Manifesto

Hello and welcome.

This is where I justify my egomaniacal belief that someone out there is going to give a damn about what I have to say. Bear with me while I make some outrageously generalized statements about music and critics, and why I hate that particular combination.

I am a huge fan of alternative music. It consumes much more of my time and income than it should reasonably be allowed. I go to concerts, buy an obscene number of albums, subscribe to magazines, read music blogs, and generally behave like an obsessive teenage fan who happens to have an adult’s income and freedom.

It has occurred to me, however, that there seems to be a disconnect between the music industry and the fans who support it. I’m not talking about the major labels and how far they have their heads up their collective asses, although I could spend an enormous amount of time on that topic. I’m talking, specifically, about music critics.

I cannot possibly be the only person to have noticed the discrepancy between critical taste and popular taste, but I may be the person who is the most bothered by it. I began to really notice this when I subscribed to eMusic, and quickly discovered that anything listed as an Editor’s Pick on their front page was something that I could guarantee that I would not enjoy.

Now, taste is a matter of opinion. But critical taste determines what music is called to the attention of the public, and the critics and the masses are approaching music from two very different angles. A professional, who spends all their time reviewing and cataloging and interviewing is going to have a substantially different set of criteria for recommending music. An amateur, who is looking for something to which she can rock out on the way to work is going to look for something different.

I am an amateur. I am not a musician. I confess, I did take seven torturous years of piano lessons as a child, but today I cannot even fake my way through Chopsticks. I am not an industry insider, journalist, crew member, promoter, or employee of any organization related to the industry. In fact, I’m a recruiter for a national US retailer. We may not share tastes, but I am more like you than any reviewer writing for a major publication.

The purpose of this blog is to organize my musical experience: the shows, albums, and artists that strike me as possessing something that the rest of the music amateurs out there need to share. And possibly, the purpose of this blog is to justify my unreasonable obsession with a community that would function just fine without me.