My friend Don Campau has published an amazing web page on the history of 1980s-1990s cassette culture underground music. This is a great place to find out what it was all about, how it started, who the key figures were, etc. The underground music scene is as big as ever and continues to thrive in the age of cd-rs, mp3s, wave files, etc. but this is where it all started. Check it out:
http://www.doncampau.com/livingarchive.htm
Thanks Don for your incredible hard work.
Ray