Anybody Out There? By Amanda on April 8, 2008 9:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Where are the Australian mainstream media blogs about music?
Just wonderin'.
Noise Pollution at SMH/Age is usually interesting (the less said about the "country music confession" the better) although pretty perfunctory and the fact every.single.comment.every.single.time has to be moderated makes community forming difficult. I understand why the MSM does that, but the comments trickle through so slowly I drift away and have no incentive to return very often. And they don't do a lot to promote it, you have to click through about four pages to even get there -- compare the barftastic Sam and the City which gets constant front page pimpage. Club Metro publishes (short) reader reviews, which is fine but doesn't seem like a great use of that brand either. The whole Herald blog thing has not progressed in three years.
News doesn't have anything devoted to music, although Tim does his some amongst the politics.
Outside our shores, the Guardian of course churns 'em out but my favourite is Vulture blog at New York Magazine. Snarkalicious. Today, Vulture brings the news of Charlie Daniels objecting to the Guitar Hero video game because the devil wins sometimes. LOLsies. Read the rest of Charlie's "soap boxes" at entirely your own risk.
By Oz
on April 8, 2008 8:42 PM
There really aren't that many mainstream publications.
It isn't a blog but Robert Forster's columns in The Monthly are quite good. Maybe he should start blogging.
In terms of the overseas blogs, other than The Guardian, I enjoy the New Yorker's music blogs, particularly Sasha Frere-Jones' one.
By Shaun
on April 8, 2008 10:43 PM
There was a music blog on the Courier Mail website but seems moribund since last November.
I'm starting to think that turning journos into bloggers combines the worst of both practices.
Hey that Little Milton track is sweet. Gotta be a post in the blues/country conflusions.
By Amanda
on April 10, 2008 1:35 PM
The Robert Forster pieces in The Monthly are great, I agree. Not one this month though. ;-(
I keep a look out for soul and jazz covers of country songs. Blues and rock covers are too easy/numerous, soul and jazz are more select. In one of the most recent Dylan radio shows Bob says that people make too much of distinctions in "southern music" and "they all come from the same river."