The Importance of the Underground

All the bands I have written about, or rather any famous band that you have ever heard of, all have their roots in the underground. The underground music scene, as magical as it sounds, although less glamorous, is the place where a band really carves an identity for themselves. This week we try to grasp the finer points of the underground culture and try to understand why these baby steps always turn out to be the most important in any musician's career.

Of course saying that the baby steps are important is a rather redundant statement. However, not all the bands you see these days begin by making a name for themselves in the underground scene. Here, when we say underground, we actually mean the real underground. MySpace profiles and Youtube videos just don't count. The finest musicians made their bones live on stage, feeding off the frenzy of the audience below them, channelling that burst of euphoria when the spotlight hits, into meaningful and often eloquent music. Since the dawn of time, it has always been those who learned their trade performing live who usually stood the test of time.

Back before 1991, Bangladesh's music scene was still dominated by pop or folksy songs. The rage of hard rock had yet to be accepted by the mainstream audience. However, it wasn't their taste in music that held them back. Rather, it was societal factors. The Bangladeshi audience were still too conservative, preferring soothing sounds and melancholic voices remonstrating their individual paramours to return to them. The people also preferred patriotic tunes and songs they could relate to, as Bangladeshis rather than global citizens. Then Warfaze happened and the music scene changed.

Warfaze were perhaps the most famous of a new breed of musicians, who relied not only on their music but also their performance. Some say that their levels of energy rivalled those of Azam Khan, one of Bangladesh's finest live performers. Their debut album, released in 1991 had many of the music listeners running to the stores to grab their copy of this new sound. The loud pitches, the booming sounds and the heavy use of instruments helped drone out the words but their meanings weren't lost, but rather amplified. Some say that the Bangladeshi youth finally rose in Shahbagh, but the seeds of our rebellion were planted by a different set of teenagers, decades prior. Warfaze dared to do something different and it paid off in spades.

Of course, Warfaze had been peddling their sound since 1984. Even they must have been surprised by the reaction they faced. But back in days, bands thrived off concerts. There wasn't a concert season per se; it happened all the time. The bands then directly faced the audience, heard their cheers and took any boos in their stride. They changed, adapted their style and gave the audience what the audience wanted. In the Underground, even the biggest names are eclipsed by performers who really connect with the audience, so everyone was constantly on their toes. They knew the loudest cheers meant they had reached a certain stage and everyone strove for that age.

Such a connection with the audience, even helped shape the lyrics of the day. The bands back then appealed to the perceptions of the day. Warfaze, like bands prior, had built that connection and they took that fragile and often fickle relationship and ran with it. They had built their base and now, by channeling their demands, they steadily increased the numbers. That's how the Underground scene worked. The people present were genuine fans and they let their pleasure and displeasure be known in equal measures and as required. No one was too big to boo. And the performers thrived off the energy.

The reason why the Underground scene is so important is because it's like a university education for musicians. They learn the ins and outs of their industry while also gathering the tools to appease a much larger audience, one they may not have a direct connection with. Tweet all you want and update your Facebook page as much as you want but unless musicians take back the underground and give it its due importance, the Bangladeshi music scene will find it hard to track back to the glory days of the 90s, when bands reigned supreme and almost every concert was sold out.