Underground Scene Quotes

The great countercultural movement that we all know from the mid-1960s was epitomised by popular music. But within a few years another shift happened: the birth of alternative theatre.

Looking back, we had the hard time, but the privilege, of actually coming up playing biker bars and little bitty college bars.

If you're trying to get to the underworld of Berlin, it's not suits and ties; it's rock and roll.

I never felt like 'I'm an underground dude' or 'I can only be hot in New York.'

As soon as I understood what was going on in San Francisco, which was in 1965 and '66, I immediately left Chicago where I was working in a nightclub that was being shaken down by the mafia and the police for payments. I mean, it was a real thug world.

We're not really an underground band anymore, and we're not a mainstream band, either.

We put on shows at Golden Gate Park with the Dead and Jefferson Airplane, and the groups were part of the community they emerged out of, not some superstars. We had multiple stages, diversions, communal entertainment. There is something slightly fascistic about sitting in a huge auditorium focusing all the energy on one group far away on stage.

I loved London. In the 1970s... it was very exciting, really wild.

When we played Paris, the English punks would come over, and they got to know the French punks. There was some nice scenes in the back alleys.

I was an underground rapper and only 16 years old, a freshman at high school. Bang thought I had potential as a rapper and lyricist, and we went from there. Then Suga joined us.

I started rapping before anybody had ever bought a car from it. It was truly about the art form and the culture, more so than now, where it's a successful way to make money. Back then you had to be doing it because you liked it.

When I started playing in bands, we had to be apologetic for what we did. We had to be apologetic because the mainstream was so bad.

It is a different world, the underground. When you hit mainstream, you hit a saturation level and that turns some people off. When you are on more low-key stuff, it works to your advantage and it creates a buzz on the streets. At that point, the sky is the limit.

My first job in NYC was playing a gig in the early nineties at CBGBs.

I was an underground artist, but the underground status was successful. Coming from where I came from to see where rap is now, now artists are selling from a million to eight million copies.

Initially, electronic music was anti-establishment, as punk rock and rock n' roll were. The music was shut down; the police were against the parties.

My older sister was into grime, so she got me into it. When I was ten, I begged her to take me to my first house party, where there were decks and a mic. I ended up falling asleep standing up in the corner.

When Blur first started and we were playing Manchester the Hacienda was the place to go. That was where a lot of exciting stuff was happening and London was pretty dead.

My track record suggests that I'm not quite a mainstream darling, that's for sure. I don't want to only cater to a small audience, but it's just kind of worked out that way.

Wrestling is pretty DIY. I've been doing it for 12 years, completely on my own. It's like being in a band or running a zine - except that I get to kick people in the face.

The commercialization of dubstep isn't something I'm part of.

I was only 14 when I started playing the east London rave scene. At the time, I was so captivated by everything. I didn't ever wanna progress out of that scene.

I was once a student in a punk T-Shirt hooked on screwed-up scenarios. That's how I became the esteemed cultural figure that I am today.

When I came up in a band - not just in a band, but a kind of underground DIY community - there was such a clear cut distinction between what pop was and what not pop was in very simplistic terms.

I don't play big stadium-style dance, but I have discovered, to my delight, that the appetite for real low slung deep house is very much alive.