Why can’t capitalism and underground scenes work productively together?

It is a depressing trope: but a marriage of capitalist ideas and underground ideologies is one that is often doomed to failure. Despite the best intentions, often from both sides, everyday commercial activities eventually kill the very thing they seek to support.

The normal understanding of the term ‘capitalism’ is a wide one, covering almost all forms of commercial activity. The broad nature of the term offers some hope. Are there, outside of the hidebound notion of the relentless pursuit of profit, areas that allow insight or cooperation? Can we glimpse of the nature of capitalism through discussion? Or do we have to live it, in order to get a grasp? One thing is certain: underground artists have a lot of faith in their community. Creativity is often driven by the imagination, rather than production, and process and transcendence rather than a fixed identity.

Discussion:
What is ‘underground’? The underground scene may often communicate typical associative thinking about political statements, freedom of imagination, sincerity, and artistic identity. Instead of changing systems of commercial exploitation, underground scenes create an alternative reality, a counter movement to the mainstream. But the aversion towards the mainstream has a rather paradoxical side-effect; an interdependence of the underground scene with the mainstream mass culture. Because without mainstream, there won’t be a counterculture. So how are the underground and mainstream worlds interconnected? How does this dependence play out? Can rich sounds, forward-thinking music lovers and DIY activities heavily rooted in local communities survive outside of their own backyards?

Speakers:
Theo Ploeg will give a historical perspective on modern underground movements and argue that there is a new kind of underground culture emerging, that is not against but simply ignoring the mainstream.

Lula Valletta and Leonor Faber-Jonker collaborate on against-the-grain zines in limited, riso-printed editions. During this meetup they will present their Underground Manifesto. A visceral homage to the misfit, the punk, and the outcast, the Dadaist and the Dandy, the Manifesto lays out the rules of no-rules, sifting through the dirt of the underground, rooting for worms, and throwing uppercuts.

Future Based - Underground movement in music: capitalism failing | WORM Rotterdam | Boomgaardsstraat 71 | Dinsdag 17 sept | 20:30 - 23:30 | Entree: €5 ticketlink