From Post-Punk to PC Music: Subcultural Discourses and Practices in Two Underground Scenes (1979, 2015)

Abstract

This article addresses the question of the relationship between the underground and the mainstream through two examples bracketing the period under consideration (1977-82 on the one hand and 2014- on the other). The first example concerns the establishment in Great Britain of an independent production and distribution network associated with the punk and post-punk scenes. The second consists of a subcultural formation on a smaller scale served by a promotional approach which has the particularity of relying almost exclusively on digital communication.While claiming a musical radicality that distinguished them from a more generalist production, both have come to negotiate an intermediate position between the oppositional strategies associated with the underground and a growing popularity, betraying an ambivalence on the subject of their inclusion in a market or commercial network.

Keywords

• post-punk
• indie
• alternative
• PC Music
• Rough Trade