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Matthew Perpetua is 30 years old, and his favorite band of all-time is (kind of predictably) Pavement. He graduated from Parson’s School of Design, but abandoned visual art when he realized it was too expensive, and soon took to a less costly hobby: writing about music on the Internet.
Perpetua, however, did not confine himself to the written word. Back around 2001, an acquaintance offered him the use of some extra hosting space on a website, so he started embedding MP3 files on his blog to share music with his readers. By 2002, Fluxblog, what The Guardian would in a couple years time call “the pioneer of MP3 blogging,” was born.
MP3 blogging, a trend that gained popularity in the mid-2000s, is written music criticism accompanied by a downloadable file of the music that is being evaluated. Perpetua’s blog specifically plays host to one song per weekday; today (March 19, 2010) it is Twin Sister’s “All Around and Away We Go.” If Perpetua’s paragraph-long description of the song (“Clicking guitar, woozy synthesizer drones, breathy vocals, flourishes that are like sparkles in soft focus”) confuses or fails to satisfy the user, a link to the actual song is provided below, offering the reader an opportunity to make an informed decision.
MP3 blogging is only one of several developments that the emergence of multimedia has wrought on the field of music journalism; others include the online streaming of concerts and festivals, the proliferation of music videos and live interviews on music websites, and an increased interaction between music consumers and music journalists via message boards, forums, and comment sections.
Thanks to sites like Chicago-based webzine Pitchfork, Tiny Mix Tapes and Fluxblog and the ways in which they have integrated multimedia, music journalists can now better serve the abstract concept (music) that they have dedicated themselves to. For instance, as is illustrated by Perpetua’s brainchild, it is now possible for an article or review to link directly to songs, music videos, and/or clips from live concerts.
“This serves to illustrate writing in a way which print media never could manage,” says Tiny Mix Tapes user Philip Hucknall, 25. “Thus, journalism no longer needs to serve so much as a ‘teaser,’ which inspires the reader to seek out a particular band. Instead, the writing can talk about a record or a scene in the knowledge that the reader can most likely listen to it simultaneously if they choose.”
Hucknall concedes that this is not an especially relevant benefit when it comes to writing about mainstream or well-known music, what with the profusion of popular bands’ material on television and radio. But it does become quite important when the music journalist is writing about more obscure or little-known artists.
Indeed, Hucknall is right to point out that multimedia like MP3 blogging has helped leverage the popularity of independent bands. Artists will often send sample tracks to MP3 blog writers like Perpetua in an attempt to gain exposure and publicity through this relatively new medium. No longer do you have to aspire to get your song on the radio — you just have to get tracks streamed on a popular blog.
Hucknall’s friend and fellow TMT user Craig Pearce, though, sees some problems with this system. Pearce, 25, fears that the emergence of what he calls “new media” somehow diminishes and cheapens the role of the traditional music journalist.
“If you can hear a record on a music website, or see a music video there, you may form an opinion of it on that basis,” Pearce says. “This could mean that you don’t read a review of the music at all, or it may mean that you read the review but put no stock in what the writer said because you’ve already heard the music yourself. Either way, to me this devalues the music journalist and I see this as a bad thing.
“I say this because there is a hope that because someone is a paid, professional journalist they should be able to write pretty well and say interesting things,” Pearce adds. “I want this to continue, and not be destroyed by new media.”
Marvin Lin, editor in chief of Tiny Mix Tapes, could not agree more. Though a section of his website Chocolate Grinder incorporates video and audio files (with content ranging from newly-released tracks to full concerts and interviews), Lin is still a fierce supporter of the written word and the function of the writer in music journalism.
“To me, writing and reading about music is as important as listening to music,” Lin, 29, says. “It’s all cultural dialogue. Yes, a writer can embed an audio file into a review to show the reader what he or she is talking about, but if what he or she is talking about is a pure description of the music, then it’s sort of pointless. But if the writer is giving cultural/social/political/aesthetic context for a song and then uses the song to justify an argument or insight, then I think the writer is doing something really exciting: making connections and provoking readers to think about music in a different light.”
The way in which journalists discuss music on certain websites, though, is often called into question.
Pitchfork, for example, which is essentially the go-to online source for news and material on independent artists, is often criticized for how “overly analytical the writers can be,” as Pearce puts it.
“It seems they are deliberately obtuse, making references to weird things only about five people will have heard of,” he adds.
So instead of having to rely on the abstract, unclear musings of conceited 20-somethings, now readers can listen to or view the content in question to gain more understanding about what the writer is trying to say about the piece.
Regardless of their pretentious reputation, though, Pitchfork probably deserves the popularity it has garnered.
“I think Ryan Schreiber (who launched the site in 1995) has built a very good publication that serves its readers well, and has been getting better and better over the years,” says Perpetua, who also contributes to Pitchfork in addition to running Fluxblog.
“It is encouraging that as the publication improves and integrates more cool things like Pitchfork.tv, it becomes more popular.”
Pitchfork.tv, an entirely multimedia-driven section of the site, was incorporated in 2008 and features music videos as well as original content that is produced in Pitchfork’s own studio.
“We are trying to create interesting content that we think people will like watching,” says Mark Zemel, the producer and editor of Pitchfork.tv. “Our viewership has been steadily increasing, so it seems to be working.
“A lot of Web media platforms rely on other people for content, but, besides music videos, one week only’s and tunnelvisions (which are non-original compilations), we produce all of our video stuff in-house which gives us way more control over what we air.”
When asked about what is next for Pitchfork, Zemel doesn’t quite have an answer.
“As for what the future holds ... that’s tough,” says Zemel. “I feel like everything in media is in a state of flux right now, and it’s hard to predict how things will pan out. But, Pitchfork has done a really good job of navigating this weird landscape. It’s going to be an interesting few years.”
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