Rise, rise like a phoenix from the underground

Over the years I’ve gotten to know many musicians in the local alternative scene. They work day jobs, rehearse at night, and play live whenever they can. All of them take their music seriously. None of them chose the easy path — they refused the mainstream, poppy sound. They gather a few thousand streams, sell some CDs and vinyl at a makeshift merch stand. They know mass success won’t come their way. And that’s fine. It probably never was the goal. The local scene runs on passion, not profit.

But what if one of them did have what it takes to make it? Really make it. Success, being the fickle thing it is, often depends on right time, right place. Sometimes even on luck: one critic with some clout in the audience, one review picked up by a larger outlet, one celebrity namedropping. Quality and artistic value alone rarely cut it. It makes you wonder how much talent has gone unnoticed — not just among musicians, but across all the arts.

Franz Kafka saw almost no success while alive. Vincent van Gogh sold one painting. Poe was ignored until long after his death. Emily Dickinson’s poems lay hidden in a drawer. Each of them needed time — or someone stubborn enough — to rescue their work from oblivion.

We can assume the same thing happens today. Talent and important work remain unseen or dismissed because they don’t fit the commercial mold. Streaming algorithms reward the already-popular, creating a “rich get richer” loop that buries the new and the strange. A hype-heavy TikTok relies on superficiality. Raw, jagged sounds get pushed into niches far from the charts. They don’t align with the pensée unique of the times; they grate, and that’s their strength.

In time, some of these voices will rise like a phoenix and redefine what art means for the next era. History keeps proving it: giants often start in garages, basements, and sweaty pubs.

So maybe the best thing we can do is show up early — listen before the world tells us what’s worth hearing. Start with that local indie band. Who knows what you’ll find.

What’s your hidden gem?