I was reading an article on the NY Times website about how this thing we call the Internets has affected the music biz. It wasn’t a “death of radio” rant, or how the record industry are a bunch of gatekeepers who promote the dross and tamp down the brilliant. No, it was more about how sites like MySpace or YouTube have altered our pop cultural landscape into niches that are becoming smaller and smaller. The scramble to “get noticed” means those who supply content to sites like YouTube or MySpace (you could put blogs in there, too) need to make their private lives very public. The scramble to “get noticed” means those who supply content to sites like YouTube or MySpace (you could put blogs in there, too) need to make their private lives very public. What that means is that we’re becoming a culture (or is it cultures?) of exhibitionists and voyeurs on a larger scale. One group parades and reveals the most intimate details about their lives, and the other gladly consumes these flashes of intimacy and then discards them in search of the next site that may generate a few forwarded emails or IMs that basically say “You gotta see this!†I’m not saying it’s a bad thing ‘cause, you know, I blog and reveal bits of my life to people I’ve never met in person, but I think my motivations for blogging (and even having a MySpace page) aren’t about “getting noticed†on a large scale. If people like what they read on my blog (MySpace isn’t something that I frequent all that much, so ignore that), then great!
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For all you bloggers, you know when you write that post that, for some reason, generates a lot of comments to your site?   You may wonder what made a particular post ping on the radar screen. Sometimes you put a good deal of thought into a post, and it generates mild interest. Sometimes you just talk about something trivial and you get a huge response. I would imagine there are people out there who spend a lot of time tailoring posts to fit the perceived to be the tastes of their readers. Me? I tend to write about what I want. The exception is my weekly Mix Six. With that feature I took a poll before I started doing it, so I plead guilty to a little market research there. Oh, and also moving the Mix Six from Friday to Wednesday was because I noticed people weren’t really listening to my weekly mixes on Fridays because Friday is one of those light bloggy days where people are trying to wrap up work stuff for before the weekend.
Anyway, what’s all this leading to? I was not only thinking about cultural stuff because of the NY Times article, but also about my bloggy friends who write about what they want (I believe that would be all of ‘em!). And if you haven’t had the, um, pleasure to listen to Jefito and Jason Hare’s commentary on Xmas songs recorded by soft rock acts from the 70s to the 90s, you should! It’s painfully fun, and if you’re a person who likes a good, cynical laugh at the crap that the “gatekeepers†of culture tried to force feed down our collective throats in the past, I invite you to sample songs from the newly created holiday of “Mellowmas!†It’s the 9th day of Mellowmas, and today’s selection is one that gets a lot of airplay during this time of the year.Â
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Ready? Okay, just click HERE and enjoy?
–PK
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Ml
December 19, 2006 at 9:41 amI’ll have to listen to that when all is quiet here. Lunchtime, perhaps.
It is interesting how some posts get a ton of comments and some don’t. I often wonder what it is about certain subjects that draw that. I’m one of those who pretty much writes about what I want.
Py Korry
December 19, 2006 at 9:45 amSee? I was right about the blogs I read! 🙂
Ml
December 19, 2006 at 10:27 amI think in the last couple of weeks, I’ve fallen into Memeville. Those things are fun to do and I like reading them on other’s people’s blogs, but I wonder if other people get tired of reading them on my blog…hmmm…
J
December 19, 2006 at 11:09 amAnd the snow turned into…Ray….
Glad I have a big brother to bug as well. 😉
I sometimes think of what I can do to make my blog more interesting, get more readers, whatever, but when it comes right down to it, I’m not interested. I’m interested in writing what I want to write, and if people like it, then I’m thrilled, and if they don’t, I’m sad, but I don’t really want to change what or how I write for an audience.
The memes, ML, are an easy way to post, and they’re fun. I don’t think you’ve become one of those that does too many, though. You’re OK.
jefito
December 19, 2006 at 2:32 pmI wouldn’t say I write *for* my audience, but I’m aware of it. Which is to say, almost as often as I find myself thinking that my audience will love a given post, I wind up being completely wrong. This Mellowmas thing? I thought it’d be a big hit. Alas! Well, thanks for the blove, anyway!
And as for the niche-ing of entertainment, I recommend picking up a used copy of Chuck Klosterman’s book “Sex, Drugs & Cocoa Puffs” — he posits that the last truly unifying element of pop culture was Johnny Carson, and there’ll never be another one, because we all have too many choices now.
Lalapunci
December 19, 2006 at 5:01 pmInteresting blog. We are becoming more isolated from face to face communication as a culture. When reading words and punctuation, we miss out on visual communication and vocal cues.
la luna
December 19, 2006 at 11:50 pmI agree with Lalapunci comment.
Eric Grubbs
December 20, 2006 at 8:41 amI write about what I’m thinking about in a way that other people can understand it. Doesn’t matter what the topic is: Killswitch Engage, the Free Design, Clerks II or the misuse of the word ‘ever’.
Py Korry
December 20, 2006 at 9:08 amEric I tried to comment on your blog, but you’ve got your prefs set to Blogger/Google members only. I feel so excluded. 🙁
Eric Grubbs
December 21, 2006 at 8:12 amSorry man. I put the rule on the site to weed out anonymous posters. I had enough of comments that went something along the lines of:
how can U say tat London Bridge is a badd song?it rules and i like itpeace OUT
AND
I’m going to be really cruel to you, but I don’t want to leave my real name. I’m just giving you my honest opinion.