(Disclaimer: These are just my opinions and are not meant to speak for anyone else who posts on this site)

One of the reasons my contributing to this site has slowed considerably are my general feelings of annoyance and discontent with the state of music blogs today. I can't spend more than 10-15 minutes reading a certain group of highly trafficked blogs without feeling a sense of disgust. My complaint is not against all music blogs, rather just the more commonly linked and credited sites I see around the blogosphere.

Instead of tallying up my problems or even listing the sites by name (why give them even more attention?), I'd rather attempt to define the qualities that I believe separate good music blogs from the chaff. Consider it an "in-progress" manifesto: a set of expanding and flexible objectives. I'll be the first to admit I fall far short of these intentions. My point is not to prop this site or myself as a beacon, but to announce publicly why I continue to bother with blogging.

But first I would like to address a couple gripes that are germane to this post. I've seen these grievances pop up in posts and comment boards across the sphere, so I believe it's one worth discussing. While I concur with the sentiment of these generalities to a degree, I have more questions and doubts than certainties and answers. Here are the complaints:

1. Blogs talk about the same small set of bands.

And the corollary:

2. These bands aren't worth the hype.

Yes, it seems true on the surface. A number of blogs that show up in most blog rolls do appear to mention the same bands, over and over. The ad nauseam coverage raises the question of sincerity. What are the motives of these blogs? Do they really like these bands? The content is posited as personal passion (and most likely is) but in the conflagration of buzz, it can appear as no more than shilling for ad revenue, traffic numbers or ego.

But evaluate the bands receiving coverage. It's no mystery or coincidence: they are the acts with new albums to promote, tickets to sell, interviews to give. Bloggers are covering them; paid media outlets ("indie" and mainstream magazines, music review websites, content portals, etc.) are covering them. Content is easy to source and quickly distribute on a minute-by-minute basis.

Is it somehow wrong when music blogs parallel the "what's new, what's hot" mentality as for-profit media? What is the nature and point of music blogs then? Is it the stict realm of personal, unsolicited opinions only? Does crossing into service journalism and covering subjects that fall outside of individual preference somehow violate unwritten rules? I really don't know because there are no rules. There are larger questions here that are better suited for future topics. I do believe that it is only natural that most music blogs inevitably line up with popular trends. It's not wrong. It's an immortal "it is what it is".

So what about the question of worthiness. Are these hyped groups really that great? That is a question that cannot be answered, an argument that cannot be won or lost. It is a wholly subjective matter. I do have a solution for avoiding the blogs I don't like though and it's simple and liberating: I don't read them.

Yes, I can choose to ignore these bastions of buzz. Sure, I want to know what's going on, what "the kids" are talking about. I scan some sites I don't like on occasion just to find out who is hot. But the whole argument of blogger banality can easily be squashed with a simple Google search.

Look beyond the 10-15 most commonly linked blogs and you'll find someone writing passionately about nearly every band that has ever existed. Disregard the sites that seem to hold up fingers to test the wind before posting and find that the Word is out there, testifying in the wilderness to greatness worth appreciating. These are the sites I want to find, frequent and support. These are the examples I want to follow. This is the bedrock for me: keep it honest and personal.

My point? Stop complaining about similarity and start discovering what else is out there. My assumption is the vast majority of music blogs operate under this principle: People write about music they like, without thought of profit, popularity or ego strokes. If it happens to align with the "flavor of the day", so be it. It's ultimately up to the reader to determine the sincerity of the blogger. It's up to the blogger to keep it real. It's magic when those two meet.



More to come.