Music and blogs

Just been sat around talking and having dinner with our friend Jay, who's the singer and songwriter of the exellent Boston band The Douglas Fir.
As you do, now we're middle age, we were listening to music and discussing the state of the music scene today.  And mostly dicussing the way blogs are instrumental in breaking music today - see no further than the fireworks caused by The Arcade Fire and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, bands broken by the likes of Pitchfork, Stereogum and thighs wide shut. There is, to my mind, that blogs are the new power brokers who have usurped the power of the music press and even A&R men and radio pickers, and also that they have arguably fragmented music into a prime example of the long tail.  But, what I love about it is the way music is now more meritocratic than ever (despite the fact that tastemakers have merely changed color) and the fact you can no longer really live on past glories - it makes it about the new and now, not what has or might have been (it's about today's album, not the hope of what might be after your last. And so it might stop, for example, Be Here Now or x&y outselling (What's The Story) Morning Glory or A Rush of Blood To The Head).   I guess the rise of blog culture may have killed the notion of the band as brand.
Overall, blog culture and music today seems to be more and more about the creation of fireworks.  Yet, when it comes to brand and ads, we still try and manage things over the long-term and thing about the notion of incrementalism, rather than how we can manufacture a series of fireworks.

Comments

[caff]

True. But, remember, fireworks can also backfire and be dangerous...and I think that's the fear for brands and ads.

[Dino]

"Series of fireworks" is a great way to put it Gareth.

[nien]

by blogs, do you mean myspace as well?