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History of the Underground It is not easy to define the underground. To quote the legendary Frank Zappa "The mainstream comes to you, but you have to go to the underground." gives us an idea. The definition of underground culture I use, is, culture that has not reached the mainstream but that has gained popularity among a small and loyal audience. During the 1960s, the term underground acquired a new meaning in that it referred to members of the so-called counterculture, i.e. those people who did not generally conform to the mainstream of human experience such as hippies. Applied to the arts, the term “underground” typically means artists that are not corporately sponsored and don’t generally want to be. An alternate usage of the term “underground” is in reference to something that is illegal or so controversial that it would be dangerous to be publicized. Or, it’s so offensive that it will never be mainstream