Difference Between Underground Music And Mainstream Music

Mainstream Music vs. Underground Music When did music become a business in place of an art? Music is dramatically changing, but this reason is because of the way mainstream music is displayed all around the world, especially in the hip hop genre. In “Really Cool: Authenticity, Identity, and Popular Music”, Emily Hegarty asked “ Who has not experienced the trauma of seeing a favorite underground band become the next big thing, overexposed to the ignorant masses on corrupt radio stations and no longer cool?” (Hegarty pg. 56). Although many people will say mainstream hip hop is ideal to the public ears, underground music is belittled while it demonstrates the real meaning of hip-hop. Underground hip hop is a term for music of the general commercial …show more content…
The first successful hit in hip hop was a song by Sugarhill Gang’s called “Rapper’s Delight.” Ever since that year, hip hop has expanded dramatically all throughout the country. Back then, hip hop was a hobby, an interest. Now, hip hop is exposed as a career that many people try to depend on. Hip hop is the constantly evolving spirit and consciousness of youth that keeps recreating itself in a never-ending cycle. The evolution of rap has allowed large paychecks and platinum records to replace the historical, social, and economic contexts, out of which rap has developed.
Underground music is where hip hop thrives and the mainstream music industry glamorizes hip-hop just to make a profit. Hip hop has become extremely marketable and is used to sell anything from clothing to sorts of liquors. Mainstream hip hop seems to point out the topic that people, especially kids and teenagers, should not be listening to. These tracks influence topics such as drugs, sex, and girls. What kind of message are we sending out to the youth when ex-drug dealers and criminals become extremely successful as they make sentences into rhythm while they make millions of dollars off of doing