Underground
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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- | :The mainstream comes to you, but you have to go to the underground. - Frank Zappa | + | :The [[mainstream]] comes to you, but you have to go to the [[underground]]. - Frank Zappa |
:"Ideas enter our above-ground [[culture]] through the '''underground'''. I suppose that is the kind of function that the underground plays, such as it is. That it is where the dreams of our culture can ferment and [[strange]] notions can play themselves out unrestricted. And sooner or later those ideas will percolate through into the [[mainstream|broad mass awareness of the broad mass of the populace]]. [[Occulture]], you know, that seems to be perhaps the last [[revolution]]ary bastion." -- Alan Moore | :"Ideas enter our above-ground [[culture]] through the '''underground'''. I suppose that is the kind of function that the underground plays, such as it is. That it is where the dreams of our culture can ferment and [[strange]] notions can play themselves out unrestricted. And sooner or later those ideas will percolate through into the [[mainstream|broad mass awareness of the broad mass of the populace]]. [[Occulture]], you know, that seems to be perhaps the last [[revolution]]ary bastion." -- Alan Moore |
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- The mainstream comes to you, but you have to go to the underground. - Frank Zappa
- "Ideas enter our above-ground culture through the underground. I suppose that is the kind of function that the underground plays, such as it is. That it is where the dreams of our culture can ferment and strange notions can play themselves out unrestricted. And sooner or later those ideas will percolate through into the broad mass awareness of the broad mass of the populace. Occulture, you know, that seems to be perhaps the last revolutionary bastion." -- Alan Moore
Contents |
Related
alternative - banned - censorship - clandestine - controversial - counterculture - crime - cult - drugs - economy - forbidden - grotto - hidden - illegal - illicit - independent - a glossary of the non-mainstream - overground - prohibition - resistance - secret - subculture - subversive - taboo - transgressive - underworld - The Velvet Underground
Contrast
Bibliography
Lipstick Traces, a Secret History of 20th Century (1989) - Greil Marcus - Outsiders as Innovators (1998) - Tyler Cowen - Notes from Underground (1864) - Fyodor Dostoevsky
Introduction
It is not easy to define the underground. Zappa's quote "The mainstream comes to you, but you have to go to the underground." gives us an idea. The definition of underground culture I use, is, culture that has not reached the mainstream but that has gained popularity amongst a small and loyal audience [a subculture]. Actually, that is the same definition I give to cult as in cult movies.
One should not forget that underground has a connotation of the illegal, the clandestine, the illicit; and a link with the adversary guerilla activities of the oppresssed.
To conclude::
- Underground as an adjective commonly refers to something that is either below the ground or outside of public consciousness. As a proper noun, the underground refers to subcultures.
By medium
- Underground comix, a term for non-mainstream comics
- Underground culture, a term to describe various alternative cultures
- Underground economy, commerce that is not taxed
- Underground film, cinema outside the commercial mainstream
- Underground literature, the history of clandestine publishing
- Underground music, music that has a certain following despite a moderate commercial success
- Underground press, the alternative print media in the late 1960s and early 1970s
- Underground resistance, nickname used for some resistance movements
By region
- Antwerp underground, under construction
- English underground
- French underground
- Italian underground, under construction
- Prague Underground
- Spanish underground
- UK Underground, a 1960s countercultural movement in the United Kingdom