Mainstream vs. Indie vs. Underground vs. Obscure

I tried to define four facets of pop/mainstream music here, but even then I had some debate.

Mainstream is as it says. It’s stuff that’s popular with the regular average people. The radio might play it, but it’s what you hear generally in the trendy spots.

Independent is more the small labels and people who simply decide to not be part of the big label push and even big label image. So imagine a female artist wants to do EDM and she decides not to make poppy electro house or euro dance, and she doesn’t sell herself as a glamour model. Independent can mean many things, but I’d tell you it generally adheres to an idea of keeping small and not buying into the big label marketing machine.

Underground is the opposite of mainstream…and I find it funny how many think underground only means “dark”, techy”, “minimal”, “abstract”. In my book, underground is anything the general masses are not into. Something could have a nice pop, energy, melody, etc…but if the mainstream masses see it as a big “no way”, then in my book it’s in the underground. Part of this though IMHO is that there is some following. So if you have a style of music that you can’t get played in clubs/bars or on the radio, but a show of it gets 50-1000 people out, then it’s underground in many ways.

Obscure is more about abstraction to me. It’s about wanting to venture away from the “norms” of music. Dubstep in its birth is a great example. I know now it’s very mainstream, but when it started, the artists seemingly wanted to get away from “four on the floor” and even other typical sounds/structures of dance music. Aphex Twin has always been “obscure” in my book.

ME…I don’t think about “independent” or “obscure”. Too many seemingly love to use those terms to feel “cutting edge” or “cool”. They want to claim they only buy independent music to appear “ahead”, but I think it’s bollocks. I’ll play what sounds good to me, even if a track happens to end up on Top-40 radio.

I personally have always loved to sit on the dividing line between the mainstream and the underground. I like being the “entry drug” for mainstream folk. So they go out and hear perhaps the typical poppy/mainstream tunes in the club, I’ll hit them with similar sounds that they didn’t hear…take them deeper into the rabbit’s hole. I know die-hard trendy folk do not find it appealing, nor do die-hard underground folk…but my goal is generally to get average people to check out EDM.

D-Jam nailed it.

Your examples above are certainly interesting…Daft Punk indie? Plump DJs underground? Obscure songs making the Beatport top 100 or even being on Beatport for that matter?

Mainstream: Needs no explaining. Explained perfectly by everyone above.
Indie: May even be reasonably popular but haven’t sold out or given in to the commercial giants. More of a ideal than anything.
Underground: May be less known or unknown outside of that music scene. The purists of that genre. Success isn’t measured in popularity or commercial success.
Obscure: D-Jam got this one perfect.

Just my 2 cents. Apologies if I cam across rude, not my intent at all. I always think I’m right but can admit it lol

Well technically all indie means is independently released, which rules out a lot of peoples examples, but its been a while since the term has been used in a literal sense.

I think everyone’s perception of stuff like this is kinda down to the individual.

Plump DJs for example, maybe be underground to some, and pushing commercial to others.
The same goes for Daft Punk, Deadmau5 et al.

I have mates that never listen to commercial radio/video shows etc who would call 90% of big name house artists (SHM, Hardwell, anything that is on the Beatport top 10-20) commercial, others mates would argue they ain’t.

That said, nothing on the Beatport Top 100 should ever be considered underground. 😛

I still find goodies on BP, but I don’t live on the site.

Traxsource has become my more favorite site. Plenty of great house…plus the idea of putting the Facebook comment system is gold. So I can post a comment as my Facebook page, it posts on my page (content/engagement) and it might also lead to more likes by those who find my comments on Traxsource.

Funny thing is Traxsource had a facelift a couple of years ago, but once used to the look, I find it really easy and quick to navigate and find tracks.