Blogrock’d!
Everyone who not only cares about music, but feels invested enough in the music community that they care about discovering music, has, at some point in the past five years, been blogrock’d. Blogrock’d: the act of being duped by a blog into thinking you are discovering a particular band that it in fact has discovered for you and thousands of others. Blogs, thanks to the “handmade” vibe that is inherent in their nature (created alone in a messy room, with no budget, generally by one person / enthusiast), offer the illusion that they are privately pressed pamphlets, or zines, handbills of the underground, messages from below. The truth is, they’re not. They’re hosted by the Internet, that nebulous all-place where cops, grandmas, pre-teens, and everyone else in the world who is just like you (and there are legion) are also staring at, on a computer, through a screen. The moral of the tale is, you’re not going to “discover”, like Chris Columbus (or the actual viking who Did It First), anything if you’re looking on the Internet. Furthermore, most contemporary post-traditional/record industry/radio “marketing” consists of just that, giving you, the listening/web-surfer/”explorer” the illusion of “discovering” a band thus duping you into experiencing the attending proprietary feelings such said discoveries tend to induce. What really happened, however, is that you just got BLOGROCK’D! So close the laptop. Head to your local record shop and listen to what’s playing in the store. Talk to the weirdo behind the counter. Go to shows early to see the “Never heard of ’em” opening bands. Get out there and discover music, citizen! Don’t be a victim of Blogrock’n.
