nothing is underground anymore

Great music blog from Simon Reynolds here, who argues that the internet has blurred the lines between what is seen as "underground", and what is seen as "mainstream". Everybody now has access to a wide variety of music at the touch of a button, which means that if you so wish, you can go and easily discover new music from the comfort of your own bedroom. In previous generations, mine included, there were often physical barriers to entry into an underground scene - either by virtue of not being old enough to get into clubs or gigs, or simply being too far away from a decent record shop, so that it became physically impossible to listen (or even know about) music which was not played on heavy rotation on the radio.

It meant that there had to be a big psychological step for any person who wanted to become part of any scene, a step into the unknown, or at the least having the bottle to go into that musty smelling record store and ask for an obscure name of a band that you had jotted down on a notebook while listening to John Peel. That barrier is simply not there anymore, and as soon as a genre has a name, you can simply google it and find out what exactly it sounds like without handing over some of your hard-earned cash.