It's because we shouldn't have to hear,
'When did music journalism stop being written by lovers of music turning their pens to words and start being written by journalists lending their ears to music?'
Saturday 9 January 2010
Shuffle
I remember being very excited when I picked up my first copy of Kerrang. I was excited to have in my hands an edgy magazine, filled with bands that sounded dirty, that swore in interviews, with pictures of my heroes posing for the camera as I envied Slash's guitar, and Mike Dirst's bass.
As I grew up, my musical tastes broadened, and I looked for a new magazine to look to for reviews, bands I could come to like, and bands I currently did, giving me a tingling sensation as I read words spoken by my musical heroes. I settled into buying Q every month, and NME every other week or so.
Every new artist was hailed as the saviour (or saviours) of the (more often than not solely British) music scene. Tired bands were given rave reviews, and for some reason I was only listening to the same processed beats, with only the occasional saviour or interesting novelty keeping my interest going.
I then went to University, and due to a wonderful housemate found a band I loved, with many albums that had slipped under my radar. Word of mouth saved that first year for me, and one release by a band who only missed step once brought my first year a welcome zing, but nothing full of joy. Old classics (Led Zeppelin, The Beatles and Buddy Holly) brought much needed company to those 4am mornings which brought the start of essay writing.
My second year at University brought me closer to sputnikmusic.com, a fantastic site with album aggregation, user reviews, and ratings of the reviews. Through the site I dabbled in new sounds, and found the diversity of music I had wished to find through Q and NME, but hadn't. Sputnik is fantastic, but with a user generated site like that comes hostility, ignorance, and although the good always outweighed the bad, it couldn't erase it.
What do I hope to do here with Shuffle? Post reviews of new albums, old albums, classic albums, bands you may have missed, bands to look out for, and hopefully give you what you want. I, Twelve, will respond to feedback, if you would like to email me at bamusbatisbarns@gmail.com, and will gladly take criticism as well as kind.
Where will I get my information from? All sorts of sources, twitter, wikipedia, the BBC, sputnik, pitchfork, and anywhere I can. It's just me working on this blog at the moment, hopefully it will grow in time. For now, I give you Shuffle. For you, for me, it's ours.
As I grew up, my musical tastes broadened, and I looked for a new magazine to look to for reviews, bands I could come to like, and bands I currently did, giving me a tingling sensation as I read words spoken by my musical heroes. I settled into buying Q every month, and NME every other week or so.
Every new artist was hailed as the saviour (or saviours) of the (more often than not solely British) music scene. Tired bands were given rave reviews, and for some reason I was only listening to the same processed beats, with only the occasional saviour or interesting novelty keeping my interest going.
I then went to University, and due to a wonderful housemate found a band I loved, with many albums that had slipped under my radar. Word of mouth saved that first year for me, and one release by a band who only missed step once brought my first year a welcome zing, but nothing full of joy. Old classics (Led Zeppelin, The Beatles and Buddy Holly) brought much needed company to those 4am mornings which brought the start of essay writing.
My second year at University brought me closer to sputnikmusic.com, a fantastic site with album aggregation, user reviews, and ratings of the reviews. Through the site I dabbled in new sounds, and found the diversity of music I had wished to find through Q and NME, but hadn't. Sputnik is fantastic, but with a user generated site like that comes hostility, ignorance, and although the good always outweighed the bad, it couldn't erase it.
What do I hope to do here with Shuffle? Post reviews of new albums, old albums, classic albums, bands you may have missed, bands to look out for, and hopefully give you what you want. I, Twelve, will respond to feedback, if you would like to email me at bamusbatisbarns@gmail.com, and will gladly take criticism as well as kind.
Where will I get my information from? All sorts of sources, twitter, wikipedia, the BBC, sputnik, pitchfork, and anywhere I can. It's just me working on this blog at the moment, hopefully it will grow in time. For now, I give you Shuffle. For you, for me, it's ours.
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