Over the past year we’ve been taking notes on some fringe trends that have recently emerged or resurfaced. They relate to everything we do: what we eat, how we live, the technology we use and the culture we embrace. Some have huge implications. Others are just incredibly weird. But all have some potential to disrupt the brandscape and make an impact on our lives.

1. FRINGESTREAM
GUIDEBOOK
2017

2. FRINGESTREAM…
In the pre-digital and pre-globalized world,
mass culture dominated and fringe culture was
limited to whatever was in direct opposition to
mainstream values and behaviors.
The boundaries between fringe and mass were
strictly defined and the mainstream was a
homogenous collective, largely controlled by
established institutions.
…my how things have changed.
2
THESOUND

3. ..IS THE NEW MAINSTREAM
Now, the poles have reversed and mass culture
is shaped by fringe behaviors and alternative
ways of being.
At The Sound, we call this Fringestream.
It describes how fragmentation becomes the
new normal, and it has emerged as a result of
people having both the means and the
motivation to live differently.
Over the past year we’ve been taking notes on
some fringe trends that have recently emerged
or resurfaced. They relate to everything we do:
what we eat, how we live, the technology we
use and the culture we embrace.
Some have huge implications. Others are just
incredibly weird. But all have some potential to
disrupt the brandscape and make an impact on
our lives.
3
THESOUND

4. FOOD & DRINK
The year of the unicorn frappucino gave us
a curious mix of absurdity and innovation
when it comes to things we eat and drink.
While instagramming your lunch has long
been deemed passé, the increasingly visual
nature of food has turned the once despised
trend into marketing magic.
What is food, really? Is it just an extension
of our social avatar? Or will some coming
backlash drive us towards a renewed
nutritional purity? Will lab-to-table prove
to be more sustainable and aspirational
than organic and fair trade? Or is an insect-
based diet inevitable?
This year proved that the very meaning of
food itself is still completely up for grabs.
THESOUND

5. Gone are the days when you had to bake
your own hash brownies just to get double-
baked. CBD and THC-infused recipes are
being elevated to the status of haute cuisine
and nowhere is this more prevalent than
California, home of the cinnamon-basil keef
tart.
Carefully crafted and curated, these meals
are delicious and have been perfectly dosed
so that those subtle hints of cannabis don’t
knock you off your feet too quickly.
CANNACUISINE
Get the munchies from your munchies
5
THESOUND

6. City Social, a Michelin-starred restaurant in
London, has recently started serving
cocktails with an augmented reality garnish.
Simply download the restaurant’s app, scan
the glow in the dark coaster and voila –
suddenly you’re sipping your Moscow Mule
alongside Marilyn Monroe or getting tipsy
topside inside van Gogh’s Starry Night.
It’s all the hallucinatory fun of absinthe
without the two-day hangover.
AUGMENTED COCKTAILS
Pokemon a go-go
6
THESOUND

7. Drinking levels in the UK have fallen to their
lowest in decades – particularly among
young people.
New alcohol-free or low alcohol alternatives
are popping up across the country to fill the
vacuum and are no longer limited to watery
near beer. You can now imbibe on elaborate
virgin cocktails, 0.5% rosé and there’s even
an elderflower-based gin substitute for those
looking for something stiffer.
It’s been dubbed the “most exciting new
drinks category” by teetotallers everywhere.
NEAR SPIRITS
Guilt (and headache) free indulgence
7
THESOUND

8. Entire communities have sprung up
dedicated to the buying and selling of sweet,
fatty and nutritious human breast milk. Go
ahead and google Only the Breast or
Breastfeeding Moms Unite – and soak it up
for yourself.
While non-profit milk banks exist to help
feed infants in need, the milk can cost up to
$5 US per ounce, versus $1-2 on these
community sites – and it’s not just babies
who need milk. Recently, body builders have
gotten on the milk train to help bulk up. But
buyer beware; given the lack of government
regulations, quality may vary.
BLACK MARKET BREAST MILK
Why buy the cow when you can shop online?
8
THESOUND

9. A new trend in South Korea has sprung up
on afreecaTV, a popular peer-to-peer online
video network.
It’s called Mukbang and it involves a person
eating in front of a live Internet audience for
hours at a time. Similar to cam girl platforms,
live-streamers of the genre can receive a
virtual currency called Star Balloons from
their appreciative fans.
Why Koreans have started to make small-
time celebrities out of these streamers is
anyone’s guess, but it gives new meaning to
the term binge watching.
FOOD PORN
No sex…just lots and lots and lots of food
9
THESOUND

10. Charcoal has traditionally been used for
medicine, beauty, and barbecuing. Now it’s
gaining ground as a detox ingredient and
has taken the world of performative dieting
by storm.
Used in freak shakes, ice-cream cones,
cheeseburgers, pizza … basically anything
that’s fun to eat, activated charcoal is being
marketed as a digestive cure-all.
While the health benefits are debatable, the
vantablack shade it adds to dishes and
drinks makes people curious to try them and
helps generate those coveted social media
kudos.
GOING GOTH
Black is the new black
10
THESOUND

11. Entomophagy – the eating of insects – isn’t
new when you take a global perspective;
billions of people in Africa, Southeast Asia,
and South America have been eating bugs
for centuries.
Now the West is starting to catch up:
Cricket flour is being mixed into more
products – from actual bug bread to energy
bars – and restaurants are pushing the
envelope with grasshopper tacos and
silkworm soup.
ENTOMOPHAGY
Grub is taking on a whole new meaning
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12. CULTURE
Fringe cultures (and brands) used to be
niche because of limited awareness. If
more people knew about them, they’d be
considerably more popular. (Obviously.)
But people had a hard time discovering
things that weren’t obvious. They had to
dig for the new, the novel, the amazing.
With the ubiquity of social connection and
mobility, fringe trends can now reach and
influence mass audiences almost instantly.
But what happens when the cultural arms
race gets too exhausting?
Beyond the din of conflict that dominated
so much of 2017, there were more than a
few subtle shifts towards kindness,
slowness and wellness.
THESOUND

13. As we become equally obsessed with both
wellness and all things Scandinavian, it’s
only natural that the world would begin to
embrace the protracted phenomenon of
Slow TV.
A mainstay of Norwegian television for
decades, Slow TV is beginning to attract
global audiences. Think: a live broadcast of
a 134-hour ferry ride. Or 168 hours of
uninterrupted reindeer migration. Or a real-
time knitting marathon.
What better antidote to the tyranny of the 24
hour news cycle than an entire day spent
watching absolutely nothing happen?
SLOW TELEVISION
Netfjords & chill
13
THESOUND

14. Following a year of political upheaval and
tragedy, marked by Brexit, the Grenfell fire
and terrorism, a new literary trend is on the
rise in Britain.
‘Up Lit’, or uplifting literature, focuses on
stories that are optimistic and empathetic –
stories of everyday heroism, human
connection and love. A stark departure from
the dystopian turn that has gripped so much
of literature over the last decade, much of
Up Lit is aimed at showing and inspiring the
best in humanity.
UP LIT
A beam of light in dark times
14
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15. A Chinese invention, the facekini got its
name because it is literally a bikini for your
face.
This peculiar swimwear accessory offers
extreme protection from UV rays and even
jellyfish stings.
While seemingly absurd, yet strangely
alluring, there’s a deeper social reason for
the facekini’s existence: across East Asia, a
pale complexion is a beauty ideal and for the
Chinese in particular it can be associated
with higher social class.
FACEKINI
Because why not
15
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16. People are placing rocks painted with
inspirational quotes, sayings or drawings in
beaches, forests and other random locations
across the world.
Rock painting is not only meant to be an
exercise in creativity, it’s also an attempt to
brighten up a lucky passer-by’s day.
There’s only one rule: once the rock is
found, the lucky stranger must place it
somewhere else to be found by the next
person.
KINDNESS ROCKS
Making the world happier one rock at a time
16
THESOUND

17. The Netherlands is home to the seemingly
painful new trend of cosmetic eye implants.
You can now get an procedure involving a
tiny piece of decorative jewelry, which is
implanted within the superficial
interpalpebral conjunctiva of the eyeball.
The process is completely legit as long as it
is carried out under specified conditions by a
licensed ophthalmologist. So now you know
where you should be heading to get that
hypnotizing eye glitter!
DISCO EYES
Glam up with extra-ocular implants
17
THESOUND

18. Male makeup is no longer the taboo it once
was, and is set to be a defining cosmetic
trend of 2018.
This year, L’Oreal used a male model for the
first time in their ads, and reality TV stars
such as the cast of Geordie Shore have
started endorsing makeup brands.
More importantly, men everywhere are
grabbing their brushes and discovering the
wonders of mascara.
MALE MAKEUP
Breaking down cosmetic taboos
18
THESOUND

19. Barbers in India and Pakistan are known for
using innovative techniques to cut people’s
hair, but who would expect that using a
literal blowtorch would ever be on trend.
The barber begins by pouring a flammable
powder and liquid on the customer’s head
before setting it on fire.Then he swiftly does
a little tango with his combs to set and style
the hair while it is still ablaze.
Amazingly, no one has been hurt so far.
That we know of.
HOT CUTS
Set your hair on fire … literally
19
THESOUND

20. TECHNOLOGY
Tech brands were on the defensive all year
due to the myriad ways in which
technology and social media have been
associated with negative trends like a rise
in hate groups, privacy issues, net
neutrality, the suppression of free speech
and the general hacky-ness of the last few
years.
While this failed to make a real dent in
how people perceive most tech brands,
there is an undeniable groundswell of
emotion related to a desire for technology
to serve a more positive social role in our
lives.
THESOUND

21. Nonny Du la Pena, CEO of Emblematic
Group, is the pioneer of a new type of
journalism – one that uses virtual reality to
immerse the viewer in the story, rather than
limit them to the role of third party spectator.
A former correspondent for Newsweek and
the New York Times, Du La Pena believes
that the future of news will be found in
experiencing stories with your entire body,
and not just your mind.
VR JOURNALISM
All the news that’s fit to squint
21
THESOUND

22. Fighting isolation with headsets
Social isolation in old age is a reality for
many people around the world. New
startups are aiming to approach this
challenge by harnessing the power of VR to
enable the elderly to live a more fulfilling and
engaged life.
Being able to attend family events or travel
to new places will not only help older people
take their minds off of the stresses of daily
life and feel less lonely, but it’s also been
shown to stimulate the brain and reactivate
some neuropathways.
VIRTUAL ELDERLY
22
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23. Cryptokitties are virtual pets you can buy,
care for and breed on the Ethereum
blockchain.
If you do not understand that sentence, it’s
ok! These things are currently selling for
upwards of 100K US, so you probably won’t
be willing to shell out for one anyways.
Dubbed Ethereum’s first killer dapp
(decentralized application) Cryptokitties
became so popular that it was blamed for
slowing down and potentially endangering
the entire Ethereum network, which is
rapidly approaching a billion dollar valuation.
CRYPTOKITTIES
The future is meow
23
THESOUND

24. Every year, cities across the world become a
little bit ‘smarter’.
Soon to be fully completed is the smartest of
all: Songdo, South Korea. A smart city built
from scratch, every inch of Songdo has
been painstakingly designed and purpose
built, right down to the sensor-laden
pneumatic waste disposal system.
Supremely sustainable and hyper-futuristic,
Songdo has gone from marshland to
skyscrapers in just over a decade, but it’s
also been called a “ghetto for the affluent’,
raising questions of how ‘smart’ can clash
with liveability.
SMART CITIES
Navigating the digital grid
24
THESOUND

25. The obscenely wealthy and militantly
NIMBYist are looking to the sea as the next
frontier.
A pilot project in French Polynesia funded
my The Seasteading Institute dreams of
becoming the first “floating community” for
300 residents by 2020.
Using the benefits of a “special economic
seazone,” the seavangelists are taking
advantage of a deal with the South Pacific
territory to create a government from the
ground-up.
SEASTEADING
A libertarian fantasy edges towards reality
25
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26. Originally reserved for the super wealthy or
terminally bizarre, cryonics is beginning to
make its way into the mainstream.
Several companies in the US offer cryonics
services at a relatively affordable price (the
cost of monthly payments to a life insurance
policy). And support groups have popped up
all over North America to educate the public
about cryonics and provide support
services.
Cryonics appeals to people who want to
experience the distant future and provides
palliative comfort to those who fear death.
CRYONICS
Not just for Walt Disney anymore
26
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27. LIFE
What used to be niche is now normal, and
tipping points are reached ever more
quickly.
Everyone can browse fringe behaviors and
cultures online from a distance without
leaving the sofa – which has led to plenty
of hamfisted appropriation as well as an
explosion in genuine polycultural
collaboration.
People are seeking more community, more
time with people they love, and greater and
more profound connections.
THESOUND

28. New and innovative homesharing schemes
are popping up across Europe which offer
cheap accommodation in care homes to
young people in exchange for a few hours of
their week spent socializing with their elder
neighbours.
The schemes are a response to both the
pricing out of younger people from cities and
the increasing social isolation experienced
by their elders. Councils hope that these
initiatives also help bridge the widening gap
between generations.
HOMESHARING
Bridging the gap between young and old
28
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29. Pop culture icons like Darth Vader and
She-Ra are increasingly a fixture at funerals
across the UK.
This unusual trend is the result of a
changing view on the role of funerals from
solemn occasions for mourning to
celebrations of the deceased’s life - their
triumphs, passions, and relationships, as
well as the culture that they loved and
surrounded themselves with.
COSPLAY FUNERALS
A celebration of awesomeness
29
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30. Entrepreneurs Awakening is a professional
retreat program that takes you through a
month of pre and post ayahuasca excursion
coaching to prepare you for a week-long
psychedelic trip to Peru. All for the
reasonable cost of $11,000 US.
Designed to “help innovators,” the program
seeks to translate the cosmically profound
insights gained from tripping on ayahuasca
and apply them to individual problems faced
by startup founders.
AYAHUASCA
…the latest thing to be ruined by techbros
30
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31. Universal Basic Income is a form of social
security in which all citizens receive a
regular check from the government - not to
just scratch by in lieu of unemployment, but
to live off completely.
Pilot programs currently being run in
Oakland, California and Ontario, Canada
seek to understand the longitudinal effects of
such systems, often proposed as a solution
to the increased elimination of jobs by
technological development.
UNIVERSAL INCOME
At least it’s an ethos
31
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32. Transracial individuals’ racial identity differs
from that of their birth race. Finding
analogues in transgenderism, transracialism
represents a new era in modern identity
construction and performance, exploring
what leaps we are allowing ourselves to take
in defining who we are.
However, strong opposition to the legitimacy
of transracialism has been dominating the
conversation so far, with critics pointing to
the negative effects of cultural appropriation,
and how it veers into the territory of racial
fraud.
TRANSRACIALISM
Identity formation in the modern age
32
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33. After the immense popularity of mindfulness,
a new self-development practice and
philosophy is on the rise: Sophrology.
A blend of Eastern meditation and Western
relaxation techniques designed to help
achieve harmony between the mind and
body, the practice has been popular in
France and Switzerland for decades, but is
only now reaching the rest of Europe.
SOPHROLOGY
Re-learning how to live
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34. V A N C O U V E R | N E W Y O R K | L O N D O N | T O R O N T O | C H I C A G O |
M U M B A I W W W . T H E S O U N D H Q . C O M
V A N C O U V E R | N E W Y O R K | L O N D O N | T O R O N T O | C H I C A G O | M U M B A I
W W W . T H E S O U N D H Q . C O M

35. SLIDE SITE
2 https://www.booooooom.com/2015/11/04/revealing-doubled-portraits-by-photographer-alan-powdrill/
3 https://www.booooooom.com/2015/11/04/revealing-doubled-portraits-by-photographer-alan-powdrill/
6 https://www.booooooom.com/2015/11/04/revealing-doubled-portraits-by-photographer-alan-powdrill/
10 http://www.blogto.com/eat_drink/2017/06/charcoal-ice-cream-toronto/
11 http://www.canadianbusiness.com/innovation/eat-bugs/
14 http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2017/08/face-kini-the-terrifying-new-chinese-trend.html
19
http://www.businessinsider.com/indian-barber-fire-cut-hair-lighter-haircut-hairstyle-india-popular-trend-
flames-2017-5
24 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4510896/VR-help-people-dementia-recall-memories.html
33 http://karlstraub.com/retreats/yoga-retreat-switzerland/attachment/woman-meditating-in-mountains/
IMAGE REFERENCES