Underground and commercial - mixing the two.

[Pestarzt]

One topic on my mind lately is how bands with a raw sound get labeled "commercial" once they use a professional recording studio.

Hence, I have two topics I want to discuss:
1) what does 'underground' or even 'raw' (in terms of black metal and the like) mean to you?
2) Does a band with a more commercial sound (moreso than, say, Satanic Warmaster) come across as a turnoff to you, and why?

 

[KonkeyDong]

When a band compromises their musical integrity in order to make more money I would label them commercial.

 

[Bathoryswans]

Not entirely sure I understand. To me underground is a term that means not well known while commercial means radio friendly or accessible to a wide range of people. Do I prefer a raw sound or clean sound? What ever works best with what your trying to achieve. I have no problem with band changing from a harsher more brutal style to something more radio friendly as long as the music is still good but that's rarely the case. Metallica screwed up doing that and have not gotten back on track in fact they just released their biggest pile of garbage yet.


Did I hit the right spot somewhere or am I completely off?

 

[Pestarzt]

Not entirely sure I understand. To me underground is a term that means not well known while commercial means radio friendly or accessible to a wide range of people. Do I prefer a raw sound or clean sound? What ever works best with what your trying to achieve. I have no problem with band changing from a harsher more brutal style to something more radio friendly as long as the music is still good but that's rarely the case. Metallica screwed up doing that and have not gotten back on track in fact they just released their biggest pile of garbage yet.


Did I hit the right spot somewhere or am I completely off?

Aye, you did. Thanks for chiming in!

 

[Bathoryswans]

Aye, you did. Thanks for chiming in!

Ahh well good to know ^_^

 

[[)eadmund]

Yea, the difference between commercial and "underground" or whatever is super fuzzy. Are they playing this way cause they think people will like it or because they want to play this way? How many people have to hear it before it isn't underground anymore? How do you measure if something is accessible or not?

A raw or an "underground" sound to me mainly means super low production values, like Vikernes singing into headphones and purposely using the worst amps he could find. Screaming is also obviously pretty raw.

A lot of times I prefer that because, I dunno, feels more challenging or more real or some bullshit like that. But then there's all the French black metal, which has pretty good production values and which I really like.

 

[Eligos]

A raw production method forces a band into actually playing their material. Recording in a single take on an eight track lends a much clearer insight toward what a band actually sounds like when they perform live (if they do so) and is thus more "TRVE" than a compressed, heavily edited, clean production.