What even counts as underground?
AUGUST 26TH, 2026
We're back again with our weekly exploration of the arts and technology landscape. This week we look at: the fun tax, what counts as underground, a multi-hyphenate hip-hop collective from South Carolina, and a member's only peek inside private spaces.
Of note: starting today, all emails are being sent through the Dark Forest Operating System. We've now fully moved off of Substack and Ghost (and saving $7,000+ a year in the process).
NEWS
It’s time to cut the fun tax (Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator) — In America, the number of places to have fun have measurably decreased and the price of doing something fun keeps increasing. Why? Economists and researchers trace some of this to private equity, which has increasingly bought up America’s leisure spaces, raising the literal inflation rate of fun faster than the overall economy. This piece, from a Vanderbilt professor and writer Kyla Scanlon, makes the case for a political movement to fight the fun tax. We're in.
Post-monoculture, what even counts as underground? (Dazed) — Good piece showing that “underground” artists these days have millions of listeners and brand deals, despite not being mainstream. What does it mean to be underground? Now that culture is so diffuse, do past concepts like “indie” even mean anything? (Related: we wanted to link Caroline Busta's excellent 2021 piece on countercultures that's in the Dark Forest Anthology of the Internet, but apparently the mag she wrote it for, Document Journal, is now offline?? All links now dead. Glad we put this essay into print!)
Can evolutionary theory be used to map culture and the arts? (Cambridge University Press) — A paper from two researchers — Oleg Sobchuk and Mason Youngblood — that uses data analysis to chart cultural works, phrases, and vocabulary across sectors over time, arguing that the same evolutionary theories we understand in biology are applicable to culture. Academic and provocative (talk about an oxymoron...).
DFOS Spotlight: WORST GENERATION
Worst Generation is an audiovisual collective out of Charleston, South Carolina, who have been releasing independently and together for years. Spearheaded by rapper Black Dave MK2 and including members Illadell, Kaizër, Martin Grooms, MJX, and YungHalfDead, the group’s output takes the form of hip-hop, fashion, and internet culture, with a growing following to show for it.
In their DFOS, Worst Generation have established a ritual we look forward to every week: Worst Gen Wednesday, when they drop — and send out via email — a behind-the-scenes look at their world, combined with a new track, an early look, and a window into their multiverse. What we most appreciate is the honesty. Sometimes there’s something new and exciting to share. Other times they’re real about it: they worked hard on a thing, but don’t have much to show for it. (We’ve been there.)
During a time when so much of being online is pure performance, we’re grateful to have a direct line to a group of collaborators more interested in being real.
Explore the Worst Gen DFOS space.
MEMBERS ONLY: Forest Gathering Recap
Last week we welcomed two spacerunners — SOFTER and Studio Slowcore — to do a show-and-tell at our monthly Forest Gathering, presenting their work and DFOS spaces. DFOS cofounder Ilya Yudanov also joined to walk through the design vision of what we’re making.
DFOS members can exclusively watch a video recap of the event here. If you don’t yet have a DFOS account, you can sign up for free to watch.
— DFOS
