What is The New Sincerest?
History
The New Sincerest originally began in 2018 as a radio program I hosted while DJing and music directing at The University of Maine’s college radio station, WMEB 91.9fm. In 2022 The New Sincerest moved to Iowa State University’s college radio station, KURE 88.5fm; that autumn a Spotify podcast version of the show was launched. With Spotify’s announcement that their podcast tools will be significantly reduced in 2024, The New Sincerest plans to make a new home here on Substack.
What exactly is The New Sincerest as a program?
The New Sincerest takes a researched pop culture perspective on music, considering the trends, inspirations, artist histories, and zeitgeists that influence current or past eras of modern music. Inspired by the playlist’s inherent strength as a narrative device, each of The New Sincerest’s sets are intended to tell a coherent story: they may dissect a new album’s key themes, or trace the trajectory of a genre’s evolution, or document a personal experience through a memoir-esque structure. The main guiding force for the sets, regardless of what shape they take, is sincerity: this program is meant to be a celebration of the ways music moves the body and the heart.
In 2023, The New Sincerest launched New Sensation, a review program focused on highlighting new releases from the alternative music scene; the program is cohosted by Matthew Hadley, a graphic designer based out of Ames, IA (Instagram: nicetry.us). While New Sensation existed as a podcast as well, The New Sincerest’s move to Substack will also allow for restructuring of New Sensation in written and recorded forms.
Why “The New Sincerest” as a name?
“New sincerity” describes a cultural movement (largely related to popular media) that emphasized a reclamation of its titular philosophy in response to the cynicism and deconstructionist tendencies of post-modernism in the second half of the 20th century. New sincerity has gone in and out of vogue throughout the last few decades, but has seen a resurgence in recent years, a reaction to the grimdark aesthetics and political nihilism presciently emergent in the 2010s and onward; it’s subversion is its transparency and earnestness and embracement of emotion.
Music has consistently been a very pure form of art for me, a medium I could turn to for personal, creative, therapeutic, and professional purposes. When I rebranded from the program’s original name of Deep Cuts, I wanted a name that would better relay the intentions of the program. At The New Sincerest, music is all about the feeling.
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