Christopher wrote:

FuzzBob wrote:

Christopher wrote:Saying there are "too many bands" is like saying there's "too much food" -- it's an empty complaint. Pick out the stuff you like and move on. No one's forcing you to eat the pork rinds.

Right now, exactly 17 blogs are forcing you to eat the pork rinds.

So quit reading blogs.

There are tons of blogs I love, some of which are from PRF forumites. On occasion, I still get that thrill of discovery reading those and finding out about great music. Thank you, PRF bloggers.

There are also tons of shitty blogs are there that are less concerned with great music and more concerned with trend-hopping in attempts to be "relevant." Yes, for the 156th time, I got the memo that YACHT is featured on a MacBook Air commercial. I'm sure SPIN will continue to have your resume on file for the next three months, and if an opening comes up...

So I treat blogs like bands, ignoring the shitty ones and paying attention to the good ones. Problem solved, right?

Well, yes and no. I can ignore shitty blogs the way I've ignored shitty Clear Channel stations for the past decade, but ignoring stuff on my radio or computer doesn't make it go away at parties, clubs, etc. If 56 blogs parrot whatever's on Pitchfork or Stereogum, how the fuck is that different, in practice if not in theory, from Clear Channel affiliates?

FuzzBob wrote:So I treat blogs like bands, ignoring the shitty ones and paying attention to the good ones. Problem solved, right?

Well, yes and no. I can ignore shitty blogs the way I've ignored shitty Clear Channel stations for the past decade, but ignoring stuff on my radio or computer doesn't make it go away at parties, clubs, etc. If 56 blogs parrot whatever's on Pitchfork or Stereogum, how the fuck is that different, in practice if not in theory, from Clear Channel affiliates?

You forgot restaurants, supermarkets, gas stations, movie theaters, doctor's offices, barber shops, sporting events, on hold with customer service...

Dude, you do realize that crappy circumstantial music predates Pitchfork, blogs, and the perception of "too many bands," right?

Christopher wrote:

FuzzBob wrote:So I treat blogs like bands, ignoring the shitty ones and paying attention to the good ones. Problem solved, right?

Well, yes and no. I can ignore shitty blogs the way I've ignored shitty Clear Channel stations for the past decade, but ignoring stuff on my radio or computer doesn't make it go away at parties, clubs, etc. If 56 blogs parrot whatever's on Pitchfork or Stereogum, how the fuck is that different, in practice if not in theory, from Clear Channel affiliates?

You forgot restaurants, supermarkets, gas stations, movie theaters, doctor's offices, barber shops, sporting events, on hold with customer service...

Dude, you do realize that crappy circumstantial music predates Pitchfork, blogs, and the perception of "too many bands," right?

I think you're confusing circumstantial music, such as in this cruise ship closed circuit video from 1985 (the really smooth music gets pretty jammin' when the ice sculptor gets down to business), with music that "really means something, man" that friends play in social situations. The blogosphere was supposed to democratize the tastemaking process. To an extent it has-- there are some very individual, niche blogs out there, and that's great-- but some of it still feels like service journalism.

FuzzBob wrote:I think you're confusing circumstantial music, such as in this cruise ship closed circuit video from 1985 (the really smooth music gets pretty jammin' when the ice sculptor gets down to business), with music that "really means something, man" that friends play in social situations.

I'm not confused at all. The supermarket's Coldplay is my Mannheim Steamroller. Both are irrelevant to me.

The blogosphere was supposed to democratize the tastemaking process. To an extent it has-- there are some very individual, niche blogs out there, and that's great-- but some of it still feels like service journalism.

Sharing and discussing music is nice, but I would stay far away from anyone with the intent to engage in "tastemaking." Developing your own taste in music is a highly personal, ever-evolving, lifelong process -- not something that can be "democratized" or streamlined. No wonder you're disappointed.

I've played in bands where I was having fun... but the music was not world class.

I'm lucky to be in a band that is both at the moment.


I'll happily play an instrument in a less than stellar band if it gives me a chance to learn. ie, at the moment I play drums in a band. Drums are not my instrument. But I'm getting better; playing in a band is by far the best practice for learning a new instrument.

Christopher wrote:

FuzzBob wrote:I think you're confusing circumstantial music, such as in this cruise ship closed circuit video from 1985 (the really smooth music gets pretty jammin' when the ice sculptor gets down to business), with music that "really means something, man" that friends play in social situations.

I'm not confused at all. The supermarket's Coldplay is my Mannheim Steamroller. Both are irrelevant to me.

Using a more current example, I'm not talking about the supermarket's Feist or the iPhone commercial's Feist. I'm talking about your girlfriend's Feist she plays when she's in the car, or the requisite random name-dropping of Feist at a cookout with the requisite comment plagiarized from a blog plagiarized from another blog. By that point, you're forced to engage. Unless you're in junior high, you're not exactly going to dump your girlfriend or friends for their taste in music.

The blogosphere was supposed to democratize the tastemaking process. To an extent it has-- there are some very individual, niche blogs out there, and that's great-- but some of it still feels like service journalism.

Sharing and discussing music is nice, but I would stay far away from anyone with the intent to engage in "tastemaking." Developing your own taste in music is a highly personal, ever-evolving, lifelong process -- not something that can be "democratized" or streamlined. No wonder you're disappointed.

Exactly; I agree 100%

Before I go further, I really want to make it clear that it is what it is and I'm just kvetching. Tastemaking is as much a de-facto process as it is an intentional one, though. The fact that liek omg p4k is so 2005 lolz is beyond Pitchfork's control, for example. There is no cabal of nefarious bloggers who secretly IM each other to select the next screechy-voiced singer to bore people to death with, then blog about it in lockstep. It just seems that way. Like I said, I'm just whining about it.

another thing to consider is that every bands start at the bottom.

which is kind of where we, indie rockers, live.

many of these bands with their laughable dreams of making it out of the bottom are just making life here more intolerable for the rest of us.

so, there's that.

that damned fly wrote:another thing to consider is that every bands start at the bottom.

The bottom of what?

ipitcher wrote:

that damned fly wrote:another thing to consider is that every bands start at the bottom.

The bottom of what?

clubs, labels, attention.

that damned fly wrote:

ipitcher wrote:

that damned fly wrote:another thing to consider is that every bands start at the bottom.

The bottom of what?

clubs, labels, attention.

So, the perpetual bottom then.

Anyway, good thread, Jeremy.