Paul Rand “Good Design Is Good Will” 1987 from  Graphic Design Theory: Readings From the Field page 64-69 and Steven Heller “Underground Mainstream” in Design Observer 2008.

Mainstream and Underground are a form of a gray line between what was original and what is a piece taken and reformed to be “new”. One could argue that underground is the truest form or originality, but what if someone incorporated an idea through the form of a contract owned by a larger corporation who wanted to make a significant share in the marketplace? It is an alternative to growing a market by oneself by that means and that will make it an original concept. However, their views and outtake  would be viewed as not consumer friendly, which in turn will be changed to suit the viewer’s needs. That example in of itself can be looked at as Underground being different from Mainstream. In the excerpt, “All manner of publicly taboo sexuality appears on magazines and on billboards where shock in any realm is hard to come by”. This means that anything relative to the pure aspects of underground is changed to fit a more generalized and moral perspective, and in turn can destroy any significance that its originality has intended. A once good idealized concept can be corrupted and reused to fit an agenda that fits any Mainstream’s needs. This can also be contradicted by the fact that a corporation created this “public face” in the first place which then can be subjected to change, hence the gray line.