"Inimical in a Number of Ways to the Things We Most Value About Music"

"All these micro-genres are based around an ethos of participation. That's why scenes like noise or dubstep have such a high ratio of performers to punters, with the remainder of the audience often involved running labels, promoting gigs, or just writing about the music. As well as the attraction of commitment and effort, another reason to be involved in these scenes is a yearning for cultural intimacy: the desire to enter a space that is special, set apart. You could call this need to be in the know 'tribal' or 'elitist', depending on your own sympathies. But either way, this kind of secret knowledge is precarious, hard to maintain, precisely because of the web. It's easier than ever for people to find out about other people's business."

Simon Reynolds in a 2009 Guardian article explores the impact of the internet on "underground" music.