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Underground music is music with practices perceived as outside, or somehow opposed to, mainstream popular music culture. Underground music is intimately tied to popular music culture as a whole, so there are important tensions within underground music because it appears to both assimilate and resist the forms and processes of popular music culture.
- Jerusalem – Jerusalem (Deram, 1971) The earth-shattering sounds that crash forth from this band’s one and only, self-titled album are a combination of the nastiest late-60s garage production values, along with an almost overwhelming proto-metal extremity that was seldom this raw and intense until more than a decade later with the advent of thrash.
- Bachdenkel – Lemmings (Phillips, 1973) Described as “Britain’s greatest unknown group” in the short-lived UK edition of Rolling Stone magazine in 1969, progressive hopefuls Bachdenkel formed in Birmingham in 1968 and have, for various reasons, remained an enigma ever since.
- Yesterday’s Children – Yesterday’s Children (Map City, 1970) Mean, lean and hairy acid rock for fans of such greats as Blue Cheer, Savage Resurrection, Euclid and Dragonfly, Yesterday’s Children were formed in 1966 by brothers Denis (vocals) and Richard (rhythm guitar) Croce.
- Bent Wind – Sussex (Trend Records, 1970) Bootlegged countless times, Sussex is the Holy Grail of Canadian underground psychedelic rock albums. Originally released on the small Trend label in a pressing of just 300, it’s sought after by collectors worldwide.
Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s with the likes of the grunge subgenre in the United States and the shoegaze and Britpop subgenres in the ...
Revisit 12 underground music genres, along with the pioneers that drove them. And discover the underground rock bands pushing against the mainstream today.
- Daniel Johnston – “Some Things Last a Long Time” from 1990(1990; Shimmy Disc) Texas-based singer-songwriter Daniel Johnston’s instrumentals have always been pretty basic and the most positive word one could use to describe his vocal stylings might be “endearing.”
- Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan – “Mustt Mustt (Lost In His Work)” from Mustt Mustt(1990; Real World) When Kurt Cobain named Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan as one of his heroes in the early ’90s, it seemed possible that the next 25 years might be the period that allowed for non-Western artists to routinely mingle with homegrown names in the charts.
- Skinny Puppy – “Spasmolytic” from Too Dark Park(1990; Nettwerk) “Spasmolytic” was the single off of Too Dark Park, but its video, featuring Ogre acting like a zombie, probably only graced 120 Minutes once or twice.
- 1000 Homo DJs – “Supernaut” from “Supernaut/Hey Asshole” single (1990; Wax Trax!) Chicago’s Wax Trax! label was the center of a spiderweb of relationships that helped to evangelize and eventually reshape industrial music.
American Underground may include anything from hardcore punk to jangle pop, college rock to noise rock, and other sub-genres of the era. Bands like The Replacements and R.E.M., Pixies and Dinosaur Jr. paved way for generations of alternative acts to come.
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The Best of Broadside, Anthems of the American Underground from the Pages of Broadside Magazine. Eighty-nine songs, including some never commercially released. Compiled and annotated by Jeff Place and Ronald D. Cohen.
