Welcome to Cracking Culture

Hi, my name is Tyler Hurst. Welcome to my new website, Cracking Culture. I had been thinking about starting an entertainment blog for a while but I never could find the right way into it. Over the past year, I started doing freelance work for other sites but most of that time was spent doing sports articles, which, while I enjoy, left me a bit unfulfilled.

I live and breathe entertainment and pop culture. Those familiar with me know I have been a musician all of my life and I even have a Music Business degree. While some of this blog will be devoted to the music side of me, my goal is to broach all subjects within the entertainment sphere, specifically the side that has sunk its claws into me like none other: film and television.

So why would I want to start this blog?

Around the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic I had grown frustrated with the prospect of being a musician. Like many during that time, I had an identity crisis. What do you do as a creative when the muse you’ve known all of your life isn’t providing fulfillment like it used to?

You strike a new well.

I decided to learn a new skill and that skill eventually turned into screenwriting. I have been a massive fan of filmmaking all of my life and I had always been intrigued by the writing process. So, with no creative writing background besides high school essays and songwriting, I decided to dive in head first.

I read every single script I could get my hands on and devoured every article and book devoted to the subject.. Eventually, I grew confident enough to write one of my own (it was about a musician, of course).

After writing that script, I had a writing bug like no other. I felt renewed. I always saw the downside to songwriting as being constrained to a certain subject matter. Love song, break-up song, guy/girl walks into a bar. I wanted more than that. Long-form writing was finally giving me everything I craved.

Screenwriting eventually led to novel and short story work which is what I work on the most now. I was feeling more fulfilled as a creative than I had in years but I still felt like something was missing. I wanted to find an outlet where I could write about the work that inspired me. I wanted a place where I could jot down the thoughts I feel throughout my viewing experiences for the world to see.

The first website that really showed me what I wanted to offer was Bill Simmons’ The Ringer. When I was finishing my undergraduate Journalism minor, every single article I showed to my professors for reference on what I wanted to do came from that site. The mixture of writing about the things one truly loves blended in with journalistic integrity was so appealing. I became obsessed with bringing that dream to fruition.

If you love pop culture, I reckon you’ll love this site as much as I’ll love working on it. Even if you don’t, I hope my work can inspire you to seek out something you may have never seen or shown interest in before.

You can expect movie anniversary pieces, industry pieces, streaming wars content, pieces about what makes directors and musicians amazing, sports, etc. I don't want this to be a niche site for a particular brand of pop culture. I want readers to be able to come to this site and never close the tab without feeling like they couldn’t find what they were looking for.

I can’t wait to get this journey started and I appreciate all of you who decide to click on this link. There’s no point in writing without readers and I hope to bring you the best content possible.

Thank you.