ABSTRACT
This chapter explores notions of independence in the record industry through a longitudinal case study of Glasgow, Scotland label Chemikal Underground. It examines the development of the label and situate it in a milieu of cultural production that increasingly depends on the power of social and cultural capital to enable and transform economic capital. The chapter outlines the label’s conceptualization of independence and discusses the ways in which Chemikal Underground has pragmatically adopted a series of non-ideological constrained strategies as means to ensuring solvency and cultural production in a post-digital context. In his work on do-it-yourself punk labels around the world, K. Dunn evaluates the possibility of political resistance through alternative approaches to cultural production. The development of Chemikal Underground from being an independent record label into a management company, an events organizer and a community-focused nexus of arts and cultural production more generally is most clearly demonstrated in The East End Social, organized by the label.
