cover image source: Gunpowder & Sky
According to Wikipedia, Frank Zappa described "underground" culture saying "mainstream comes to you, but you have to go to the underground." So, with that in mind, what music do you listen to that doesn't fit the mold of the mainstream? To be clear, it's totally fine if the artist made it popular, I'm just looking more so for folks who go against the grain... whatever feels underground to you, I wanna know what it is and why you think of it that way. As always though, you don't have to follow the theme... we're open to all types of tunes here.
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Now, let me hear your favorite underground, lesser known music! Note: you can embed a link to your song using the following syntax {% embed https://... %}. This should work for most common platforms!
Really looking forward to listening to y'all's suggestions! 🎶
Oldest comments (16)
So, when I wrote this topic, I was actually kinda thinking of De La Soul and the recent news about the release of their discography onto streaming platforms, after having been hidden from the masses for decades because of it's sample-rich material — samples that were not all necessarily cleared for distribution.
To be clear, De La is actually pretty well known and hugely influential, but they haven't gotten as much attention as they deserve over the years. And also, their sound at the time was groundbreaking and very much went against the grain of popular hip hop at the time... but they broke through! They were quite popular and get a lotta props from hip hop heads who go deeper than the top hits of today. Anyway, I highly recommend giving them a listen and digging into some of the super interesting history around them.
Here's the song Big Brother Beat (with Mos Def) from the album Stakes Is High:
And here's a video breaking down some of the music history around De La Soul's first album 3 Feet High and Rising:
Isyana Sarasvati
Deadsquad
It's taken me all week to get to your suggestions, Imam, but I've dipped into a track from each (Isyana Sarasvati and Deadsquad) now and they're both epically rocking! This is some really cool, original stuff. Thank ya so much for sharing!
Now that I've had a taste of each, I'm gonna listen through more of Isyana and then move back to Deadsquad after.
Which by the way, listening right now and I love Prelude I! That felt really mystical.
Yeah! Cool.... Isyana Sarasvati, she is a graduate of Singapore's Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and London's Royal College of Music. She wrote all of the songs on her 2015 debut pop album, Explore! and on her two subsequent albums, Paradox and Lexicon.
If you have classical rock thread. I will share the next recommended album of Isyana Sarasvati.
Prelude I! It's the mantra of all song on that album.
Oooo this sounds awesome! And I hope to get back on the grind with Music Monday next week... a classic thread is a great suggestion. 😀
Am waiting your thread btw 🤣
#TeamIsyanarules! 🙌Discovered this on Spotify last week.
Ooooo, riding the retrowaves. I love this kinda stuff!
Makes me think of JDoss... he was always dropping some dope synthwave sorta stuff in Slack.
I forgot to mention Synthwave, it's totally fit with this underground definition.
I was heavilly jamming to 'The Midnight' and 'FM84' back then and still now too!
Oh heck yeah, Dendi! 🙌
Th Midnight is one of my faves... I'm gonna check out FM84 shortly!
These two is my top 2 in the synthwave, but for my listened FM84 songs is not that many as The Midnight.
I'm helping you to get right into it anyway :D, check these two songs of FM84 as starter:
This one is instrumental, just feels the 80s synth vibes:
furthermore, their (iconic cover) Atlas album is the next step for you.
I been jamming to this song
Nice!! Jam on. 😎
I was thinking that underground music is a genre close to rock, metal or punk. But after reading that frank zappa's definition, underground can be softer genres too.
Maybe what I want to highlight here is indie dream pop music like Men I Trust. I just went to their gig yesterday (March 14) in Jakarta. Best experience ever! Here is my recommended album of their:
Haha yeah! I love the Zappa definition.
So, "underground" is basically anything that goes against the mainstream. But it is tricky to define... cause sometimes you'll have something that is underground, then it gets discovered and becomes kinda a big thing. So, does that mean it loses its underground-ness? Maybe, I don't know... I generally don't think so, at least in my mind. If it holds onto its uniqueness and dares to do things that go against the grain, then I'd still consider it retaining some of that "underground" spirit.
And oooo, while I've been typing this up, I've been jamming to Men I Trust. This is great!! Thanks for suggesting it. 🙌