In posting music, I often wonder if there are rules or no-no’s within the music-geek blog community. Obviously these rules can and are broken constantly, but I’m sure that certain types of blog activity is frowned upon and mocked by the senior bloggers and purists. In skateboarding (and life; deep I know), you can pretty much do whatever you want on your board that is physically possible: push mongo, do ho-hos and handplants in the parking lot behind Sears (that’s actually pretty cool), launch benihannas, and do kickflip sex-changes. Any of the aforementioned tricks would probably result in a harsh mocking by seasoned skaters, although this trick degradation is solely a social construct. God or some underlying universal force did not will any of these things to be good or bad; a couple influential people did. So I started to wonder if I’m currently breaking any of the unwritten blogging rules myself. Here are a few things that I occasionally do which might make the list:
1. Repost tracks that I’ve downloaded off other people’s blogs. I don’t do this too often (and especially not if the track is tagged. How embarrassing, right). If I seriously can’t find the record, the track has a high sample rate, and it’s a stone cold jam, I will commit this crime. Whatever dude, I’m like a music blog Robin Hood.
2. Post up shit that I’ve uploaded from CD. Doesn’t seem like such a big deal, but, some folks claim that unless you record it from the original vinyl it doesn’t count. While I do feel that having the original vinyl copy is crackerjack (I got that term from the Merriam-Webster Online Thesaurus by the way, in searching for a synonym for “excellent”), I don’t think it is absolutely necessary. Besides, if you are actually concerned with supporting the artist, it’s probably better to buy the CD brand new from the store (if it exists), as some of that money might actually make it back to them (depending on how they negotiated their deals).
3. This is a music blog, right. So what the fuck am I doing whining, complaining, praising and ranting about non-music related things, like Laundry and Haircuts. I should be whining, complaining, praising, and ranting about music solely, as my music related opinions matter! They do, right?
4. Posting the same artist’s stuff over and over again. For example I’ve posted a lot of Bohannon, and I’m gonna post more in this post, and I plan to post even more in the future. What can I say, I’m a fan, and although I should space his shit out more, I’m super impulsive.
5. Posting really obvious pop music, that everyone knows and has heard a billion times. I haven’t done this too much yet, but I’m sure I will be posting up some Madonna in the future.
Shit, that’s all I can think of. My blog may be in the red, but it’s not the worst (I could provide some links to some of the worst I’ve seen, but that’d be fucked up and subjective), although One Man’s Problem is still completely un-respected and unknown, which is fine. Still, I’d like others to tell me the rules of blog and what else I am doing completely wrong. On the converse, here are some of the things that I see constantly on other blogs, which I feel violates music blog convention:
1. Posting up music at a low sample rate. Yeah, I fucking love it when the drums (and everything else), which are normally thunderous and heavy, sound like metallic high frequency garbage. Plus I use Serato (which I will likely get hated on hard for using. Is it still lame to use Serato, when I record all my vinyl at the highest sample rates to disc, and I get to use other MP3s, some which I will likely never find anywhere on vinyl in my lifetime, as well? I know the answer is yes [that it is in fact lame as hell], but my back is likely to be in better shape at the end of the day) which means that there is no way I’ll ever keep or play out anything from your blog (which may be your intent, to just tease, expecting that if you like the track enough you’ll go out and find it, which (if that is your intent) I respect (sort of, but still it’s a bit greedy). In that case, why not just go the extra distance and just put up snippets of the track, to really tease, ensuring that a false MP3 copy will never be misused. I’m sorry for the overload of parenthesis used in this passage, but my writing is very fragmented, and I want to accurately include all that shit.
2. Posting twice a month, or less. Actually, I think less than four times a month is kind of pathetic. This is relatively self explanatory, unless you are dropping serious amounts of blog-age in those posts, to tide peeps over till the next one. I understand that you are a busy person and maybe don’t have time for blog. If that is the case, then you DON"T have time for blog: give up, as nobody cares about you or your blog anyway (just as nobody cares about me, or my blog, and yet for the time being, I persist).
3. People who post up all the new 12”s and singles which are being released in the present. I know it’s tempting as there is some good stuff coming out (most of which sounds like it could’ve been released in the late 70s and early 80s, which is bittersweet I guess) but nonetheless, these dudes stand to benefit from the money that music dorks like me would normally spend on their output, as opposed to the money that I’ll now spend on something else, since I just downloaded a high quality MP3 off your blog. This maybe the case to post the low quality MP3, but I feel like many will still be satisfied with the free, yet crap quality version. Just post up the snippet, and/or shout it out and link to the Juno download or some online shop. If you are cool with the artist and they give you permission to post it up, or if they already offer a free approved download via their own label or site, that’s justified also. I know some blogs are popular (unlike this one), and may actually have the power to promote the artist, song or album, but I also know that in my case, if the track is just sort of cool (as opposed to essential heat), and I already have the high quality MP3, I’m not gonna be buying a hard copy.
I could go on, but I’m a total hypocrite and I’ve likely already done everything that I’m speaking out against, or will in the future (perhaps in this very post; irony is a strong theme here at One Man’s Problem). Besides I’ve already spent the whole morning writing this, and I’m sort of out of decent ideas. So going on would mean more babble; live and let die.
Bohannon - Dance Your Ass Off
Bohannon - The Groove I Feel
Bohannon – Party People
Mandonna – Into The Groove
Doris D and the Pins – Shine Up
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