Option (music Magazine)

''Option'' (subtitled ''Music Alternatives'', then ''Music Culture'') was a music magazine based in Los Angeles, California, US. It covered independent, underground and alternative music and multiple musical genres for an international subscription base. Its print run began in 1985 and ended in 1998.

History

Originally called ''OPtion'', it, along with ''Sound Choice'', were the dual successors to the earlier music magazine '' OP'', published by John Foster and the Lost Music Network and known for its diverse scope and the role it played in providing publicity to DIY musicians in the midst of the cassette culture. When Foster ended ''OP'' after only twenty-six issues, he held a conference, offering the magazine's resources to parties interested in carrying on; attendant journalist David Ciaffardini went on to start ''Sound Choice'', while Scott Becker, alongside Richie Unterberger, founded ''Option''. Whereas ''Sound Choice'' was described as a low-budget and "chaotic" publication in spirit, ''Option'' was characterized as a "profit making operation" right at the start, meant to compete with the newly founded ''Spin''.

The magazine began as a small press publication, described by the New Music Periodicals review of the Music Library Association as "encompassing rock, jazz, classical, and electronic forms". ''The New York Times'' noted its dedication to coverage of indie music releases, with each issue containing "hundreds" of reviews: "not all rock by any means, but it's hard to imagine the existence of ''Option'' before punk rock." The magazine used 40-50 unpaid reviewers at a time, few of whom were professional critics.

One given issue's musicians profiled included "New Orleans's proto-jazz outfit the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and bluesman Walter "Wolfman" Washington; Indian pop-traditionalist Najma Akhtar; vanguard composer and pianist Cecil Taylor; Yugoslavia's ideological rockers, Laibach; Texas R&B veteran Doug Sahm; Brit dance funkateers Wolfgang Press". According to Becker, the editors conscientiously debated as to whether cover subjects such as Frank Zappa and Siouxsie and the Banshees were "too well known".

By the late 1980s, ''Option'' had built up a reputation for its coverage of alternative and underground music scenes, regardless of genre or nationality. The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' called it "the top all-round music mag in the States today" in terms of "covering music from anywhere but the mainstream", and ''The Washington Post'' called it the "best" for "a broader spectrum of contemporary music". In 1989, the magazine had subscribers in 26 countries outside the United States. The advertising section was largely dedicated to small record labels; in 1997, Becker stated that advertising remained affordable to such companies due to the magazine keeping to a small circulation (27000 at the time).

1995 saw a graphical re-design of the magazine, focused mainly on improving readability. The logo typeface was changed to Frutiger, interior text was limited to Garamond and Triplex from the more eclectic mixture used previously, and the subtitle became instead ''Music Culture''. These changes took place in the 10th anniversary issue (March/April 1995). On the elimination of the "alternatives" tag, Becker commented, in that issue's editorial and elsewhere, that "alternative" had been reduced to a "marketing platform" in culture and the media, becoming "watered down": "The sense that 'alternative' means 'other' - or 'all' - music is lost."

In July 1998, Becker announced that ''Option'' would go on hiatus, in order to consider the issues of finances and online competition; however, the July/August issue proved to be its last. The ''Los Angeles Times'' later attributed the end of the magazine to a mid-1990s jump in the price of paper, which the size of the publication could not accommodate for.

On March 1, 2010, '90s-era ''Option'' editor Mark Kemp – with support and encouragement from Becker – assembled a new ''Option'' team rounded out by media director Herman Marin and his brother, art director Juan Miguel Marin. The web-only publication soft-launched in December with a Kemp-penned review of the Girl Talk album ''All Day'' and his report from Morocco's Fez Festival of World Sacred Music. The new ''Option'' used earlier name writers such as Neil Strauss, Stanley Booth and Karen Schomer as well as younger newcomers, and included interactive sections inviting users to participate in the musical and cultural dialog. After three homepage "cover" stories – Yo La Tengo, Girl Talk and Steve Earle – it, too, went on hiatus when Kemp returned as editor in chief of '' Creative Loafing Charlotte'' in September 2011.

Features

Covers

Early issues of ''Option'' were numbered alphabetically: as the twenty-six issues of ''OP'' were numbered A-Z, ''Option'' was published starting from issue #A2 (A-Squared). Issue #S2 (S-Squared) (March/April 1988) ended this system, and subsequent issues were numbered from #20 onwards. The pro-active rationale at the time, as ''OPtion'' was approaching the end of the squared alphabet, was to eliminate repeating the original ''OP'' alphabet yet again, and thus avoid cubed letters. In addition, just as ''OP'' used the letter of each issue as a theme, selecting musicians and topics named beginning with that issue's letter, early lettered issues of ''Option'' also carried on this practice. Very early covers emphasized the connection to ''OP'' magazine by capitalizing the first two letters of ''OPtion''.

Artists who have appeared multiple times on the cover of ''Option'' include Brian Eno, on #E2 (E-Squared) (November/December 1985) and #37 (March/April 1991); Sonic Youth, on #G2 (G-Squared) (March/April 1986) and #79 (March/April 1998); and Meat Puppets, on #R2 (R-Squared) (January/February 1988) and #64 (September/October 1995). Issue #64 also featured a non-music headline banner, covering the death of Cesar Rene Arce.

The cover of the final issue, #81, featured Elliott Smith.

Subscription incentives

In the mid-1990s, ''Option'' included various record label sampler CDs with subscriptions. These included ''Particle Theory: A Compendium of Lightspeed Incursions and Semiotic Weapons From Warner/Reprise'' (Reprise Records, 1993) and ''No Balls'' ( 4AD, 1995).

Staff

Scott Becker was ''Option's'' owner and publisher for its entire history from the mid-1980s until 1998. He created a world-class, innovative, music magazine that quickly became a distinguished icon within both the counter-culture and mainstream rock music worlds. Unlike most other publishers, Becker saw his magazine as a complex organism, a work of graphic art, music, thought, and underground mass communication for the "true" indy music scene. Shunning personal publicity, he gradually became more and more involved in his own personal and spiritual evolution, resisting the growing effects of the internet upon the music magazine business. Becker finally pulled the plug on ''Option'' in 1998 as the alternative publishing and indy music markets both began to falter drastically, no longer being the truly independent scenes they were when he first started the magazine in the '80s. Following ''Option's'' closure, Becker has since become a full-time artist.

Richie Unterberger served as editor from 1985 to mid-1991, and subsequently became a major contributor to Allmusic.

Mark Kemp succeeded Unterberger as editor from 1991, until being hired by ''Rolling Stone'' as an editor in 1996. His successor, Jason Fine, was also hired by ''Rolling Stone'' a year later, and remains there to date.

Steve Appleford followed Jason Fine for most of 1997. Becker then edited the final two issues of the magazine himself with the assistance of senior editor Erik Pedersen.

Kristin Bell was ''Option's'' art director from its inception as a Xeroxed sheet in the late 1980s through its coming of age in the mid-1990s, creating the incredible style, avant-garde layouts, photography and edgy feel for which the magazine became famed. While at ''Option'' Bell was at the very forefront of the then industry-wide shift away from manual compositing to Apple-based digital layouts, her groundbreaking digital compositing playing a great role in the magazine's fresh look, growth and success. Prior to ''Option'', she served as art director of Los Angeles-based ''Rock Magazine'' in the mid-'80s. After leaving ''Option'' in 1995, she subsequently became co-producer of Lee Lew-Lee's multi-award-winning documentary on the '60s US civil rights movement, ''All Power to the People'', which was broadcast in 24 nations, as one of the few globally watched and acclaimed documentaries on the subject. She now serves as consultant to SFDM, INC., a high-performance super-computing company, specializing in rich media, 3D modeling, HDTV and 3D film rendering, as well as "petaflop scale" scientific R&D and HPC.

Barbara "Bix" Jordan served as ''Option's'' Assistant Editor from the late 1980s until early '90s.

Spin-offs

UHF

In January 1995, Sonic Options Network launched ''UHF'' (''Ultra High Frequency''), an alternative fashion magazine, after including it in ''Option'' itself as a supplement for two issues, starting in June 1994. The magazine targeted ages ranging from teens to 20s, focusing on concerns such as affordability; early issues were distributed at Urban Outfitters outlets. Later, in 1997, Becker characterized the launch as a failure.

Option.FM

''Option.FM'' was an electronic dance music compilation album released in conjunction with Moonshine Records in 1998. Tracks were selected by Moonshine president Steve Levy and Becker, who wrote the liner notes to the album. A second volume, planned to be released within the year, never materialized.

# "Westway" – Dub Pistols
# "I Am the Freshmaka" – The Freshmaka
# "We All Want to Be Free" (Skull Valley dub) – Tranquility Bass
# "Why?" (DJ Vadim remix) – Gus Gus
# "You Don't Get Me" ( Urban Takeover mix) – Espiritu
# "Frequency 019" – Snow
# "Children of Summer" – Color Filter
# "Ballet Mechanique" – DJ Spooky with Burro Banton
# "Banano's Bar" – Plastilina Mosh
# "Halfway Around the World" – Thievery Corporation
# "Billy Club" (original) – Junkie XL
# "Madness" (DJ Dara remix) – Keoki
# "Neon Ray" – Lunatic Calm

Notes

{{Reflist

References

Entry
at RoJaRo

Entry
at WorldCat

Cassette culture 1970s–1990s
1985 establishments in California
1998 disestablishments in California
Bimonthly magazines published in the United States
Defunct magazines published in the United States
Magazines established in 1985
Magazines disestablished in 1998
Magazines published in Los Angeles
Music magazines published in the United States