Big Stereo Release Baby Monster
We’re looking at "the death of blogs”. At least, that’s if you believe an article posted on The Guardian’s web site last month. Their “evidence”, if you can call it that, seemed to hinge around a completely fucking ridiculous statistic; a few years ago 28% of teenagers considered themselves bloggers, and now far less do. Even ignoring how blatantly incorrect this is (over 1 in 4 teenagers ran blogs?!?!?!) using this statistic to predict the death of blogs is to completely ignore adult bloggers and suggest that all blog owners are sex-hormone filled teenagers. Like me.
Even if this unlikely statistic is correct, all it suggests is that bloggers are becoming older, or kids are spending more time playing COD and masturbating, and less time writing about their boring lives. However, what really annoyed me about this article (yes, if you hadn’t noticed, I guess I am quite annoyed) is that it suggests that a decline in the numbers of bloggers could spell out the end for blogs in general, as if the only thing keeping blogs going is their abundance. In reality, the complete opposite is true and it’s not only the case that a wealth of badly written and poorly maintained blogs help to give all blogs a bad name, but that the enormous volume of these “publications” makes it near impossible to divert traffic from all the other dotblogspotdotcoms out there. More importantly though, they are completely missing the point that it is blog readers that keep blogs going, and not the other way around. At the very least, blogs will continue to exist for as long as the demand is there, and, according to my traffic stats, the numbers of blog readers are only increasing.
In actual fact, not only is it the case that blogs aren’t “dying out”, but that they are rapidly becoming more and more prolific and branching out into PR, live events and record labels. Of course, it would be almost impossible for me not to mention Neon Gold, who have seemed to lead the way in the new blog-turns-record-label trend, but it’s the latest pioneers Big Stereo who have really caught my ears.
Their first release is by Baby Monster, a band that I have previously written about here. The single is called “She Comes Alive” and swops the dirtied MGMT of “Super Violence & Beethoven” for a sound that feels slightly less instantaneous and hard hitting, but proves to be every inch as amazing as that chorus arrests your brain within a few listens.
I previously said that the band may be looking at “superstardom”, and whilst this may not be the release that does it for them (only 350 7” are available, and I would seriously recommend pre-ordering one; these are going to disappear), the quality of the EP is effortlessly causing the press to fall for Baby Monster, and record label attention is bound to follow. I would be far from surprised if these 7”s were selling for $50+ on eBay this time next year, so get pre-ordering. It’s more of an investment than a purchase. And if you’re not investing for personal gain (very noble of you), you will at least be investing in the future of music blogs; a future that it seems, if this quality release is anything to go by, we have very little to worry about.
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March 4th, 2010 at 8:37 pm
Neat post. I think its really interesting that so many blogs are using their branding to turn into record labels, promoters etc.
My long term concern over this is that there is a possibility of the blog losing impartiality as the blogger develops their other vested interests. No longer does the blog become a place for discovering great new music but just a PR site for the authors other ventures. I’m certainly not saying that this will happen in all cases but there is a danger of the blog losing its original focus.
March 4th, 2010 at 11:18 pm
I’m not sure if I completely agree to be honest… I mean, it’s a completely legitimate concern, and one that has come to mind before, it’s just that… the special thing about blogs turning into record labels is that they have a “taste” that their readers trust. So even if they are being impartial and giving lots of coverage to their own artists, these are artists that the blog likes enough to invest in!
I’m sure I would agree with you if it weren’t for Neon Gold – but they seem to have proved that, yes, they push their acts, but their acts are always as consistently brilliant as all the other music they write about.
That said, Neon Gold doesn’t prove that this couldn’t happen in the future, and it is possible that some blogs could get pretty cynical about it…
March 5th, 2010 at 12:37 am
I could see how that could be a concern.
We’ve been promoting events for four years, as both organizers and sponsors, and of course now we have a record label –but I think our blog posting standards remain the same. We’re not going to promote an event or record that we’re not 100% behind. Could it get heavy on our own stuff? Maybe, but take events and record label out of the equation and we’d still be posting the same bands, the same music. Our approach to blogging has always been one of curating rather than “journalism” or even pure promotion so it’s just another piece of the puzzle.
I hope we don’t lose readers just because we’re presenting the same bands at different angles — and I hope there is still plenty of room for mp3, blog, vinyl AND live formats. I know I don’t like consuming music in just one way.
Thanks Phil for the very thought provoking post.
March 4th, 2010 at 9:26 pm
NME: please do NOT push bands. Thank you. No, no one is goinbg to get “$50.00″ on Ebay. Why? “cause you said so. No. Let it happen.
March 4th, 2010 at 11:15 pm
My apologies if you thought I was “pushing” them too much CCT, but to be frank, if you think that encouraging people to buy good music is a bad idea then it’s barely surprising that record labels are completely unwilling to sign exciting and original acts anymore – you’ve all downloaded it for free. My sincerest apologies.
“Let it happen”? As with everything I write, this is my opinion, which I am entitled to. If you think I’m wrong, then that’s equally fine. Just try and get over it more quietly.
March 4th, 2010 at 11:39 pm
hahaha, think you just got owned CCT. it’s not like he’s making any money from this or anything… Personally, thought it was a quality post, but im gonna have to give the song time to grow on me.
March 5th, 2010 at 8:43 pm
No agree that Neon Gold are a good example against my argument. Hopefully I will be proved very wrong with other bloggers moving into these areas. Quite happy to be proved wrong.
March 6th, 2010 at 12:56 pm
Thanks for posting this; just found your blog searching around. Keep up the good work!