If you are looking for a well crafted guide to all things related to musical artists that are underrepresented in mainstream media, The Cultural Reset is the perfect place for you to begin.
Launched this year by Nick Lee and Shay Ervin, The Cultural Reset is a multimedia platform dedicated to bringing awareness to artists who do not get the attention they deserve, as well as bridge the gap between industry professionals and rising artists.
The latest addition to The Color of Music Collective, The Cultural Reset helps to further COMC’s goal of highlighting POC and LGBTQ+ artists.
“The Cultural Reset is a platform designed to uplift voices of POC artists,” Lee shared. “We post album reviews, conduct very in depth artist interviews where we talk about navigating the industry as a person of color or a member of the LGBTQ population, and also curate playlists.”
“Our mission is to reset the industry so that it focuses on the under represented. We want to be the bridge that connects fans to artists that represent them. We want to highlight artists that aren’t being highlighted by the mainstream media.”
Nick Lee, Founder of The Cultural Reset
After meeting through a mutual friend and the creator of COMC, Lee and Ervin began working together to bring their goal of representation to life.
As the site’s creator and editor, Lee is in charge of managing the team of contributors and curating content- making sure things are formatted correctly and done in a set schedule. And with Ervin, who serves as the site’s assistant director, by his side- the duo work closely together curate playlists, in addition to conducting artist interviews, and assisting in motivating and managing their growing team of volunteers.
Prior to working on The Cultural Reset, both Lee and Ervin had their own experiences within the industry where they witnessed descrimination first hand.
“I am a singer/songwriter,” Lee shared. “I witnessed discrimination first hand in regards to how they share or market POC.”
“As a black man I feel it’s my responsibility to do something that focuses on the artist- especially the underrepresented.”
Nick Lee
Ervin, on the other hand, has more behind the scenes experience.
“My experience is with festivals. I worked at Electric Forest, and I have had some experience working on the production side of events. I love being behind the scenes.”
As for what difficulties they’ve experienced so far in creating their site from the ground up, both organizers have not found much pushback from artists or content creators that they’ve approached for features- but both voiced their concerns for future pushback based on the age of their team.
“I can’t stress enough how young our team is,” Lee shared. “They are all really incredible, very young professionals.”
“Luckily so far we have had very eager artists who want to be interviewed and share their stories,” Ervin added. “We are professionals, but I fear we won’t be taken seriously due to how young we all are. But we are a professional platform.”
And though 2020 has been the most hectic year for the music industry in decades, Lee and Ervin think it is both a blessing and a curse for the industry to essentially be shut down while they’ve launched this new platform.
“Now is the perfect time to revamp the music industry,” the duo agreed.
As for what the team would want to say to someone who doesn’t believe their platform is necessary or advice for anyone wondering what the point of their site is- they stressed the importance of representation.
“[People must] acknowledge the fact that there are people who aren’t you who have voices and experiences like you that need to be heard,” Lee stated.
“There are people who are strategically underrepresented [in the media] and I’d encourage somebody to look at the industry and see who’s been at the top, and how long they’ve been there. There’s nothing like [The Cultural Reset] that exists.”
“[I’ve heard] straight white men say they feel excluded,” Ervin added. “Just because we don’t highlight you doesn’t mean you can’t come to our site. Many systems are made for them. It’s okay that this doesn’t highlight you- plenty of places do.”
“It’s not exclusionary. We want people to come sit and listen.”
“I just hope people are inspired and motivated and that they can come get some advice and listen to other people’s perspectives. This is all about learning new perspectives,” Ervin stressed.
“I want people to see these talented persons of color and LGBT artists and support them so that they aren’t starving artists, so they can see where they come from,” Lee shared. “I want people to come and sit and take it seriously.”
“[TCR is for] anyone who needs a sense of community. Our site is a good place to connect,” Ervin added.
And for the project’s goals, Lee and Ervin shared that they share both short term and long term goals- some of which involve doing their part to revamp the industry as a whole.
“Our short term goal is to transition to visual content, with a webseries type format,” Lee shared. “Maybe an IGTV series via The Color of Music Collective.”
“Our long term goal is to be the bridge between music- specifically LGBT and POC artists- and music professionals to find and support these artists.”
“We hope we can help influence the industry to help put the power in the hands of artists,” Ervin chimed in.
“Influence authenticity to reset the industry.”
You can view and connect with The Cultural Reset as well as both Lee and Ervin via the links below, and be sure to stay tuned for future updates on their move to visual content and their own social media pages.
The Cultural Reset: Website / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube
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