ARC Music Festival has become more than just Chicago’s leading electronic music event over the last years. It has unintentionally become a repository for the ongoing evolution, fragmentation, and regeneration of underground electronic music. We can track the creation of new subgenres, see the rise of musicians that push boundaries, and see how the underground continuously reinvents itself by looking at the festival’s lineup progression from 2021 to 2025.
The Post-Pandemic Sound Emergence (2021-2022)
ARC’s first 2021 lineup featured well-known underground heavyweights and the then-developing melodic techno trend. It reflected a milieu emerging from epidemic isolation. While Meduza’s appearance indicated that even deeper house sounds were finding new manifestations, artists like Mathame and TSHA showed the emotional, dramatic path that underground electronic music was taking.
The 2022 expansion demonstrated the growing diversity of underground music. The inclusion of Ame and Tale Of Us cemented the underground legitimacy of melodic techno. Mochakk and other musicians launched the Brazilian underground tech-house trend that would go on to become a global phenomenon.
UK Renaissance and Genre Cross-Pollination (2023-2024)
By 2023, the most important development in underground music—the UK’s multi-genre renaissance—was reflected in ARC’s curation. The underground rediscovered the key elements of UK dance music with the inclusion of artists like Skream.
The 2024 lineup demonstrated the underground’s embracing of genre flexibility as a fundamental tenet. While Logic1000 introduced the distinctive percussion-based style of Australian electronic music to the world, Barry Can’t Swim embodied the new generation of UK producers who combined breakbeats with house sensibilities.
The participation of Partiboi69 (with DJ Heartstring) showed that serious musical creativity and meme culture could coexist in underground settings.
Most notably, the B2B explosion was presented in 2024—not as a new idea, but as a creative statement. Detroit Love (Carl Craig B2B Moodymann) and DJ Boring B2B Young Marco were two examples of pairings. This choice implied that underground music was shifting toward improvisational, group performances as its main creative vehicle.
The Fragmentation and Hyper-Specialization Era (2025)
The underground sector has become both divided and interwoven in 2025. Artists like Eris Drew and Octo Octa (as well as their B2B collaboration) are examples of underground music’s growing acceptance of queer stories and non-binary artistic expression as essential to musical innovation.
Skepta Más Tiempo’s existence indicates that grime and UK rap aspects have completely assimilated into underground electronic music. The new wave of industrially influenced techno, on the other hand, is embodied by musicians such as VTSS. She pushes underground music into really experimental terrain while preserving dancefloor utility.
New Sounds, New Scenes at ARC 2025
The Underground Explosion in Brazil
With its intricate percussion and organic-electronic combination, Brazilian underground electronic music has been a major global influence. Most of it started with Mochakk’s early 2022 debut and its increased representation in 2025.
The Underground Revival of Breakbeat
The transition from sporadic break components in 2023 to Jamie xx’s 2025 headline role demonstrates how breakbeat culture has been completely reframed inside modern underground music.
See also
The Sophisticated Return of UK Garage
Skream’s transition from dubstep pioneer to UKG curator (his 2025 B2B with Hamdi is specifically referred to as a “UKG Set”) shows how the underground has developed garage music into high-end, festival-ready programming, moving beyond its rave roots.
ARC’s Back-to-Back Revolution
The progression of underground music is reflected in ARC’s B2B programming. Adam Beyer and Cirez D was the only B2B set on the 2021 lineup. More than twenty B2B partnerships are in this year.
They illustrate how underground music has embraced improvisation and musical discourse as essential creative principles. The coupling of seemingly dissimilar artists (Boys Noize B2B VTSS, Green Velvet B2B Skepta Más Tiempo) reveals a scene confident enough in its core elements to experiment drastically with combination and collision.
Underground’s Constant Regeneration
In the end, ARC’s five-year development shows that “underground” is a process of ongoing musical renewal rather than a fixed location or sound. The underground scene has accepted new performance formats (B2B culture), incorporated previously disparate genres (grime, ambient, and industrial), and absorbed worldwide influences (Australian breaks, Brazilian tech-house, and UK garage) without compromising.
The 2025 lineup doesn’t represent underground music going mainstream. Rather, it shows underground music growing so diverse, so globally connected, and so creatively confident that traditional categorization has become inadequate.
Veterans like Derrick Carter and Richie Hawtin coexist with artists like Obskür and Interplanetary Criminal, implying a scene where historical roots and experimental edge complement one another.
The evolution of ARC’s lineup indicates that radical collaboration, worldwide genre synthesis, and innovative performance will characterize the next stage of underground electronic music. Through diversity, intelligence, and innovative risk-taking, the underground has maintained and even strengthened its advantage.