Avoiding the Mainstream - Going Underground

As a teenager, I was obsessed by music. Yet I wasn’t buying the same records as my school friends. When they were running out to buy Duran Duran or Howard Jones, I would be at the other end of the shop grabbing the latest Joy Division twelve inch, Killing Joke single or Cocteau Twins album.

Once, a friend of my brother’s ridiculed me for my taste in music. “Why do you listen to that? It can’t be good, otherwise they’d be in the charts.” What he, and many others, always failed to see was that the underground music of then became the mainstream of today. Elisabeth Fraser of The Cocteau Twins is now a hugely respected vocalist. Flood of Killing Joke became one of the most sought-after record producers in the world, working with U2 and virtually every other notable band. Joy Division transformed into New Order and packed stadiums across the world.

Going Underground

In all fields, the underground is where the new talents that will shape the future start out. Before becoming the godfather of modern comics by writing ‘Watchmen’, Alan Moore wrote numerous amazing stories for ‘2000AD’, completely underneath the mainstream US comic industry radar. I was highly familiar with Moore’s work a long time before he became a mainstream comic icon and the thrill of having discovered such a talent without the mainstream having told me was a great thrill. His later success wasn’t so much a surprise as an “I told you so.”

Brian Bendis – now the number one writer at Marvel comics – spent years publishing black and white independent underground comics, unknown to all, except the most serious of comic fans. Before becoming an Oscar-winning director for ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ and making Hollywood blockbusters like ‘Hellboy’ and the forthcoming ‘The Hobbit’, many Guillermo del Toro films could only be seen in art house cinemas on limited release.

Whether your ambition is to write films, novels, comics or blogs, you should immerse yourself in the underground of your chosen field. If you want to understand what people may be reading and watching in five years time, look to the small press books and the art house cinemas, the independent record labels and the self-published comics. Attempting to write the next ‘Saw’ could actually be a huge mistake. By the time you get noticed, the industry and audiences will have moved on to new genres, new styles, new franchises and new themes as these underground movements gain in popularity.

Tomorrow’s Hits, Today

Being a fan of 'Harry Potter' won’t help you to replicate JK Rowling’s success. Breaking down her style may provide some lessons but is not a blueprint for the next great book series. That boat has sailed. Rowling did it. Yes, there are a ton of Potter knock-offs – teenage books that feature fantastical schools or mythical beasts – but these will never achieve longevity or step out from the shadow of the boy-wizard.

I would go so far to say that if you want to write film but would never consider visiting an art house cinema or watching anything less than a blockbuster, you shouldn’t be writing film. If you want to write 'Spider-Man' but have no interest in writing unknown characters, you’ll never write comics.

The underground for any genre is where the creativity happens, where the ideas are. I will always buy CDs from obscure bands and read cheaply printed comics that no one else has heard of. Nothing beats the thrill of discovering a new talent and seeing how it may develop into the mainstream. Yes, the early stuff is always the best.