Against the Stream - The Wire

"For all their horrors, the Covid years were oddly good for radio. With gigs shuttered and the usual circuits of nightlife abruptly choked off, artists and audiences moved online in search of somewhere to gather. Live sets were broadcast from bedrooms, performances surfaced from empty venues, local scenes tried to keep themselves going through the ether. DIY online stations didn't suddenly emerge during the pandemic."

"The remit is whatever sits outside the cleansed margins of the dominant culture, "music misfits, amateurs, and seasoned DJs", as Clyde Built Radio puts it. A minor infrastructure, but one in which local underground cultures quietly persist. Meanwhile, music is drawn ever deeper into platform capitalism's limitless digestive system, in which everything is processed into frictionless, mildly flavoured playlists; musical wallpaper, as one description has it, but with the walls closing in."

Covid lockdowns pushed artists and audiences online, producing live sets from bedrooms and performances from empty venues as local scenes sought new ways to gather. Dozens of DIY online stations appeared or flourished, forming a loose network that circulates underground music globally. Stations operate via volunteer labour and improvised arrangements—intermittent broadcasts, borrowed rooms, corners of cafes or market stalls. Repertoires prioritize music outside the dominant culture, described as "music misfits, amateurs, and seasoned DJs." These small stations provide human-curated, ad-free broadcasts and form a minor infrastructure that lets local underground cultures quietly persist amid platform commodification of music.

Read at The Wire Magazine - Adventures In Modern Music