Elbows Music Blog Community

I'm not entirely conviced that I can conceptualize music blogs the way you do--my brain wants to resist systematics and engineering (my thought process is much more likely to devolve into a bunch of asides and caveats and unending streams of parentheses, which makes it difficult for me to come up with "systems")--but for the challenge, and because I think the underlying question (How can we better influence the music tastes of our readers?) is an interesting one, I'll make a go at it.

music blog vs. mp3 blog:

I think we should be past the concept of "mp3 blogging". The number of music blogs that restrict themselves to mp3s can probably be counted on one hand. Music blogging increasingly involves using other media--streaming video/audio in particular.

readers vs. traffic:

If we've proven that a music blog can achieve and sustain 300-3000+ hits (daily, I assume), we certainly haven't proven that those people are actually "readers". a lot of the time we use "reader" to refer to everyone including hits, click-thrus, occasional visitors, and regulars--regardless of how any of these people/bots are actually interacting with our blogs. Probably worthwhile to distinguish if we are talking about techniques for introducing music, as they are going to be very different depending on the target audience (I think).

". . . pretty complicated to move it beyond a "hunch" to consistent techniques.":

A huge problem to developing consistent techniques for "introduc[ing] arbitrary music to [a] random crowd and they actually enjoy[ing] it" is: how do you measure this? How do you measure your readers "actually enjoying" the music you post? (Not sure if this is possible.) Also, in order to develop consistent techniques, you need to first have a way to determine the success of whatever given technique you are applying. (i.e. you need to be able to say "when you used technique ___, this result occurred __% of the time.") More importantly, how will you know to any degree that what you are measuring has any relation to the "blogging mechanics" you used?

Those very important points aside. . .

1) genre vs. eclecticism.

As much as it could be considered a "technique", focusing on a specific genre has the advantage of possibly attracting people with similar music taste, and achieving loyal readers that will return to your blog. Most people are pretty unadventerous when it comes to their music--they don't want to be challenged to listen to something completely new. Being relatively focused on one or two musical styles, and occasionally throwing in something more "arbitrary" might be a good way to introduce people to something that they might not normally check out. It's also worth mentioning that the bigger your blog gets, the more traffic you get, the more sites linking to it, the greater the chance of somebody randomly happening across it, and giving something a listen.

On the other hand, a more eclectic blogging technique could attract more musically-adventurous readers.  These people might be more open to your attempts to "rearrange [their] musical perception", than someone who just wants the latest electo-house jam, and is not looking to have their tastes challenged.

2) personal vs. impersonal.

If your stated goal is to "rearrange musical perception" I don't know why you wouldn't use every opportunity you have to inject your own personality into the way you present the music. Presentation counts for a lot. If you are trying to get your audience to enjoy music that they might not normally listen to, it couldn't hurt to get them thinking about the music in a different way. Perhaps this is my own personal bias, but I would be trying to get that person on the same page as me. I'd recommend techniques that allow you to personalize the experience and play around as much as possible with the context in which the person is hearing the music.

a) text-based techniques: original journalism, academic writing, creative writing (fiction, poetry, etc.) You have to be careful with these, as they will alienate people who don't like to read/are unable to read what you've written (the vast majority of people on the internet). Illiteracy is something to consider, but also increasingly, the language divide is going to place limits on the effectiveness of these techniques, if it doesn't already.

b) image / video techniques: "a picture is worth a thousand words", etc. Generally speaking, people will see the picture before they read what you've written. It's all but guaranteed that the reader will see an image if it's placed at the top of the post. Videos are more tempting to most people than reading text.

c) organizational techniques: playlists, podcasts, dj mixes, top 10 lists, thematic posts, and tons of other things that are not coming to mind at the moment.

As for the argument for the impersonal, I suppose it is possible that the "reader" manages to sidestep all your attempts to impact the way they experience the music, and just downloads an mp3 without paying any attention to the blog. In that case, doing away with the time-consuming things that make your blog original frees up your time and resources for doing other things that could increase your ability to "introduce arbitrary music to [a] random crowd" like, I dunno, spam advertising.

*****

That's all I got for now, and I'm not in a position where I'm ready to say which of these techniques are "best" or "required" to achieve your goal, or that their varying impacts are able to be measured in any decisive way.

*projectile vomit* when I read the word l33t

It's a squashed thread. You're not supposed to get it. It's sort of like dada.

@Tsuru - LOL! Yeah Bro, I feel the same way about most of these "patented" Squashed threads. Sometimes, I feel that I need to take a strong dose of hallucinogenic drugs to even begin to understand them. ;-)

@Thomas - Kudos on your well written reply to what you interpreted the main question to be! Though, I must admit at first I didn't get to the same level of interpretation. But do see it better now after reading your comments.

@Thomas, @ Squashed - Initially, the only thing I really got to interpret or better yet question was the title of the thread - "The Art and Engineering of MP3 blogging". Thanks to Wiki: "Art is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music, literature, film, sculpture, and paintings. The meaning of art is explored in a branch of philosophy known as aesthetics." and "Engineering is the discipline, art and profession of acquiring and applying technical, scientific, and mathematical knowledge to design and implement materials, structures, machines, devices, systems, and processes that safely realize a desired objective or invention."

Ok, so art is creativity appealing to senses/emotions and Engineering (imo) is "loosely" an element of art.

I have tried, over and over, to put some boundaries on music blogging (code of ethics, consistent techniques etc.). And so far have come to the conclusion that by putting boundaries on music blogging, one in effect negates the whole idea behind music blogging. If one applies Engineering ie "technical, scientific, and mathematical knowledge to design and implement materials" (materials = music blogging) then the whole DIY, "free form", creative aspect of music blogging is turned into nothing more than a mechanical process. Yes, Engineering may be a form of "art" but it is a very structured, mechanical, bounded process driven thing/activity. So, imo, applying Engineering concepts to music blogging is pointless and will just kill it.

Regarding the question of "how music blogs can effectively introduce music to an audience that might not otherwise care to listen to it." My answer to that is music blogs have been and still are doing this. Music blogs can't really "force" an audience to embrace and listen to something out of their norm. IMO, at best, music blogs can only put it out there (the music), along with some well thought out words and "hope" that they can attract some new listeners that normally wouldn't embrace that genre (form) of music. Anyhow if I interpreted it right, I think to a large degree, this is what Thomas addressed above.

@JimH - LOL! Ah, yes Dada! Honestly and Sincerely, no offense to Squashed (this forum would not be the same without him) ;-)

"Many Dadaists believed that the 'reason' and 'logic' of bourgeois capitalist society had led people into war. They expressed their rejection of that ideology in artistic expression that appeared to reject logic and embrace chaos and irrationality. For example, George Grosz later recalled that his Dadaist art was intended as a protest "against this world of mutual destruction."

I like this artwork done by Raoul Hausmann (1920) who was an Austrian artist/writer. He was one of the pioneers in the Berlin Dada group/movement. The artwork is titled "Tatlin". Tatlin was a "Russian artist, called the father of Constructivism though he rejected the role and was regarded in 1920s Western Europe as the man who led art into technology and industrial production."



"Dadaism", "Constructivism", "Squashedism" - Man oh Man, now I am really confused... ;-)

♥ ♫ ☮

this thread gave me a blog spinoff idea.

not yet! I have lots of ideas, all the time, most turn out to be complete shit, so not yet! lol.