Current Music Presents: Embedded

The best part about my job as online producer for Current Music is that I sit right here in the heart of the department, and since January I've had a front-row seat to watch the development of a new show unlike anything you've ever seen. Embedded, premiering on Wednesday, October 14, is the kind of TV any music fan dreams of—and though you have no real reason to believe me, I swear I'm saying that first and foremost as that lucky music fan, not because I work here. (Rolling Stone also picked us as one of their 50 reasons to watch TV. In one of the weirdest but most awesome and accurate reviews I've ever read about anything, they said, “If Animal Planet had a show that captured musicians in their natural habitats, it would look like this refreshingly raw documentary series.”)

I think Embedded could hold its own even if there were a dozen shows like it on the air, but there just aren't, not on Animal Planet or even MTV for that matter. Anyone who's gotten a glimpse at the inner workings of an entertainment publication or TV show has a laundry list of sad stories about how hard it is to actually document the life of a musician, to get enough time with an artist or a new album that you can actually feel justified in making a bold pronouncement, anointing a new heir or crowning a new queen. 

Embedded is a descendant of the best of Current Music's short- and long-form content, all organized around a simple, essential set of principles: Intimate. Exclusive. Access. We aren't going into each part of the special with a set idea of what the story is. Instead we start with the artists we most respect and collaborate to create opportunities where we can film them on stage and off, in the moments when most other crews are kicked to the curb or put down their cameras. We spent a week on the ground in Japan with Mos Def, perched on Silversun Pickups' shoulder as they played "Swoon" for the first time in front of a live audience, and criss-crossed the country with Common as he worked harder than a campaigning politician to prove to new and old fans just how powerful he thinks music can be.

And true to Current's own hybrid heritage, we've been (if quietly) taking the temperature of online communities as we select which artists to work with, what to ask them that won't be the same 10 questions they've heard at any album release press junket, and how to use the best and smartest information on the web to make TV like you've never seen before. Instead of waiting for a polished produced piece, we posted clips from a secret tweet-up show with Amanda Palmer within the week and dropped three a capellas with Mos performing songs from "The Ecstatic" the week before that album dropped. I'm working to stack current.com/embedded with all the extras, inside information and interaction I've always wanted as a music fan. Plus there will be some incredible interactive features you won't see anywhere else—because the brainiacs behind Current.com had to invent them.

The worst part about my job is not yet being able to tell you every single thing about what you'll see on the six parts of Embedded. But here's a little tease, and leading up to October 14, we'll have a little more, and then (the part we're really looking forward to) we'll get to hear what you think of it all.

Be sure to join the Embedded Group at current.com so you don't miss any exclusive sneak peeks.