Can't Talk; Hyping Part IV: Coalescence

[Continued from part I, part II, part III]

Is music the ultimate Cliffs Notes version of emotional experience? Must writers inevitably be a bit jealous?

The above quote comes from Alec Hanley Bemis, from an LA Weekly roundtable he moderated between Rick Moody, Jonathan Lethem, and John Darnielle on the intersection between literature and music—an intersection that resonates with me, since those are my two main interests. Second only to music blogs, I check litblogs daily for news from the publishing world, reviews, reviews of reviews, tips on new authors, and think pieces. Typical stops for me include the Reading Experience, the Elegant Variation, Conversational Reading, Black Garterbelt, and many others.

On bad days, these blogs can be no more than news aggregating circle jerks, each pointing to the others, all linking to the same articles with little analysis—much like music blogs’ worst days. But on their best days, this network of amateurs (many began as such, at least—some have graduated to non-blog bylines and book deals) coalesces into a running conversation, borne from a news item or one blogger’s personal musings or, sometimes deliciously, from direct antagonism by the mainstream media.

I draw the parallel between litblogs and music blogs because it throws into relief a potential yet to be fully realized by music blogs, which is to be a dynamic, ongoing interblog conversation, as opposed to an unthinking echo chamber: OMG ARCADE FIRE COVERED VIOLENT FEMMES!!! via You Ain’t No Picasso via Brooklyn Vegan via Stereogum via via via via.

One thing litblogs and music blogs have in common: they both have an entire industry wringing its hands over their long-term effect. What they don’t have in common: the industry worried about music blogs is the industry those blogs ostensibly support—the music makers; publishers, on the other hand, must love litblogs. Never has there been more support shown to midlist authors—those authors who are given zero marketing & publicity support, for whom a single book review is not a given. Litblogs are granting visibility to a huge portion of the publishing world that previously had little to hope for, and the publishing industry fully supports that. Who hates litbloggers? Print critics, watching as their book review sections are minimized or cut altogether. Academics. Elitist dinosaurs who think the “permanence” of paper legitimizes their authority, compared to the “ephemeral” digital archives of these mere… book fans.

Unlike publishers, the music industry works with blogs only in the sense of keeping its enemies close. Reason being, of course, is the litblogs are trading in ideas and music blogs in product. Not to say that the music blogs aren’t doing a job on print media, too. As magazines like Rolling Stone or Spin stay focused on music news, they appear hopelessly out of date. Fluff pieces—who needs them? Reviews? They better be damn good. The thing is, the average music fan supposedly doesn’t want anything other than the music—who needs to write about it? That’s what many of them think, at least. But then again, who is reading Pitchfork? Because it didn’t cement its reputation on the Forkcast, which is a relatively new feature; it did so on its news, reviews, and columns: its writing, butt of jokes it often is. As I noted yesterday, “the Pitchfork effect” is apparently stronger than the more general “blog buzz" when it comes to impacting album sales. That must mean something.

I’d like to think it means that people do want context. That people do view music as an art form, not just a form of instant gratification, like Chips Ahoy. And like any good art form, music warrants—requires!—its own exchange of ideas outside of the making of the art itself. That's not to say this hasn't, or doesn't happen in music blogs. Dial "M" for Musicology, Offnotes, and Marathonpacks, to name just a few, talk music regularly. Each is frequently interesting; I guess I'd just like to see them and others come together more often, rather than what I perceive as musing in vacuums.

I said yesterday that the hype blogs somehow morphed from “sharing music” to “setting the agenda.” Talk about setting the agenda: why can’t music blogs coalesce, the way litblogs do, around an idea, an aesthetic, an artist, and push that which underlies all music—experience, emotion, sound, tone, lyric, attitude, distortion, volume, geography, history, memory—into the conversation? There’s more to it than the latest leak. Blogs, if they wanted, have the potential to affect music, not just to provide it.

Comments

[marc h.]

thanks for the shout! great post. i wish i had more time to interact more with those really thoughtful blogs (instead of just musing in a vacuum), too. i think what people like eric marathonpacks or dave moore at cure for bedbugs do is exactly what is needed. problem is, it's hard! and time-consuming! which is partly why it's so important.

[Scraps]

I said yesterday that the hype blogs somehow morphed from “sharing music” to “setting the agenda.” Talk about setting the agenda: why can’t music blogs coalesce, the way litblogs do, around an idea, an aesthetic, an artist, and push that which underlies all music—experience, emotion, sound, tone, lyric, attitude, distortion, volume, geography, history, memory—into the conversation? [. . .] Blogs, if they wanted, have the potential to affect music, not just to provide it.

Just speaking for myself, I don't want to affect music; I'm not a musician, and those are the only folks I think are qualified to affect music. I'm not interested in coalescing around an idea or an aesthetic; I think that kind of thing leads to fashions, even among the more thoughtful, and leads to deserving musicians being neglected because they are outside the idea, and less deservin musicians being elevated because they confirm someone's program. If you're just talking about a dialogue about what's going on, a description that gets more interesting the more we share our impressions with each other, sure, I'm into that.

The experience of hearing music is personal, ultimately. I'm most interested in the reactions and musings of others, and the analysis of what works for them and what doesn't.

[craig]

great series of posts. I think it does come down to the fact that these prominent blogs accept advertising. I think that's the defining trait that propels them to be so disingenuous about music. somewhere you question if a blogger really loves radiohead, I'd argue that some don't and are just posting to get in on the google searches.

i never write about anything that has much of chance for widespread success but it is interesting to look at my logs and note that the one time I mentioned The White Stripes (might have been a cover or to say I just don't get them or to say Brandan Benson is in the Racanteurs that features other members of White Stripes) is still my most popular post (although I'm glad to see Gordon Gano's gospel side project "mercy seat" in the top ten).

imagine your traffic if you were to write relentlessly and glowingly about the worst indie rock has to offer (radiohead, cold war kids, beirut, arcade fire, the shins, decemberists etc etc etc

so yes not only is the hype out of control but I think the hypesters don't really even care about the bands they're writing about. from what little experience I have writing a blog or two I can also say that half the time these guys don't even listen to the music they write about since I can see that the press release with accompanying mp3 only landed in the email inbox minutes before their post.

[Richard]

"I draw the parallel between litblogs and music blogs because it throws into relief a potential yet to be fully realized by music blogs, which is to be a dynamic, ongoing interblog conversation, as opposed to an unthinking echo chamber"

This is funny, because what I dislike most about the litblogs is the lack of "ongoing interblog conversation". I find the conversation that does exist, with exceptions of course, enormously frustrating. Whereas I DO recall several actual interblog conversations on the music blogs I've frequented. I guess it depends on what blogs (obviously). For example, I don't read mp3 blogs at all, but I do read Simon Reynolds and k-punk and Zoilus. And I remember several conversations opening up across those blogs that dwarfed the kinds of conversations that occasionally emerge on the litblogs. Of course, in that roundtable, Reynolds and others are bemoaning the loss of that kind of thing...

[Derek]

Fantastic series, especially concerning the perpetual debut. My question: Why release albums at all? Why not return to the single format? Can you imagine how great a '00s Nuggets collection would be in 30 years? The age of Neutral Milk Hotel is behind us.... It may seem like we want perpetual freshness, but that really just means we want a new great song.

[Dave]

It's not whom or what you talk about, it's how you talk about it. I take on mainstream and major label music almost exclusively (I certainly listen to lots of indie music, but rarely have very much to contribute to a conversation about what I'm listening to; I don't know if there's anything in the world harder for me than writing something interesting about Spoon, for instance, but they'll probably make my year-end top twenty) -- the focus in content has very little impact on the ability to spark a conversation within a given post; in fact, there's actually a fairly random element as to which posts are going to spark the conversation. (I've written three very long posts in the past week or so that haven't sparked any comments at all.) My job as a blogger is to lob all ideas out and see what sticks.

Thing is, as soon as blogging turns into a boring grind, I can take a break for a week, a month, a year (and start a new blog). I have no "commitment" to writing regularly except perpetuating conversations that can develop within or spark from it. I don't think advertising is the absolute variable in challenging ideas developing (Tom Breihan gets paid to blog and usually doesn't disappoint, despite occasional lulls and ruts); I think, as I said, that blogs simply haven't learned very much from blogs! It's all very "we report, you decide," where information is presented and comments (when activated) serve mostly as an echo chamber. This is much easier than potentially making an utter fool of oneself in a public forum on a daily basis: but being a total clown is something everyone who blogs regularly needs to deal with (conversations are there in part to help you develop or disown your clownishness).

This tendency toward bullet-pointing happens everywhere, from K-punk to Stereogum to Poptimists, but the difference is that only Poptimists privileges "the pub" as the space where we can goof around and be intellectuals at the same time -- and everything is acceptable (that is, could be accepted) even if not everything is actually accepted all the time. This is because of the diversity of the community, not because of an overarching "project" that makes it work; Reynolds/K-punk/Woebot don't really have anyone to effectively and publicly call out any bullshit (and bullshit necessarily constitutes about half of even good bloggers' output -- PS I'd rather watch Bill O'Reilly than the NEWS TICKER!) because if you can manage to contact them, it's unlikely you'll get to converse with them and less likely for that conversation to go public. But there's not a single musical consensus I can think of at Poptimists. Someone might say something extremely negative about, say, Neutral Milk Hotel or Flaming Lips or Kate Nash or Sean Kingston, but stick 'em in a poll and you won't see any consensus negativity; I'll defend many of the above myself if any significantly negative conversation develops, and, crucially, I won't be shot down or ignored for it. (At Poptimists, suppoprting Kate Nash will get you many more wtf stares than supporting NMH!)

The more telling lapses in the Poptimist community specifically are what music is ignored, but frankly I don't think there's all that much totally uncovered territory across the spectrum, except maybe jazz and classical, and even those get the occasional acknowledgement (and certainly several members listen to lots of classical and jazz, but don't talk about it at Poptimists). You also won't find, say, three 2007 posts on Battles, but you might see Battles on a number of year-end lists, and they're as "fair game" as Fergie or Kate Nash.

[Tom]

One reason Poptimists doesn't cover jazz and classical is that it has a sister community, Sukrat, that does. :) (tho is less lively despite the best efforts of the feared Lord Sukrat).

A community isn't a blog tho.

Oddly enough my Pitchfork column has generally bounced around ideas on writing about music in an age of MP3 blogs. (google "Poptimist #4" for the 'manifesto' I guess). My particular issue is that as a listener I completely and absolutely endorse music as instant gratification but at the same time I like writing about it.

I think there is loads of potential in the MP3 blog format that nobody really used (or that people did use and got no traffic) - this stuff is COMPLETELY FREE so why for heavens sake limit yrself to "good" music rather than also roaming across music that you're not sure about or that you dislike interestingly or whatever? And that's even before you get into the possibilities of games-playing, anonymised MP3s etc etc. But no it's all new new new hype hype hype - not surprising that it is, there's no audience or cash in anything else but eh. (Also how come these people love their independent artists so much and are so averse to risk-taking and independence in their own output? I once got the reverse criticism about Freaky Trigger actually - if you luv pop so much why don't you put adverts on yr blog!)

[Dave]

Haha, I came back here yesterday planning to link to Sukrat (weird, I called it the "sister site," too...do any women post there??) and decided against it for some reason! (Maybe because I'm still not even clear about what Sukrat is, or if the music they discuss actually exists.)

Yeah, I've done a few experiments with anonymous mp3s (as a joke, really) and it really rubs the Hype Machiners the wrong way. Which is why I continue to do it (reminds me that the new Radiohead is the perfect opportunity to do it again). Poptimists has done some really great stuff with anonoMP3 games (I'd even go more in the "experimental" direction with it, but you'd lose "players.")

[Dave]

(And I would consider Poptimists a sort of blog; there are just a few other posters who tend to do most of the blogging, instead of only one (or two) that are able to do this. A few blogs are pretty open to guest-writers, though obviously the organizing concept is different -- but I guess I'm arguing it should be less different than it currently is.)

[scott pgwp]

Thanks to everyone for the comments - keep 'em coming!

Scraps - your comment re coalescing around an idea leading to exclusivity is a good one - definitely the other side of the coin I'm flipping, and obviously not a good thing. My more optimistic (naive?) slant is that the more dialogue about an art form, the more potential for inspiration. That's really what I mean to get at.

Craig - agreed, letting your stats dictate your content is whack (though I disagree--except for the awful cold war kids--on what you call "the worst" of indie).

related, I'm beginning to feel a little bad that I picked on I Guess I'm Floating... he's still posting about Radiohead but honestly in the last day or so his giddiness is apparent. I may have been too cynical (though my point was still valid).

Richard - funny, I may be guilty of remembering a "golden age" of litblogging as being more recent than it actually is. As I think more on it, that interblog conversation between litbloggers was probablt at its best when this "golden age" of music blogs was happening (which I missed entirely--too busy reading lit blogs).

Derek - I fear you may be right, that the age of the album is slowly dying. But lord, I hope not. I think the internet definitley supports a singles-based approach, but personally I find that much less interesting.

Tom & Dave - yes! I'd love to see the mp3 blog turned into less a conduit for information and more as a kind of instrument in itself. Somewhere between pirate radio and sound collage. Or like you talk about, simply games or some kind of conversation starter. There are a myriad ways the form of the mp3 blog could be used, beyond my wish for more writing.

[Tom]

Dave - of the notional 50 or so disciples of Lord Sukrat, 11 of them are women. (The last one to comment was Kat, last weekend). By "sister site" I of course meant "cthonian anticontext", silly me.

I want to modify my MP3 Blog comments slightly as while there aren't too many game-players among them there are lots - including nrly all the ones I read - which aren't "hype hype hype new new new" but are a lot more wide-ranging and considered and writerly sometimes.

re. the golden age of litblogs - this is interesting as it backs up what I was saying on FT, it's happened all over every 'blogosphere' and is a natural consequence of the expanding universe, i.e. now we no longer talk with the Andromeda Galaxy much but back in the golden age we shared a primal atom with 'em!

If this is true there is nothing we can do about it so we'd better much sure the silver age is as enjoyable as we can.

[Cherie]

You make some very good points. But then you seem to undermine them by including some of the worst-offending hype blogs in your blogroll. What's with that?

[Dave]

of the notional 50 or so disciples of Lord Sukrat, 11 of them are women.

My mistake. Apologies to all Sukrettes. (And more apologies for calling them that.)

[Richard]

Just a quick follow-up on litblogs... I've been reading them for years, and, with minor exceptions, I don't recall much in the way of interblog conversation that served my needs. Of course, the key phrase there is "served my needs", innit? I do remember several lengthy discussions flaring up in comment sections, occasionally interblog, and I was certainly following them, occasionally participating, but over time it became increasingly clear to me that little of substance was being said, and what WAS of substance from whatever position flew right over the heads of those (or more accurately, right past those) who didn't hold the position in question. Little actual back and forth, little actual unfolding of ideas across time.

Tom's point about the expanding universe is a good one. There are so many blogs now, so many voices, that there can't help but be a diffusion of conversation, little mini-communities that talk little with the others.

[scott pgwp]

Maybe the mini-communities are unavoidable. I can't remember who said it or where it was said--I think actually it might, again, have been Tom @ Freaky Trigger--but I think the idea of an "archipelago" of blogs is a nice way of putting it.

But I don't like the idea that "that's just how it is, too bad." The very foundation of the internet, big as it may be, is that one need only reach out and tap someone on the shoulder. Heck, the number of blogs I've never heard of until this week, thanks to this post, is the perfect example of that. I've bookmarked at least five or six new joints to keep an eye on.

I think it's not enough to say something interesting - you have be inclusive, invite others to the table. But I'm not saying anything new - we all know this shit.

Cherie - first, I'll admit my blogroll needs some updating; when that happens, the ratio of hype blogs to the rest will likely diminish. Second, though, I really didn't mean for my posts to come off as anti-hype blogs. I don't think they shouldn't exist, but I do think their function can and should be examined. One could very easily write a response to my posts on the benefit of these blogs and I wouldn't necessarily argue--so long as the response wasn't, as Marc noted in the very first comment, "I don't have time to do more!" or "I don't have time to be negative!", which I think is a cop-out.