Alternative media has morphed into a formidable popularizing force in the art-adjacent realm, as well in the broader culture. In the past decade, podcasts, social media fora and game streaming platforms have incentivized a certain versatility among their users. Pods, for instance, can now juggle both free range topical convos from hosts and artist/show plugging segments. In the same vein, it’s not uncommon nowadays for game live streamers to have an actor or music artist tagging along for occasional commentary and scripted comic relief. And of course, as capitalism would dictate, there’s always a product to plug in the mix. For a demonstration of the same point, each of the members on our team has been hosted on a pod before to plug one thing or another.
Recognizing this shift in alternative media’s role, we’re also of the view that there’s more the format can achieve, specifically in EA’s art scope. And by art, we of course mean that of a transdisciplinary range; music, cinematography, heck even still visual art. For greater clarity, we’ll concern ourselves mostly with the concept of release cycles. Imagine alternative media as an art release cycle circuit. Well, you don’t have to “imagine” it, anyway, it’s already a massive thing in the greater culture-disseminating regions of the world like the U.S. & the like. But getting back to our scope, we are of the view that release cycles would be more conceptually layered, commercially lucrative, and culturally potent if they were conceived as circuits. As in, ecosystems of multiple stops at pods, live streams, gamer channels, art-adjacent YouTuber joints, each complimentary in showcasing a new themed angle to the art being promoted, by virtue of their format. Say, I have a banger Afro-electro album coming out soon, for one I’d plan to reserve a long enough period before its release if I planned to hit an alt media circuit to plug it into public consciousness. That’s already a huge positive.
To make alt media circuits the more dominant approach towards release cycles, effort would have to be shared among alt media big players, along with cultural tastemakers, and artists’ teams or independent artists themselves. Since it’s a jungle out there, and people just be scrambling to get whatever scraps of attention they come across, it’d be more feasible if cultural tastemakers led the way in broaching the concept to alt media folks, who’d then make synergies in the form of programmed arrangements with artists. We, the team back here, of course fancy ourselves as a certain kind of cultural tastemakers. And so, we realize we’re calling on ourselves to make certain cultural moves in this regard. And you bet we’re cheffing up some cool stuff in this regard. Stay on the look for a followup installation of this concept intro, one of these days!
