Underground music

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Underground music is music with practices perceived as outside, or somehow opposed to, mainstream popular music culture. Underground styles lack the commercial success of popular music movements, and may involve the use of avant-garde or abrasive approaches. Underground music may be perceived as expressing sincerity and creative freedom in opposition to those practices deemed formulaic or market-driven. Notions of individuality and non-conformity are also commonly deployed. The term has been applied to artists in styles such as psychedelia, punk, alternative rock, electronica, industrial music, and wider strains of experimental music.