There are several reasons why we, at Groovemine, find the music blogosphere so compelling: the sheer number of blogs operating independently of larger entities, the amount of content they generate, the design and production values some of them present, and the influence they have on the music scene are among them. The fact that most of the blogs generate little or no income for their producers make the phenomena all the more interesting. Thus, we felt this passionate occupation of blogging was worth a closer look and we discussed it with the people behind nine of our favorite music blogs.

BY SAM HOUGHTON


I first got the fear when my good friend created a character in a virtual reality via his new Playstation® 3 online account. I saw this dork on the flat screen, a silhouette, a near-duplicate image of my buddy next to me. Instead of being stretched out on the couch with corn chips crumbling down his open shirt and a spittoon close at hand, there appeared a handsome avatar with a swagger on-screen. My buddy, once well-respected and a loved member of the local art scene, was controlling his virtual embodiment, having him walk around aimlessly and smiling big through the halls of a virtual mall, buying virtual clothes and virtual shoes from his real Visa account, talking to other virtual representations of sloths remotely stretched out on their own Ikea standard pull-out couches: a congregation of hopeless kids and grown men, whose dreams have been cut and lost, all meeting in a new and different world with new beginnings. Now the fear hits every time I walk around a busy street with cars whizzing by and my nose buried in a game of solitaire on my iPod. It’s the fear that we are losing our sense of reality: a fear of that unknown monster that will come as a result of no longer caring. Reality has become a thing of the past, just a plain nuisance. Maybe it’s plain sad rather than scary, and maybe that is why the hit music of today just plain sucks—I digress.

But, is there nothing to be said for the virtual world?

The world wide web, the grandest invention since I don’t know when: does it not have some soul to it? Is there some hope for a young-blooded revolution against the capitalist machine to bring good music back to our ears and our communities?

If there was one, it would be through the music blogs.

More often than naught, one can get overburdened at the mere idea of wading through the junk to get to that something honest—it, sometimes, seems like a lost cause. There’s probably half as many music blogs out there as there are people; a bunch of random opinions rambling and ranting everywhere amongst the many layers of the blogosphere—many of which no one reads—rattling around like a tree falling in the forest. Does it make a noise at all? Does it matter? Are they real people? Perhaps.

Wading through the magnitude, we approached a handful of our favorite music blogs and asked some real basic questions, reaching the human at the end of the tunnel.


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JASON MOREHEAD of Opus.fm: I didn't really have much writing experience when I started Opus. I started writing simply because I was finding all of this music that really impacted me and I wanted to write tell a small group of friends about it. The audience has slowly grown over time.


JOSH LOVSETH, Publishing Editor of Sound on the Sound: In high school I was on the school newspaper, first as a writer, then the news editor. Other than that, the blog was originally an opportunity to write more. In my day jobs in information technology, I've had little opportunity to tap into any of the creativity that I've got. Previously, I never fancied myself as much of a writer, but I think three years in, I'm finally starting to get the hang of it.

My fellow editor Abbey was also on our high school newspaper, as a writer and features editor. Since starting Sound on the Sound and with the experienced she's gained with it, she's gone on to work as the News Editor for Seattlest and write a freelance feature for Sound (magazine). Currently, her day job is writing about entertainment for a local web start-up.

On the technical side of actually building and operating the blog, my years in IT have served me well and I can make any fixes, changes, or additions to the site's functionality as I need to. That's the easy part.


JOE HUTTNER from Sad Steve: Well, I never wrote for a school newspaper or anything. I guess my writing experiences is that I went to a liberal arts school for college. 


MICHAEL FELDMAN of The Walrus: I wrote traditional reviews for traditional music magazines and websites for a few years. I didn’t like it at all. With that stuff, you are bound to not like a particular album that you are asked to review. I don’t like talking negatively about music to a wide audience, because I feel as though it doesn’t benefit anyone. I, also, don’t enjoy having to over-analyze music, especially in order to meet word counts. Sometimes there is very little one can say about a piece of music without sounding cliché. The audience just has to listen to it. That’s why I prefer the blog format. It allows me to offer the direct experience without having to add too much unnecessary noise. It’s like the legendary Steinski once said to me, “Writing about music is like writing about architecture—you just kind of have to experience it.”  


ALLAN CHANG of AW Music: I started blogging a long time ago it seems. I had no experience and at times my writing will seem very amateur. Part of the learning process. I've tried to become better. I've tried to take on other writing projects but it still remains minimal. I've written for a Toronto sports magazine and at one time Bluebird Banter, a Toronto Bluejays blog.


BECKY FIRESHEETS of Knocks from the Underground: Before starting Knocks, I was a preschool teacher and freelance music journalist.  When I was living in Boston, I wrote for The Northeast Performer, The Boston Phoenix, someothermagazine.com and baristo.net.  When I moved to New York, I started tutoring, wrote regularly for The Deli and continued some freelance writing.  Since starting Knocks, I've focused most of my journalistic energy on the site but have contributed articles to The Williamsburg / Greenpoint Arts+News and NY Press. I, also, recently started grad school to get an MFA in Fiction Writing, so between school, the site, and tutoring, I don't have that much time for freelancing anymore.


RAY MILLAN of Off the Radar: I have no formal writing experience except for maybe college? I have a Bachelors in Psychology which comes in handy at my job (DJ) and reading crowds. I have been a full time DJ/promoter for the last 10 years or so, helping to start the Miami Indie scene from it's humble beginnings in 1999 to where it is today. Since I have to look for new music for work, and I have days off, it's pretty convenient to work on the blog. I don't write very complicated/technical stuff, mostly just how I would speak in a conversation. I find music blogs that try to be too technical boring and snobby. I let the music do the talking. Hence, were the mp3's/videos come into play. It's all about having good taste.


CHRIS ATTO of dailybeatz: None. I had never written anything prior to starting my blog.  I’ve since written a few articles for some other blogs, but not much more than that right now. I’m always looking out for opportunities to work with other blogs though.

ALEX PELLERANO of Quiet Color: Prior to starting our own site, we had written a couple guest articles and interviews for sites like Sixeyes and Brooklyn Vegan, and our past jobs had always been pretty writing heavy. As the site stands now, I still write a fair amount but we have a nice mix of contributors that lighten the load. Fortunately, I look at QuietColor.com as somewhat of a blogzine which gives us some leeway in terms of journalistic structure and grammatical finesse.


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JASON MOREHEAD of Opus.fm: I prefer blogging as opposed to, say, Twitter because then I'm not constrained by the limitations of those tools (e.g., Twitter's 140 character limit). Also, I'm a little anal when it comes to how my content is organized, and using my own blog gives me the freedom to ensure that everything is nice and tidy (to me, at least).

That being said, I do use social media tools (specifically Facebook and Twitter), but primarily as a means to either point back to reviews and articles on Opus or to quickly post small bits of content that might fall outside the Opus' normal coverage.


JOSH LOVSETH, Publishing Editor of Sound on the Sound: My partner Abbey and I began the blog simply as an outlet to creatively talk about music that inspired us, particularly local music. As live music lovers in 2006, we were seeing plenty of local music that we felt just wasn't getting enough (or any) attention. As we got to know the landscape, making an effort at being an authoritative online source about the emerging local rock scene seemed an obvious niche that could be (and needed to be) filled. Ultimately we set out to write, and continue to want to write, a site that I myself would want to read, a revealing site about the Seattle music scene and the new music that is happening around town.

Recently ,we have become much more involved in the social media aspect of blogging, becoming hardcore Twitter users, which allows us learn and interact more with our scene in real time. The local hip hop community, shameless self promoters that they are, are all on Twitter offering nuggets of discussion and the most direct news feed about what they are doing day to day. The rock community is catching up in that regard still, but twitter is already a huge resource for music writers, fans and artists alike. Lots of bands will give away extra guest-list spots day-of on Twitter to their followers, or offer anecdotes from tour. It definitely allows fans to feel closer to their favorite bands and hold an actual conversation in a way hardly possible even 5 years ago. 


MICHAEL FELDMAN of The Walrus: I use all of those channels. I don’t think bloggers can use just one these days. When they want content, the majority of people turn to Facebook and Twitter, not just blogs. You need to be where your audience is, instead of constantly trying to make them come to you.


ALLAN CHANG of AW Music: Social media requires a large network. I would say before blogging, I knew about 1/10th the people I know. Also while I do have friends, a lot of my friends don't connect on the topic of music. My musical tastes always ended up being different and I always had difficulty finding other people who shared the same interests. Blogging has really helped me discover new music and be able to discuss it with more people then I could with any other social media.


BECKY FIRESHEETS of Knocks from the Underground: When Will Bryant and I first started Knocks, we had the idea of creating an online music magazine that would focus on reviewing local, up-and-coming music. In order to do this, we had to create our own website as Facebook and other social media don't allow content like that. We also had a lot of ideas about the layout and other aspects of the site (streaming audio players, downloadable music, calendars of upcoming shows, etc) that just aren't possible on something like Facebook.


RAY MILLAN of Off the Radar: A blog lets you do your own thing. Set up your name, how your blog looks, speak your mind/viewpoint with none of the distractions of social media sites where so many people are bidding for time/attention. Plus you get your own unique address. People can check in if they like what you're doing or ignore you if they don't.


CHRIS ATTO of dailybeatz: I actually used social media quite a bit before I started dailybeatz, but now I’m just using them in different ways to help promote dailybeatz.


ALEX PELLERANO of Quiet Color: We're ex-media students and the main thing I learned in communications school was to doubt all forms of media because they're all inevitably biased. The only way I could think to combat that was to have my own biased platform, something I could trust and curate to throw our own thoughts and ideas into the frenetic public domain. That being said, we still use Facebook, and Myspace, and the but not as intensely and mainly for social purposes.


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JASON MOREHEAD of Opus.fm: I'm a web designer by trade, so I do all of my site's design, development, and programming.


JOSH LOVSETH, Publishing Editor of Sound on the Sound: I consulted mostly with my brother Andy. He's an aspiring designer with really good taste who obsesses over fonts and making things look clean. I really like that aesthetic, so it's worked out very well so far. Actually he just moved back to Seattle from Denver and did a mock-up of a newish looking version of the site that looks pretty good. In the next version of the site we're trying to think about making it all more readable at normal resolutions since I think things looks just a bit too small for most people, or anyone with not 20/20 vision.


MICHAEL FELDMAN of the Walrus: I write the blog for a creative agency in Philadelphia called Quaker City Mercantile. It’s a very unique and interesting situation—I am free to post anything I want, as long as it’s legal and I am practically uncensored when it comes to what I can say on the blog (just as long as it is not entirely offensive).

I designed the visuals on the blog to match our company’s overall look and we hired a developer to build it for us.


ALLAN CHANG of AW Music: My current design was done by John Mani. My knowledge involves being able to move things around but it's very minimal. I suck with design so naturally I needed some major help.


BECKY FIRESHEETS of Knocks from the Underground: I'm a complete dunce when it comes to web development. I know the very basics of HTML but even manage to screw that up sometimes. Will (my partner) handles all the design and behind the scenes stuff, but we regularly consult our writers for their suggestions.  We very much want the site to be a community-oriented, collaborative effort and are always looking for advice.


RAY MILLAN of Off the Radar: I am so bad when it comes to technology and design. Chris, one of our writers, helped me start the blog and put in art from flyers of parties that I had done. Mike, another of our writers, has been helping a lot lately, incorporating our track streamer so people can hear a track before they download it, which was a nice addition I thought. I did add our little music player which took me forever. Blogs could always use a makeover from time to time to keep things interesting. We're about due. Got any recommendations?


CHRIS ATTO of dailybeatz: I handled it all myself. I had a friend with some graphic design background help me out with my logo, but other than that it was a lot of trial and error. I started a now embarrassing website back in high school so I had a pretty good understanding of HTML.


ALEX PELLERANO of Quiet Color: We've done all our graphic work and web design in house. We worked together to conceptualize and execute the overall design. My partner Brian Macdonald is extremely tech savvy and another member of the QC crew, also the designer of our logo, is Leyla Heckrotte who is a brilliant graphic designer. We all went to school together.


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For our next installment, we continue this discussion with the humans behind our favorite blogs, asking them:

>> What role do you think you serve in the larger picture of the music scene? How does this make you feel?

>> How are you involved directly with artists, labels, etc.?

>> What are some of the more surprising moments related to a post and the reaction it generated? Most satisfying?


Read “Listening to the Blogs, part two”