The Cultural Reset: Uplifting POC and LGBTQ Artists

As a subsidiary organization of The Color of Music Collective, The Cultural Reset seeks to uplift the voices, artistic expression, and industry experiences of POC and LGBTQ artists navigating throughout the music industry.

Founded by Nick Lee, he and his assistant director, Shannon Ervin, conduct intimate, informational interviews with talent and publish written reviews of album releases. The Cultural Reset hopes to embolden underrepresented creatives and professionals to make space for themselves in the ever-growing music industry.

Lee and Ervin are both passionate advocates for cultural and ethnic diversity in all facets of the entertainment industry and believe music has the power to bring people together.

OFM had the opportunity to chat more with both Lee and Ervin about The Cultural Reset, which officially launched in October.

Hi, Nick and Shannon! Thank you for taking some time to chat with me about The Cultural Reset. Can you begin by telling us more about it and how it came to be?
Nick Lee: The Cultural Reset is essentially a platform that I started to basically to bring equality to the music industry. In the music industry, you will find that a lot of POC and LGBTQ people are extremely discriminated against and marginalized. So, I decided to create this platform as sort of a way to bridge that gap. We focus on amplifying the voices of POC and LGBTQ people, artists specifically through uplifting their art, looking at stories, and looking at all their music.

We do that through doing album reviews; we have a writing team that does reviews on albums by POC and LGBTQ artists. We, like myself and Shay, conduct artist interviews. We interview POC and LGBTQ artists, and we allow them to tell their stories, relay their experience in the music industry, what it was like growing up being POC or LGBTQ. We also do playlists; we curate playlists that explicitly feature POC and LGBTQ artists’ songs. So, we are just kind of that platform trying to reset the industry. Making sure that it is more centered on the artists, instead of the industry taking advantage of the artists, especially those groups of people.

This branched off from The Color of Music Collective. Why did you want to create The Cultural Reset?
NL: I am friends with the person who created The Color of Music Collective. Essentially, it focuses on uplifting POC and LGBTQ voices on the professional side of the entertainment industry. The marginalization happens on both the artist side and the professional side. So, they focus on uplifting professionals and trying to find a way to amplify their voices as well. When I got involved with that, I loved that concept, and I talked to the founder about it.

She was happy to have me on board and everything, but I brought up the fact that maybe we should also focus on the artists because artists also have voices. She agreed and was like, yes, I think that is really great. It would be cool if you could start and run it. It can be like your own little thing, so just go ahead and do it. I decided to do it, called it The Cultural Reset, and here we are. We have a great team of people that work very hard to bring this together.

Shannon, when and why did you get involved?
Shannon Ervin: I got involved a few weeks before we launched. I just kind of stepped up and asked Nick if he needed somebody to bounce ideas off of, to help organize volunteers. I got involved because I am also friends with the other founder of The Color of Music Collective, and I really enjoy The Color of Music Collective platform. I actually applied to be one of their volunteers, but when I found out that they were starting a new branch, The Cultural Reset, I joined one of those teams instead.

I found myself in this position because I have a lot of experience with organizing volunteers; I really get to utilize those skills, and I think that Nick and I complement each other in our professional experiences to be able to manage young professionals across the country. They are all doing their own different things, doing full-time jobs, so it does take a lot of balancing and being able to keep people motivated when we don’t even get to see each other in person.

Although both The Color of Music Collective and The Cultural Reset have only been around for less than a year, how beneficial have they become?
NL: Oh my gosh, very beneficial. We have gotten the chance to interview a lot of emerging artists, but also relatively big-time artists that kind of fit into our mold. We have gotten to have some incredible discussions with them where they just get to relay their experience and everything about what makes them who they are and where they come from, stuff like that. Stuff that they would not usually tell in other interviews that they would have.

We have definitely built some traction. I think that we have a lot of people coming to our website and saying, oh my gosh, this is a great platform, or here’s my artist, he or she does this. We know a lot of people are interested in being featured on our platform as well, so I think that is going to be a great way in how we are changing the industry.

SE: We definitely filled a void that was brought about because of quarantine. Everything had to go virtual and people are looking for ways to connect in the music industry. Being able to tell their stories over a platform like this has been very, almost therapeutic for us and the artists who we talk to. Being able to have these open conversations and being able to provide some professional experience to young professionals who are not able to be in the office networking right now.

So, we have definitely filled a void that can only exist with platforms like CMC and TCR. like They can only exist because it is done virtually. It has been very interesting adapting to this new world.

Do you both dabble in music yourselves?
NL: Yes! I sing, song-write, and perform at a lot of venues. I love music making. I really love to sing and that type of stuff. I think that is one thing that really drew me to this. I got to see other artists that I know kind of be discriminated against firsthand by venues and professionals in the industry. It did not sit right with me, being able to see that myself.

SE: I would say I am acquainted with the piano and guitar, but I am not a musician. I am a painter, but I have been working on the festival end of the music industry, so I love to be behind the scenes and make music happen because music brings life to me. Constantly, when I think I am living the life in a movie or something, it is my soundtrack. I greatly rely on music in my life, so I just want to be a part of improving it and making it a better space.

Related Article: Spreading Hope and Positivity Through Music: Jay Long

How would you say music unites communities?
NL: That is such a good question! Music has such a profound effect on every one of us as individuals. If you like a certain song or any artist that creates the song, there is going to be a natural bond between you and other people. However, I also think that music, when it comes to communities, has some strong cultural roots. We have interviewed some artists who have talked about some of their influences.

For example, you hear them talk about things that are really close to them. Their family, their culture, their heritage. I think that music is such a powerful tool that kind of defines communities, as well as defines the individual. I think that it just works to bring everybody together. They are shared emotions; music is literally just emotion. It is a feeling. It’s so raw, so primal. I think that is how it kind of brings people together.

SE: It is very instinctual, and I also think that it does not matter what language the music is in or what language you speak. Music is nonbinary to a specific language, and I think it can talk to everybody, but also, it does bring about emotions. It brings about celebration, grieving, and being able to connect with other people by having similar tastes in music or having different tastes in music. It is so personal. Everybody has different songs that they like, and it is so unique to every single person. So, I think it really reflects humanity. Using the word “primal” is very accurate.

Do you think the industry is getting at all when it comes to under-representing POC and the LGBTQ community?
SE: Yes and no. Nick and I talk about this because this website is geared towards the music industry, and obviously there is still a lot of discrimination towards POC and LGBTQ people in every community. This is just the one where we have been able to step up and try to have our impact on these systems. I think that it is almost following suit to the movie industry, Hollywood. I feel like Hollywood is starting to come around, but music is not quite there yet.

NL:  Along those lines of what she is talking about, I have worked in TV, film, and that sort of industry as well. They have definitely already kind of had their “Me Too” movement. Now it is becoming way more inclusionary, and people are way more likely to call other people out. You have show like Ellen who are notorious for discrimination being called out and rectified. So, I definitely agree with that fact.

The music industry is becoming more inclusionary, but the con with that is you still have these professionals in the industry as a whole making their money off the back of artists. They are still kind of discriminating against artists and really holding them down in a lot of different ways. You are also seeing larger organizations and music kind of taking advantage of the diversity movement.

Tokenization of a white minority who is LGBTQ or disabled, but the industry is like, oh, we have this artist in our roster. We care. That is something we also want to fight against. Like, we see representation, but it is not real representation. They do not care about the actual story of these people.

What are you going to do to ensure that The Cultural Reset stays a success?
SE: That is a big question, but I think the biggest part is our volunteers. We provide the platform; we provide the structure, but the real strength comes from our volunteers. I think that as our volunteers grow into their music careers, TCR is going to grow with them. That is the whole point, to be able to enable people who have their head on their shoulders right and want to be able to help artists, want to be able to promote POC and LGBTQ artists in the music industry.

That is all of our mission across the board, so I think that unity is what’s going to give us the strength, but it is also our connection that we have had with these artists and with the people that we interview. We have been able to have some very intimate conversations, and we have artists that are very excited for us and want to help us drive. We are already making plans, whenever we end conversations with our artists, we want to talk to you again. Let’s check back in a year or so. It is maintaining these relationships, being able to come back around, and having hard workers like Nick and myself being willing to do that.

NL: Literally everything she just said. I feel like we are also going to stay strong and keep growing by making this transition to visual content as well. Right now, our platform is very much written, and we are starting to incorporate audio interviews to make it more listener-friendly. I think visual content and audio will make things more intimate because there is something about hearing an artist’s story. Looking at them and hearing the words from their mouth.

Before we wrap up, is there anything else you would like to mention or plug?
SE: I think our video content is the next big thing to come out. We have our Instagram and will be promoting stuff there, and I think if you are looking to find new music, come to our site. Check out our playlists and artists. Check out our interviews. They are geared to give advice to young creatives, so if any young creatives read this piece and are looking for some advice or inspiration, come to our website. Check out what they have to say because some of it is very helpful.

Follow The Cultural Reset on Instagram, or visit its official website to stay up-to-date on the latest news, projects, and interviews.

Photos Courtesy of The Cultural Reset