recognition but is valued and promoted within smaller, clandestine circles, fostering a loyal, albeit hidden, audience. Underground subcultures can sometimes operate outside the law, necessitating secrecy. This negative connotation of illicit activity resembles current guerrilla movements of the oppressed. World War II provides a significant example, with numerous exclusively underground movements existing throughout Europe.

Historically, the concept of "underground" has also been associated with habits or groups not widely accepted by mainstream society. Examples include homosexuality in the past, heretical groups, and political dissidents. During the dominance of the Catholic Church, the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (List of Prohibited Books) exemplified the concept of controlling information. This list, containing books censored for theological content deemed dangerous to the faith, was kept secret, accessible only to high-ranking church officials. The existence of this list demonstrates the suppression of ideas considered threatening to the Church.

The Last Judgment

Michelangelo's The Last Judgment, a renowned masterpiece, offers an example of the "underground" concept in art. Although not clandestine, Michelangelo's work, with its depiction of nearly all masculine figures and angels as nudes, was considered avant-garde and challenged the mainstream sensibilities of the time, leading to alterations of the original painting. Like Michelangelo, many artists throughout the 19th and 20th centuries challenged tradition, creating a foundation for revolutionary art movements. These artists, initially marginalized, eventually saw their styles integrated into the mainstream.

In the Esquire magazine (1958), Jack Kerouac stated:

"The same thing was almost going on in the postwar France of Sartre and Genet and what's more we knew about it—But as to the actual existence of a Beat Generation, chances are it was really just an idea in our minds—We'd stay up 24 hours drinking cup after cup of black coffee, playing record after record of Wardell Gray, Lester Young, Dexter Gordon, Willie Jackson, Lennie Tristano and all the rest, talking madly about that holy new feeling out there in the streets—We'd write stories about some strange beatific Negro hepcat saint with goatee hitchhiking across Iowa with taped up horn bringing the secret message of blowing to other coasts, other cities, like a veritable Walter the Penniless leading an invisible First Crusade—We had our mystic heroes and wrote, nay sung novels about them, erected long poems celebrating the new 'angels' of the American underground—In actuality there was only a handful of real hip swinging cats and what there was vanished mightily swiftly during the Korean War when (and after) a sinister new kind of efficiency appeared in America, maybe it was the result of the universalization of Television and nothing else (the Polite Total Police Control of Dragnet's 'peace' officers) but the beat characters after 1950 vanished into jails and madhouses, or were shamed into silent conformity, the generation itself was shortlived and small in number."

Beat Generation

The Beat Generation, emerging after World War II, primarily in literature with authors like Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and William Burroughs, was philosophically aligned with existentialism. They influenced later culture in areas like sexual freedom, pop and rock music, pacifism, and Eastern spirituality. The term "beatnik" characterized and parodied the typical figure of this culture, perceived as unconcerned with personal hygiene and attire. The beatnik culture faded in the mid-1960s with the rise of rock music and hippie culture.

The 1960s and 1970s underground cultural movements had some connections to the Beat Generation, which had, in turn, been inspired by the French philosophers, artists, and poets of the existentialist movement, which gathered around Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus in Paris during the years that followed the aftermath of World War II. Sartre and Camus were members of Combat, a French resistance group formed in 1942 by Henri Frenay. Frenay, Sartre, and Camus were all involved in publishing underground newspapers for the resistance. The French underground culture which inspired Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg in North America in the 1940s was steeped in socialist thinking before the Cold War began.

Hippie Subculture

The hippie culture, inheriting from the Beat Generation, began in 1960s America amid racial struggles and the Vietnam War. It was a counter-cultural, pacifist movement embracing freedoms. Unlike the Beat Generation, hippies were generally optimistic, wearing colorful clothes, often with long hair, and enjoying music. Figures like Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, and Jim Morrison were among their references. In art, they connected with psychedelia, related to substances like LSD, hallucinogenic mushrooms, and ayahuasca. Their lifestyle was characterized by free love and a strong connection with nature.

Punk

In the mid-1970s, the punk movement emerged as an underground expression in the British rock scene, soon spreading to other countries. Musically, it was identified with simple melodies, distorted guitars, screams, and un tunefulness. Ideologically, it was characterized by a position close to anarchism, a nihilistic and self-destructive vocation, "no future" (a world without future), and contempt for the established, although it can also be defined as a movement of cultural resistance.

Hip-Hop

Hip-hop originated in the late 1970s within the African-American and Latino communities of the South Bronx in New York City. It emerged as a cultural movement encompassing music (rap, DJing, beatboxing), dance (b-boying/breakdancing, locking, popping), visual art (graffiti), and fashion. Rap music, characterized by rhythmic spoken word poetry over instrumental beats, became a dominant force within hip-hop culture. DJing, the art of manipulating records on turntables, played a key role in the development of rap and other hip-hop musical forms. Graffiti art, often featuring stylized lettering and imagery, became a visible expression of hip-hop culture within urban environments. Hip-hop's influence expanded throughout the 1980s and beyond, impacting music, fashion, and popular culture globally.

Goth

Situated at 69, Dean Street in Soho, The Batcave was a weekly club night running from 1982-6. With its cobweb and black plastic lined walls, and musical policy of “no funk, no disco”, the club became London goth's de facto community centre, attracting a plethora of eyeliner wearing, leather clad freaks and deviants; regulars including Siouxsie Sioux, Robert Smith, Nick Cave, the members of Bauhaus and Alien Sex Fiend.

The term "gothic rock" emerged in the late 1960s, initially used to describe the music of bands like The Doors and The Velvet Underground. In the late 1970s, the "gothic" label was applied to post-punk bands such as Siouxsie and the Banshees, Magazine, and Joy Division, noting the dark and atmospheric qualities of their music. Joy Division's manager, Tony Wilson, notably described them as "gothic" in a 1979 BBC interview. Bauhaus's 1979 single "Bela Lugosi's Dead" is often cited as a key release in the development of the genre.

By the early 1980s, gothic rock solidified as a subgenre within post-punk, with a growing following. The term "Punk Gothique" appeared in a 1981 Sounds article, highlighting the emergence of the scene. Clubs like the F Club in Leeds and the Batcave in London became important gathering places for the developing goth subculture. The Batcave's opening in 1982 provided a focal point for the scene, which was briefly labeled "positive punk" by the NME in 1983. The term "Batcaver" then became associated with early goths. Simultaneously, the deathrock scene emerged in California, with bands like Christian Death and 45 Grave.

Key bands that defined the gothic rock genre included Bauhaus, early Adam and the Ants, The Cure, The Birthday Party, and others. By the mid-1980s, more bands, like the Sisters of Mercy, The Mission, and Alien Sex Fiend, gained popularity. Record labels such as Factory, 4AD, and Beggars Banquet played a crucial role in disseminating this music, and the subculture expanded, particularly in the US, with clubs featuring "gothic/industrial" nights. The popularity of 4AD bands led to the formation of similar US labels.

The 1990s saw continued growth for some established bands and the emergence of new acts. However, with the rise of dance music, the goth movement largely went underground, fragmenting into various subgenres like cybergoth, shock rock, industrial metal, gothic metal, and Medieval folk metal. Marilyn Manson was a prominent figure during this period, described as a "goth-shock icon."

Soviet Nonconformist Art

From the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 until 1932, the Russian avant-garde flourished, seeking to connect with the proletariat. However, in 1932, Joseph Stalin's government consolidated control over the arts with the decree "On the Restructuring of Literary-Artistic Organizations," placing all artists' unions under the Communist Party. Two years later, Socialist Realism, defined as "socialist in content and realist in form," became the official aesthetic and art doctrine of the state. This policy proscribed political, religious, erotic, and "formalistic" art, encompassing abstraction, expressionism, and conceptual art. Avant-garde artists who resisted or could not adapt were marginalized, often facing imprisonment in the Gulag during Stalin's Great Purges starting in 1936.

Following World War II, termed the Great Patriotic War in Russia, further restrictions were implemented. In 1946 and 1948, Andrei Zhdanov, head of the Propaganda Administration, formally denounced Western cultural influences, marking the beginning of the Cold War's impact on Soviet art. Art students, such as the Estonian Ülo Sooster, who later became a key figure in the Moscow nonconformist movement, were sent to Siberian prison camps. The nonconformist artist Boris Sveshnikov also experienced time in a Soviet labor camp. Oleg Tselkov was expelled from art school in 1955 for "formalism," an act that could have been interpreted as treason by the Party.

Stalin's death in 1953 and Nikita Khrushchev's subsequent Secret Speech in 1956 denouncing Stalinism led to the "Khrushchev Thaw," a period of relative artistic liberalization. Stalin's cult of personality was discredited, and images of him were removed from public spaces. Artists like Aleksandr Gerasimov, known for his idealized portraits of Stalin, were removed from their official positions.

However, the "thaw" was short-lived. In 1962, Khrushchev's visit to the Manezh exhibition, where nonconformist artists like Ülo Sooster displayed their work, including "Eye in the Egg," resulted in a public argument with sculptor Ernst Neizvestny about art's role in society. This incident, known as the Manege Affair, inadvertently fostered the growth of unofficial art as a distinct movement. Artists, realizing the state's lack of acceptance, organized more openly. Punishments for unofficial artists became less severe, primarily involving exclusion from the artists' union rather than harsher penalties.

Soviet nonconformist art, also known as Soviet counterculture, underground art, or unofficial art, while stylistically diverse, shared the common function of challenging the officially sanctioned Socialist Realism. For example, Sots Art combined pop art influences with satire and irony. As curator Joseph Bakstein noted, the duality between official reality and the reality of the imagination gave art a unique role in Soviet society. Art became "doubly real" because it was detached from reality. Nonconformism sought to challenge this official artistic reality, treating it with irony—the very thing Soviet society, built on orthodoxy, could not tolerate. The partial legalization of nonconformism in the mid-1970s signaled the beginning of the Soviet regime's decline. In the 1980s, artists like Timur Novikov emerged, contributing to movements like Russian conceptual art with his "Zero Object" theory in 1982, and Neo-Academism in 1988.

Modern Use

As an adjective, "underground" now often applies to artists independent of commercial art enterprises, often by choice. With the World Wide Web's advent, some argue "underground" is obsolete due to easy access to diverse artistic and ideological expressions. The internet enables artists and activists to disseminate work and ideas without conforming to corporate interests. Even previously obscure material is now part of the common knowledge base, given easy access to detailed information on past or present artistic trends.

Other Examples

Here's a list of other things that can be broadly considered underground, keeping in mind the definition of existing outside or in opposition to mainstream culture or established norms:

• Numerous subcultures beyond those already mentioned can be considered underground at various points in their existence. These might include specific music genres (e.g., certain microgenres of electronic music), art movements (e.g., graffiti art before mainstream acceptance), or lifestyle groups (e.g., certain communities within the LGBTQ+ spectrum before greater societal acceptance).
• Underground music scenes, whether active on the internet or real life, are localized networks of musicians, fans, and promoters operating outside the established music industry. They often feature experimental genres, DIY ethics, and independent venues. These scenes can be very influential for the development of new musical styles and cultural trends.
• Illegal activities like drug use and distribution, unlicensed gambling, black market trading, and various forms of piracy (software, music, film) fall under the "underground" umbrella due to their clandestine nature and opposition to legal frameworks.
• Some activist groups, particularly those employing unconventional or illegal methods of protest, operate underground to avoid surveillance or prosecution.
• Secret societies, organizations that maintain strict secrecy about their membership, rituals, and purposes can be considered underground.
• Some niche hobbyist communities, particularly those operating in defiance of certain regulations or social norms, might be considered underground (e.g., certain urban exploring groups).
• Underground Economies: Informal or "grey" economies that operate outside official regulations and taxation can be considered underground.
• Hacktivist groups, groups that use hacking for political or social activism, often operating outside the law, can be considered underground.
• The production and distribution of counterfeit goods, from clothing to pharmaceuticals, operates within an underground network.
• Certain independent media outlets, particularly those operating in countries with restricted press freedoms, can be considered underground.
• Cults, defined as groups with unorthodox religious or spiritual beliefs and practices, often characterized by a charismatic leader and strict control over members, can be considered underground.
• Unsanctioned events, such as raves, underground parties, and other gatherings that occur without official permits or licenses are considered part of underground culture.
• Online communities and forums operating in less regulated spaces of the internet, sometimes associated with anonymity and controversial content, can be considered part of underground culture.

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