A dozen or more pop groups, writers, singers and poets lashed out at what they considered the old-fashioned image of Denmark as a homogeneous country out of touch with the new cosmopolitan, ultra-liberal, "the word is one" philosophy. Kim Larsen, Shubi-Dua, Trille, Benny Andersen, Gags, Elisabeth G. Nielsen, Niels Hausgaard, Benny Holst, Erik Clausen and others were part of a new beat generation who all yearned for a greener and more culturally diverse Denmark. Their songs of protest were unilaterally in favor of what they considered to be the oppressed, no matter how much their isolation may have been self-imposed and due to strict prohibitions to socially consort with Danes or absorb any part of the prevailing culture.

The group Røde Mr (Red Mother) produced a recording in 1976 with a song called "Hjemlig hygge" (home hygge) in which hygge is lampooned and Denmark is represented as the epitomy of a corrupt land sacrificed on the altar of international capital and modern technology. It became fashionable to speak of uhygge! The prefix u, meaning "not," is used in the same way as the corresponding prefixes un-, non-, il, and im-, in English.