In recent years, there has been a rapid surge in the number of underground music groups in Iran. These groups have worried parents and also challenged formal cultural values and organizations. The young age of the singers and musicians, the critical and explicit content of such music, the challenge to the moral codes of the society, and access to new ICT’s including the Internet, have all turned this music into a basic element of youth culture in Iran. However, there is a significant difference between their notions of "underground” and the global/ Western meaning of the concept. They have a paradoxical tendency to both “be” and “not be” underground. On the one hand the producers of this music prefer to remain “underground”, and on the other they need to attain formal authorization from governmental cultural bodies in order to attract more audiences. This paper aims to study the development of Iranian underground music as a global-local phenomenon and explain its meaning for Iranian youth. After depicting the social and cultural situations that lead to the creation and development of underground music in Iran, this paper will focus on famous underground rap and rock groups.
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