The Music Industry in the Country

Task: Describe the current music industry in the country from your perspective as a music student using these terms explored (mainstream, subculture, counterculture, music scenes, capitalism, grassroot, high-brow culture, social class, underground).

First, I try to search about the terms:

• subculture - generally able to exist within mainstream culture 
• counterculture - against mainstream culture 
• mainstream culture - dominant trend in opinion, regarded as conventional and normal
• music scene - any music community 
• capitalism - an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state
• grassroots - people regarded as the main body of an organization's membership. Something grassroots is at the most basic level of something, down there in the dirt with the roots of an idea or activity
• highbrow - anything highbrow is usually intellectual in nature, and people who appreciate such things are also called highbrows. Highbrows usually have money and are sometimes considered snobby or hoity-toity. The opposite of highbrow is lowbrow, which refers to vulgar and less sophisticated culture and people. 
• underground (music) - underground music comprises musical genres beyond mainstream culture. any song that is not being legally commercialized is considered underground

HMMM assuming that what is meant by "music industry" is the biggest music industry catering to popular demands or interests of the many, then I think that the music industry today is full of "indie music". Indie as in the sound of indie, and not exactly the culture of indie (indie = independent, in my understanding). But I will say that these indie artists did start out independently. They worked their way up and managed to attract a big audience without any big names or labels supporting them or giving them spotlights. In this regard, I think of them as being previously grassroots. Being strong and flourishing as they are, the bigger labels then brought them under their [capitalist, greedy] umbrella, along with the big audience that the artists already had, so that these labels can make money. I think lots of artists put a lot of value in exposure and fan size, so I guess it is difficult to turn the big labels down.