The answer to this question is quite simple… no.

(Not in my opinion anyway)

The term ‘underground’ refers to music that opposes the ideal mainstream culture or popular sound.

But if everyone has suddenly decided that they want to be an artist, which there’s nothing wrong with, doesn’t that defeat the point of the genre being somewhat unpopular and in other words low-key? I mean it is a fact a lot of underground fans take pride in the fact they’re different and are listening to music everyone else isn’t.

My point being that everything is underground until it isn’t.

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The way I look at it is; every genre has a ‘Top 3’ and if you were to ask enough people the same names would continuously come up in their top 3s [be mindful, this may differ depending on which country you live in]. After/under this top 3 is what you would call the promising upcoming artists, the underdogs or their successors.

But being brutally honest, anyone not in the categories mentioned may have to accept that there may not be room for them as a big new artist.

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As seen in both the UK and US, ‘underground’ artists are on the rise – and definitely deserve to be after creating projects never heard before and opening gateways for the next generation of artists to explore new sounds. But sounds that were once unheard of and original have become “***** already did that” sounds and because of the pace the scene is gaining popularity, the distance towards the dissolution of the underground genre doesn’t feel so far away.

Why have we got so many new artists that sound identical?

From observation, new artists are adopting similar flows and sounds to popular underground artists- lacking any originality. If I’m taking a guess as to why this is, I would say it definitely seems easier to build a secure fan base and blow in an ‘underground’ category rather than struggle to earn a place in a mainstream one. However, people are forgetting due to the underground community being significantly small, copycat sounds are easy to spot and not many people are interested in a Ken Carson 2.0 or Lancey 2.0 when we’ve already heard it all before.

But then why do so many copycats get away with being copycats?

Even though the community is small enough to recognise and catch a replica out, the community is also small enough to not hold an artist accountable for “stealing” another artist’s work. Lack of accountability for artists in the underground scene has been a reoccurring theme for a while now, not only in music but with the allegations thrown at countless artists across social medias. The ignorance of their fans and the inability to hold their favourite artists accountable is a prime example of how unoriginality has been able to become welcomed – no one cares enough to call you out for anything, but that’s a conversation for a future article.

To conclude… there isn’t really any room for anyone anywhere. We have too much copies of everything everywhere.

The underground is definitely being diluted and isn’t what it once was but that’s one of the consequences that trend driven occupations create, like everyone suddenly deciding to be a rapper…

But again, whether you agree or disagree, this is all just my opinion after all. I’ve just been seeing loads of rappers on my fyp lately and i keep thinking about why there’s so many new rappers all of a sudden.

Thanks for reading,

Until next time,

Megankamangawrites.