how many prefer underground to mainstream?

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I'm talking as far as art, music, movies, theatre, etc are concerned. All the good stuff is in the underground. I think this is because in the underground their artistic integrity has not been as compromised. Seeing as Beaurocrats pretty much run the mainstreams financially, they control largely what gets put out. They DECIDE what sells. It's a propaganda measure though. This also happened in Germany, Russia, many places while leading up to police state status.
Mtv is there to dummy down the young generation and to get them to put their guard down. Mtv has in effect became a symbol in America for this generations deliberate stupidity and apathy. And, it too is ran by the beaurocrats.
However, when I listen to more of the underground stuff, I can find much more artistic, un-compromised, REAL music, and sometimes I can even find things that carry a message. Of coarse I am not saying all art/music should carry a message but it doesn't hurt for some of it to. But underground seems to embrace artistic integrity, individuality, intelligence, and what not far more than the mindless drivel being spilled all over Mtv or national radio stations.
Another big example is in pro wrestling (yes I am a wrestling fan, though I hate to admit it these days). I've been watching wrestling for alittle over 13 yrs now. The mainstream product, WWE, and also TNA, and formerly WCW, are/were all very riddled with bad storylines and internal politics, and did not care much what their fans thought of the product. However, ECW (Real ECW, before WWE bought them out) built a revolution on doing things the right way. The only reason they went under was because TNN (television station) double crossed them in a deal. Ring of Honor (ROH) is like todays ECW, but not trying to rise as fast. They learned from ECW's mistake, and while they are the top indie in North America, they are not trying to become a juggernaut right now. If it ever happens it'll happen gradually over time.
But real ECW and ROH are where the good wrestling is at. For one they actually care about their fans opinions and putting on a good show, and not letting egos get in the way of that.

It'll only be a matter of time, though, before the parasites leap aboard, crush its soul, and make it into a money machine. Zombie culture. I hate it, man. Oversized corporations inevitably lead to corruption and involvement in politics. When business gets involved in politics, there's always a problem. Hell, anything that gets involved in politics seems to turn evil like overnight or something.

No kidding. Well back when our American forfathers wrote the constitution, they were very clear in many cases to make the point that bankers are a bigger threat to our freedom than any nation could ever be.

But then again look at this "capitalist" economy, is it any wonder?

It doesn't really matter to me. I live in my own little world, and it's all the same to me. As far as I'm concerned, there are two categories of music, "sucks" and "doesn't suck". Some of each category is mainstream, some is underground. If I hear a song and I like it, I will put it on my iPod or get the CD. The people who only listen to underground music for the sake of being "alternative" or whatever are just as bad as the people who only listen to whatever is mainstream for the sake of being "cool."

Just my opinion. Feel free to throw rocks at me.

I pretty much agree with you Rain_Bird, but I will also say that the really -really- good stuff is rarely found in the mainstream, and this is because mainstream is stereotypically about selling as many copies as possible, which means dilluting lemonade until there is a small enough amount of lemon that it won't bother too many people (metaphorically speaking), whereas underground tends to be more about putting out what you want to put out, and figuring the people who like it will like it and the people who don't won't. This of course isn't a rule, it's just how it usually goes.

Rain_Bird, here's what you've got to understand, dude. The ones listening just to underground, I gotta say, are often doing so for political reasons. Dude, you're really "underground" if you're part of a culture and a community. That's how I'm gonna say it because that's how you get to see and read and hear the kind of stuff that most people wouldn't even know how to find. You just don't find the truly good stuff on any store shelf, and it probably won't ever be sold on any serious basis because it just doesn't mean anything to someone who doesn't know where it's from, you with me? That's how you become this "cool" people talk about. You know how hip hop's all popular and everything, right? Hey, I've got a friend who's lived the life. He's lit one up with Method Man, and he didn't think anything of it except the dude was just really decent to chill with, a lot like a hundred other people he's met travelling between South Florida and NYC. He's known people in and out of the mainstream he could deal with, but yeah, he does rag on MTV not really caring whether something's real. What it comes down to, really, is be what you are. It doesn't even have to be something like music or film. It could just be some MMO community or these forums here. Maybe you're a big time furry or something. Really engaging in the life, your life, is how you get exposed to culture. If you spend all your time worrying about whether or not it's "in the mainstream" or "underground," you'll never find anything of true worth. There IS no underground. There's just people, doing what people do.

I don't really see this, especially considering that the founding fathers created a large, central, private bank ruling over our currency as one of the first things they did. This is different from what we do today in having a bank run by a government. Jefferson did oppose central banking and feared the control over the currency but Hamilton and others were fans of banking.

Most economies have their sucky aspects, really though, I do not see the underground as really separate from the rest of the economy. It really just provides for more of a niche culture I would imagine where as corporations want a broader net in order to appeal to the largest number of people efficiently. I do not fear the MTV culture, I fear the feel-good culture which is found within families and schools more than on MTV. MTV does not determine our culture by any large extent as it is just meaningless junk and bunk, families are the true determinants of how society will work. Really though, current children are better behaved in terms of drugs and sex than their predecessors.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_b ... 548107.ece