Wednesday, February 7, 2007
It's Worth A Go
Many people have blogs these days. It reminds me of the early days of MP3.com.
MP3.com seemed to be the panacea for the overbloated recording industry and the ultimate way to throw off the shackles of the RIAA. Anyone could post a song and have a free webpage. I was on there for a good while with my experimental improv band, Voight-Kampff. It seemed like the millions of dollars were soon to pour in as my CD's were sold on artistic merit alone. Unfortunately, it soon became obvious that having a gatekeeper could actually be a good thing as everyone who owned a cassette deck and a computer started posting music online. True, the gatekeepers at these overbloated castles of sonic tastemaking would sometimes filter out vital new artforms (such as rap or indie rock when "indie" actually meant it was created by an independent label, not one owned by a long arm of the hydra that Sony Music or Time Warner has become) but it also meant that they filtered out crap. Apparently, more people wanted to be heard than should be heard.
So, although many of my friends have encouraged me to start my own blog (a weird reversal of the old saying that a prophet in his own town gains no respect) I have hesitated. Does the world really need yet another person writing his random thoughts about various topics then posting it online in an orgy of egocentric self-promotion? I think the answer is, "Yes." I do not promise to be consistent in my time frame (or even in my punctuation accuracy) but I will give it a go.
MP3.com seemed to be the panacea for the overbloated recording industry and the ultimate way to throw off the shackles of the RIAA. Anyone could post a song and have a free webpage. I was on there for a good while with my experimental improv band, Voight-Kampff. It seemed like the millions of dollars were soon to pour in as my CD's were sold on artistic merit alone. Unfortunately, it soon became obvious that having a gatekeeper could actually be a good thing as everyone who owned a cassette deck and a computer started posting music online. True, the gatekeepers at these overbloated castles of sonic tastemaking would sometimes filter out vital new artforms (such as rap or indie rock when "indie" actually meant it was created by an independent label, not one owned by a long arm of the hydra that Sony Music or Time Warner has become) but it also meant that they filtered out crap. Apparently, more people wanted to be heard than should be heard.
So, although many of my friends have encouraged me to start my own blog (a weird reversal of the old saying that a prophet in his own town gains no respect) I have hesitated. Does the world really need yet another person writing his random thoughts about various topics then posting it online in an orgy of egocentric self-promotion? I think the answer is, "Yes." I do not promise to be consistent in my time frame (or even in my punctuation accuracy) but I will give it a go.
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