Nick Hornby (the writer of High Fidelity) has much to say about music blogs today in the Guardian Observer:
“But it’s easy. Look at Hype Machine (hypem.com) to begin with: in the top right-hand corner of the site, you’ll see a list of the top five most-blogged artists, so you will get a sense of what’s going on out there (or in there, if you are a literal-minded soul).
…
And some of these post songs from new bands, and some post scratched old vinyl funk records, and if you spend an hour messing about you’ll find 20 or 30 great songs you never knew before. In other words: there’s no excuse.…
But more importantly, you need never again feel as though the pop life is drifting away from you – indeed, the anonymity and user-friendliness of the MP3 blogs mean that one feels emboldened to walk into even the scariest-looking website in the full confidence that nobody will laugh at you.”
He has a new book coming out, Juliet, Naked, which is “in part about how a middle-aged man devotes a large chunk of his life to keeping alive the work of a long-forgotten 80s singer-songwriter; he runs a messageboard, posts essays online, and virtually lives in a virtual world, talking to people he wouldn’t ever have met 10 years ago.”
Awesome! You guys get a mention and I want to read the book now, score everybody.
September 6, 2009 5:37 pm
Nick Hornby is right: the internet, far from being a horrible place full of spam and porn and fraudsters, is actually pretty fluffy and friendly. Music has had a rough ride but things are gradually getting better for everyone as the internet matures.
I hope. 🙂
September 7, 2009 1:55 am
thats so awesome, music bloggers and hypem ftw!
September 9, 2009 4:53 am
i like this songs
September 11, 2009 12:02 am
The book’s not out here in the states till the end of the month, but it should be cool – the blogger is obsessed with a Dylan/Cohen type character, and Hornby definitely knows his music.
You can read about how he discovered MP3 blogs in his “2008 Playlist” (read #11):
http://papercuts.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/29/living-with-music-a-playlist-by-nick-hornby/?hp
September 13, 2009 11:37 pm
LOVE nick hornby. his book column in The Believer is a riot – i encourage all to check it out.
October 1, 2009 4:13 pm