This is the first of two student Interviews I conducted with fellow bloggers from Bennington College. This interview was with Emily Sher, a sophomore at Bennington who reads music blogs and has her own blog that is only accessible to her approved Blogspot friends.
Nick: Do you read many music blogs?
Emily: I read some casually but not ones that update everyday.
N: What do you believe the true purpose of the music blog is?
E: I think there are many purposes. Some, such as Pitchfork and Brooklyn Vegan, keep you updated on what's going on with more popular artists while others are directed towards more obscure music. Really, they're for discovering whatever you want to discover more readily than previously popular means of discovering music.
N: How do you find the more obscure blogs?
E: Usually through friends, I'm not as good as navigating those types of blogs.
N: What do you believe are the most positive and negative aspects of the music blogosphere?
E: Local bands can get exposure and become more popular more easily as opposed to going through other outlets such as Myspace. It's more simple when someone is telling you what to listen to giving but blogs also make music more readily downloadable, making for less record sales. It's really gaining a fan base in exchange for the monetary value through selling records. Also, they tend to be very gossipy—my friend’s band got the reputation of being "bad boys" because of alleged actions. Its sort of like blogging can be the spread of disease. You have to ask yourself: do these types of things matter?
N: Do you think music blogs tend to be very subjective?
E: They can be subjective in terms of one a blog writing about a particular artist and from there other bloggers use the initial blog as a reason to cover the same bands and music. There are some blogs that are much more straightforward.
N: What are your thoughts on comment sections on music blogs? Are they useful?
E: Comment sections are really just heavily opinionated but other readers don’t take commenters seriously often. There is definitely a specific type of person who comments on a blog or any public thing on the internet. They take their own comments seriously yet they ignore other peoples opinions.
N: What are your thoughts on the overnight blog hype phenomenon?
E: Personally, my friend's band The Smith Westerns attributed to other bands from their scene and bands that are linked to other bands in similar genre. It really helped them gain attention. Other blogs tend to read big blogs and music journalism websites, track reviews of songs etc. in order to expose music to people who wouldn’t typically listen to said band. It seems that poppy bands get a lot more attention, the kinds of bands that are palatable to anyone. These are the types of bands whose references to other music can be easily appreciated.
N: Do you think the music blogosphere is just a societal trend bound to die out eventually or will it continue to spread influence and evolve?
E: I think they'll die out in the sense that something else will come along, a new medium. We never really know what the next big thing is so it's hard to say what's next.
Some blogs that Emily follows:
Nick: Do you read many music blogs?
Emily: I read some casually but not ones that update everyday.
N: What do you believe the true purpose of the music blog is?
E: I think there are many purposes. Some, such as Pitchfork and Brooklyn Vegan, keep you updated on what's going on with more popular artists while others are directed towards more obscure music. Really, they're for discovering whatever you want to discover more readily than previously popular means of discovering music.
N: How do you find the more obscure blogs?
E: Usually through friends, I'm not as good as navigating those types of blogs.
N: What do you believe are the most positive and negative aspects of the music blogosphere?
E: Local bands can get exposure and become more popular more easily as opposed to going through other outlets such as Myspace. It's more simple when someone is telling you what to listen to giving but blogs also make music more readily downloadable, making for less record sales. It's really gaining a fan base in exchange for the monetary value through selling records. Also, they tend to be very gossipy—my friend’s band got the reputation of being "bad boys" because of alleged actions. Its sort of like blogging can be the spread of disease. You have to ask yourself: do these types of things matter?
N: Do you think music blogs tend to be very subjective?
E: They can be subjective in terms of one a blog writing about a particular artist and from there other bloggers use the initial blog as a reason to cover the same bands and music. There are some blogs that are much more straightforward.
N: What are your thoughts on comment sections on music blogs? Are they useful?
E: Comment sections are really just heavily opinionated but other readers don’t take commenters seriously often. There is definitely a specific type of person who comments on a blog or any public thing on the internet. They take their own comments seriously yet they ignore other peoples opinions.
N: What are your thoughts on the overnight blog hype phenomenon?
E: Personally, my friend's band The Smith Westerns attributed to other bands from their scene and bands that are linked to other bands in similar genre. It really helped them gain attention. Other blogs tend to read big blogs and music journalism websites, track reviews of songs etc. in order to expose music to people who wouldn’t typically listen to said band. It seems that poppy bands get a lot more attention, the kinds of bands that are palatable to anyone. These are the types of bands whose references to other music can be easily appreciated.
N: Do you think the music blogosphere is just a societal trend bound to die out eventually or will it continue to spread influence and evolve?
E: I think they'll die out in the sense that something else will come along, a new medium. We never really know what the next big thing is so it's hard to say what's next.
Some blogs that Emily follows:
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