Back Again For The First Time
It’s 2022 and I’m starting a music blog.
I’m not thinking of starting a music blog, I’m just going to do it.
Here are my concerns:
Music blogs feel like a relic of a bygone era given how much sway major labels have in our streaming habits. Those playlists that get pushed in your “For You” feeds and the song snippets that get pushed on TikTok and IG reels? Some of it is organic, but most of it is due to major label influence. That’s how it always has been—streaming services are just the most recent format for major labels to push their artists into your ear holes.
All that being said, there was a pocket of time when music blogs were doing some amplification of the college radio and public radio ethos of keeping everyone’s ears to the ground. We were also going to waaaay more shows and the New York indie sleaze scene was keeping things interesting. Illegal art was thriving—I’m talking about unsanctioned sampling by the likes of Danger Mouse, Girl Talk, and The Hood Internet, among others. Unfortunately, just like with torrent services and Napster, major labels don’t really appreciate that kind of manipulation of their intellectual property.
Still, I think that there’s room for little old-ass me to just have a space to expound on the music I love. I’ve been DJing for the better part of this year—DJing regularly for the first time in over a decade. I’ve been making bigger waves than I ever did in 2011-2012, but the aim remains the same: it’s all a labor of love. This time around, I just have a better-paying day-job and I’m able to make extra money from DJing (even with an upcoming residency).
I feel like a music blog would be a great way to bring broader context to some of my sets and selections. Maybe it’s masturbatory—but I feel like it’s a better in-road for more people rather than asking people to physically show up to places I’m spinning records in the midst of various public health crises. Plus, I want to make music more conversational. Podcast in the future? Maybe. Music blog now? Absolutely.
I’m not going to sit here and say that what I’m doing is going to completely buck major label material. Far from it. Major labels have deep wells of talent that shouldn’t be ignored—but the world is so much more than all of that. It’s not just about smaller labels, but also international labels and the labels that fight to preserve vintage sounds that have fallen by the wayside. I think a lot of non-major label material provides a lot of context to major label sounds.I don’t want this to be a fly-by-night fancy that I get tired of after two or three posts. Maybe a Squarespace blog isn’t the way to go, maybe it is. I don’t want to do Medium—too many paywalls. My Tumblr seems like an option, but I need this to be a format and to stay on a schedule—Tumblr is too haphazard and it’d be too far a thematic shift for my generally-dormant once-popular page. I guess WordPress is an option, but I don’t have the wherewithal to really explore that right now.
Squarespace it is for the time being. I’ll deal—plus, if this is really just about me being able to talk about these things rather than an effort to chase clout and popularity, then the format doesn’t really matter as much, right? Sure. Shrug.This damn thing will take time. Then again, I don’t have much of a social life at 38-years-old. My best friend around here is running like a million restaurants and opening a million more while incubating the city’s best culinary talents. I’ve got nothing but time, and things that you love deserve your time.
Really, those are all my concerns. They’re three concerns that are all pretty easy to tackle, all things considered. In the meantime, here’s a very short playlist with songs about coming back capped off with a song about not forgetting about me. Let’s have some fun.