A post-Festivus Complaint "I have a lot of problems with you people!"

I was running through my blogs in the middle of last week, and I was struck by how - as I've tended to look at less well known, typically Canadian music blogs - 1/ I didn't recognize a single band that anyone was posting about, and 2/how all the bloggers were very complementary to all of the supposedly great artists that I had never managed to come across. While I'm willing to admit that there are artists out there that I have never heard of, but I do believe that, eventually, the cream rises to the top. So, naturally, this was a little disconcerting, because I wondered whether I was doing this in my own blog, or whether I have been accomplishing what I set out to 'Oh way back when' I started blogging.

Then I realized I didn't have an actual goal, and I started doing this because I thought it would be a fun place to write about things that I like, and I might also expose some friends to some new music. Now, I'll add to my new list of goals, avoiding the things that I dislike about most music blogs:

1/ Not recognizing anything. It seems like there is an overwhelming trend among bloggers to try to be the one to break the next big thing especially after Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Lily Allen hit the big time solely on internet buzz. So, it feels like every blogger needs to constantly introduce new obscure bands while avoiding discussions of even mildly popular bands. Like with all good things, there needs to be a balance. You also need to give people (all people and not just 'scenesters') a metric for evaluating any band that you'd recommend. That said, hopefully I'll continue to post about artists that are new to me, artists that have been blogged to death, as well as MTV darlings (like Hayden who I saw performing live on MTV as I've been editing here).

2/ Liking everything. There's nothing wrong with liking a lot of music, I like a lot of music, but COMMON! no one likes everything. Naturally, people will write about stuff that they like - if something is a disappointment you shouldn't feel as though you have to spin your review in a positive way so the band/record label/distributor will keep sending you free CDs. I can't imagine I'll spend a lot of time 'hating on' anyone, but I'm going to try my best to be honest about songs, albums, shows... unless someone starts sending me free CDs.

c/ Being too narrowly focused. I'd like to see more personality from most bloggers - kudos to My Old Kentucky Blog for being the one big music blog to post about stuff outside music that he was interested in. In that spirit you can expect upcoming posts from me on: week one of the Australian Open, my NBA All-Star team, and my thoughts on the Raptors mid-season.