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

Some topics in this essay:
Frank Zappa, History Underground, 10 people, dress act, term “underground”,