Whatever floats your Verboten, a newcomer’s account of the underground
As the popularity of electronic dance music has grown, long time fans of the genre have seen an upsurge in sounds and scenes they don’t consider representative of the crème de la crème of what the genre has to offer. Although the deep/tech house niche is burgeoning in New York City (and elsewhere), with listeners rapidly converting, it’s still eclipsed by bottle service clubs and events headlined by mainstream artists. Fans of the underground are passionate that their umbrella genres — tech, techno, and deep house for the most part — are not only the future of dance music but amongst its best outputs. When the glitz and glamour surrounding electronic pop music dissipates, they believe that the light bulbs illuminating the underground will remain lit.
Friends who had already made the switch — or at least stood with one foot firmly planted on either side — were relentless about its high class quality and in some cases, “sophisticated superiority.” Their claims weren’t solely about the music itself but the scene and its vibe as well. Despite their persistence, my attempts at understanding the underground were unsuccessful and so, I remained apathetic. I’ve never needed huge builds and drops to satisfy my preferences — not that I didn’t and don’t still enjoy them — but I was a member of the camp that found the underground boring.
