When The Chips Are Down, It’s Time To Innovate
Sometimes life goes on seemingly without interruption. Then out of nowhere chaos ensues disrupting our normal lives and pushing us to the brink. So what does one do when crisis hits with such finality?
Sometime at the tail end of last year a local radio station dedicated full time to rock music was shut down. For some people X fm was the centerpiece of their lives and it was quit shocking to me seeing the response. For a lot of people it seemed like this was the end of the world as we knew it.
People have been saying for some time now that rock music is dead. I tend to agree but I have been on the fence on this issue for some time now. The big rock band isn’t as big as their counterparts were when the genre was at it’s peak. As much as I would want to hold onto the idea that rock music is still alive, there was very little evidence to support that.
Xfm the only full time rock radio station abdicated their throne and began to play content that was more pop oriented for marketing reasons. The rock scene itself was not as big as it was in the late 2010s. Some people argue that 2012 was when the whole edifice fell on it’s face. Xfm closing down completely was the last nail in the coffin. With the death of the genre what’s next? Do we pack our shit and just start a whole different life?
That’s the question I felt I had to ask myself. Even though I continued blogging I knew for a fact that things were changing quickly. But my heart was telling me something else. It is like when you are faced with the death of a close family member or friend but they still come to you in your dreams. What do you do with the love you have for something that’s dead and gone forever?
A friend of ours that used to work at the X fm did something that I consider to be truly remarkable. Having witnessed it’s total collapse Edygrim decided to do something that can only be filmmakers, writers and philosophers have been saying on the subject.
While the fanbase was still in denial he accepted the stations demise without a second thought. When the fanbase was suggesting hair brained solutions like starting their own fm stations, Edygrim had assessed the situation of things and knew that what we needed was a paradigm shift and not a rehashing of the old ways.
He had already started work on a youtube podcast and he was calling it Alpha Wolf Radio. Having seen the potential of youtube for disseminating content and the promise of growth that it offered he dove headlong into the project. Now as far some may be concerned it may not look like much now but that really isn’t the point I am trying to make. Yes he may not be getting thousands of views at the moment.
In the intervening period before things get big again there has to be some level of toil. Building a following takes time and nurturing. Edygrim is doing that with bucket loads of premium content. At the moment this small but intimate viewership will propel the channel to greater heights.
I admire greatly his resolve to build something new following the collapse of the old guard. It has taken time to realise that the old city will not serve us for much longer. Much like Abraham we are called to greater things that lie outside of the city. In the intervening moments we will wander around the desert clinging faithfully to the promise with which we left our old home. Some have called this moment before the promise the trial of our faith.
I don’t doubt that Edygrim has the passion to fuel his rocket beyond the gravitational pull of doubt, naysaying and criticism. It will serve him well going forward especially during the hard times.
But aside from just seeing the opportunity that youtube has offered and even taking it, there is more that Alpha Wolf Radio can teach us about forging ahead that we may yet discover.
Jordan Peterson a clinical psychologist has offered a little insight into this. In some of his shows he mentions the Sumerian myth Marduk and Tiamat. This is a storytelling device there can be found in most other ancient religions in Egypt, Greece and even Israel. In the story Marduk takes on the power of all the other gods and goes out to fight the demon of chaos ‘Tiamat’. Marduk destroys Tiamat and from the pieces of its body he creates a new world.
This is the same system that fuels our souls because we are more than just the product of our parents and the society around us. We carry the memories, habits and wisdom of all our ancestors through millions of years. It is why we survive till this day.
Edygrim much like any innovater from our time. He knows like we all do that rock music still beats somewhere within our hearts. But he also knows that the old ways of the fm stations, broadcast Tv, print magazine and pubs can no longer take us as far as we want to go. They might have served our favorite rock bands in their heyday but we are already in a new age where nature is forcing us to adopt new strategies.
What is more remarkable however is that Edygrim has taken the wisdom of the old radio model and applied it to the digital platform. Like Marduk he has taken what evolution has gathered in ancestral memory and shaped it into something new.
That’s a lesson in here for all of us including this blog which began after print media stopped covering the local rock scene. But it is our faith in the intervening period that will test whether our love unlike most things on earth is undying. It will be the true determinant of whether we inherit the ‘new city’ or get lost in oblivion.
