Legitimize yourself

As creative people we’re incentivized to chase the approval of others. Self-promote on social media. Fill out grant applications. Go to sleep and wake up with mantras of being discovered and seen for who we believe ourselves to be.

Dreams and goals are important, but we’re rarely at our best when we’re driven by a need for approval. To access what we perceive as the inner circle, we subtly shift our work to what we think others want rather than our own vision. We jump through institutional hoops to be seen favorably by the judges without asking whether it serves our interests or theirs. 

These strategies can work, but only for a small, connected few. For those of us who do not pass through the pearly gates, our thirst to get inside risks diverting us from our creative truth.

We’ve been there.

It was that experience that led us to consider a different path: instead of following the herd, starting a new pack of our own.

Take early punk bands. They made noisy music that existing labels weren’t interested in. Left with no other choice, they started their own labels to put themselves out. Fans bought records and some started their own bands, sometimes putting out music on the same label that inspired them and sometimes starting their own. A scene far bigger than anyone anticipated happened as a result.

“Punk was about more than starting a band,” Mike Watt of legendary punk band the Minutemen said. “It was about starting a label. It was about taking control.”

This is true of grassroots labels of all kinds. They’re self-legitimizing structures that let groups of people express and manifest their creative point of view without the need for institutional approval. This includes the new kinds of groups happening on Metalabel like:

Hard Art — A collective of 150-plus artists, activists, and faith and community leaders brought together to make and release work that creates space for a new social energy in the UK. Includes Brian Eno, Es Devlin, Asif Kapadia, and more.

The Dark Forest Collective — A collective of writers, designers, and internet co-conspirators brought together by the Dark Forest Theory about how we congregate online. The group is beginning to “sign” new projects and artists to release with them.

FKMM — A label started by the Japan-based photographer Francis Kanai to collaborate among friends. Across two publications, Kanai released work with the poet Malaya Malandro (Everything Is a Self Portrait) and the poet Kan San and designer JOYCE (Trying to Remember to Forget) in release limited edition, lush art books. 

In each of these cases, the label format creates a psychic infrastructure that allows the people involved to fluidly and collectively punch above their weight compared to what they could do individually.

This path is available to us all. Instead of hoping for institutions to pick us or the social media lottery to strike, by starting labels we can create our own legitimacy. We can start new packs of our own.