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; 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.
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