Underground music refers to a variety of post-1960s rock, pop, or dance subgenres that developed a cult following despite their lack of mainstream appeal, visibility, or commercial promotion. Underground bands and artists are often signed with independent record labels, and they typically perform in small venues and promote their music through word-of-mouth, fanzines, and college radio or community radio airplay.

The styles of underground music range from the 1960s psychedelic music of the US hippie counterculture, to the DIY anti-corporatism of 1970s-era punk rock, to 1990s and 2000s-era experimental electronic music.

While the term comprises a range of different musical genres, they typically share common values, such as the valuing of sincerity and intimacy; an emphasis on freedom of creative expression; and an appreciation of artistic creativity. As well, while very few types of underground music are completely hidden—except perhaps the underground rock scenes in the pre-Gorbachev Soviet Union—the performances and recordings may be difficult to find for outsiders.

Some underground musical genres never left their non-mainstream roots, such the jagged, aggressive UK 82-style hardcore punk bands such as Discharge. Some underground styles eventually became mainstream, commercialized pop styles, such as underground hip hop of the early 1980s, which eventually became a popular, mass market musical style in the 2000s. In the 2000s, the increasing availability of the Internet and digital music technologies made underground music easier to distribute using streaming audio and podcasts.

History

The term underground music has been applied to several artistic movements, such as the psychedelic music movement of the mid-1960s. Other early "underground" bands include the Velvet Underground, the MC5, Patti Smith and Iggy Pop and the Stooges. Frank Zappa tried to define "underground" by noting that the "mainstream comes to you, but you have to go to the underground."