How Big Is The Music "Blogosphere"?

The fact that this is an entirely artificial centre and that somewhere on the Internet there could be a similar network going on entirely unknown to any of us is one of the most exciting things about online writing.

http://freshblogs.com/farm/index.cgi?uid=300&wid=350

http://freshblogs.com/farm/index.cgi?uid=661&wid=788

But then that's just a symptom; more and more it's the feeling on reading Matthew, Mark, Luka and Jon (or whoever) that none of this has anything to do with me. This isn't a criticism (plenty could and do say the same about CoM), and in any case anyone wanting to read them via me can go to Simon's far more comprehensive list on Blissblog. Just...you know...my community these days is a different one.

These feelings have all been particularly strong in my mind this week and I'm sure it's all an effect of the gail which has blown into my life :-)...everything really has changed for me...I seriously thought about stopping CoM, because, well, the story it told has come to a happy ending; but no, G wants me to carry on doing it, even if only for her to read (aw!).

It's always nice to hit the sitemeter button and for the report to say '36 hits' cos then you get to trawl through the referrals in the hope someone new has linked to you.

Luka is right about email - I think I've cold-mailed somebody once (that was Mark S in fact).

(When do you stop talking of adults in terms of 'girl' and 'boy'? Does it depend on the people?)

- FT's top ten referring blogs (thanks to Alan's magical scripting powers for allowing me this arcane info)

weren't you going to get in touch about tapes toby? someone sent me a parcel with 3 tapes and some stamps enclosed, that was a pretty easy way to do it, if you want to visit romford dog track you could meet me in the carpark.
i am a carpark attendent. it's my new job. i love it.

- change of URL
- change of blog name
- lack of links to other blogs
- more (better) blogs
- lack of interest/ideas/content
- lack of advertising (though I've never really done this)

Most of my hits back then came from the NYLPM linkbar. Most of my hits today come from Blissblog.

OK I will definitely do this this weekend.

I did get a very nice email from an old Franks APA aquaintance because of that article, and he wants to write about southern food for the Publog so thumbs up Kodwo.

the key is DONT STOP.

I'd guess a few hundred but i only ever read it if its linked on an ILX thread. I'd love to read more blogstuff but I just find ILM that more addicitve.

Yes to the first because it often just makes you think of all the music you should be listening to as well, then you hit the downward spiral. But on the second point, too much music theory? I wouldn't consider it like that, either as being theory per se (at least not in a specific and intentional sense) or being too much of that because I like the fact that the range exists -- it's the trying to keep up with the details that's the bastard (and now you all know how grad students feel...)

I check TWANBOC, blissblog, heronbone and k-punk nearly every day.

it's important that the, um, "quality" of the traffic should also be factored in. a significant amount of my daily hits are the aforementioned googlers, who look at the page for one second, realise that it's not the hub of suggestively-positioned kitchen appliances that they were looking for, and hastily click their back button. regulars are important.

On the 'artifical centre' -
BLOGS should be gauged not merely but the hits they get, but also by the amount of webpages that are linked to them; to get a grander sense of Architecure.

If you look around, the blogging phenomenon encapsulates multiple fields of inquiry. This is probably the music epicenter w/ Blissblog/k-punk/CoM/TWANBOC/The Pillbox/Spizzazz, etc.
HOWEVER - there's many other vibrant sphericles in operation, friends of mine look into a collection of sites for fashion. And I'm pretty sure the Lawrence Lessig/Digital Copyright blogs constitute a significant community (though I've yet to effectively chart its limits)...

Is it fandom, community or something else?

Taking into account that a lot of the topics cover a wide range of issues - from centre/periphery models of cultural production to literature, politics, film, comics, etc.

PLUS - I wonder about the impact of Blogosphere of Real Life. Add up the amount of writers here now professional or being paid for work, the range of music 'discovered' and shared with the self-reflexive analysis of the practice of journalism or politics of consumption...

Is there any historical precendent?

MckoMiko, you're right that "our" music blogosphere is only one of many different informal networks, including I suspect many music networks. Mention "blogs" to most non-bloggers and the first thing that leaps to mind (if they've heard of them at all) is either LiveJournal what-I-did-today type stuff or political blogs, especially right-wing ones like Andrew Sullivan's. (Apparently the term "blogosphere" was itself coined by a right-wing nut in the wake of 9/11, or so Nigel Richardson tells me.)

visit technicolor & skykicking the most frequently. nylpm. spizzazz, except I'm usually browsing w/out images so it can get annoying. I need quite a bit of time to get into the mindset to read the white het brit rambly wire-reading antipop (sorta) illuminati stuff (k-punk, twanboc, pillbox; I still visit blissblog fairly frequently). big ups the queer aussie (is it entirely melbourne-based?) massive, even though I'd wish they'd bring their being-in-Australia-ness into it more. when i'm in the mood, I'll catch up on weeks+weeks of joshblog. same w/heronbone. & the church of me. in review & dubscrape don't update too often.
less frequent - the compass, radio free narnia, worlds of possibility, did you see jupiter?, minima moralia, spongiex.

Cheers etc! (Assuming I Feel Love is part of the queer Aussie massive!) I agree about the Australian-ness, there could be more of that...well, I'm about to do a breathless fanboy post about Australian Idol, does that count?

Oh, and it's not entirely Melbourne-based; Jon Dale (Astronaut's Notepad/Worlds of Possibility) is in Adelaide. Probably not entirely queer either for that matter...

I found an ILX like forum message board at africaonline.com that consists of about 12 folks with encyclopeadia-like knowledge of certain Congolese artists but their tastes don't go beyond that. No mentions of blogs there yet. Maybe I'll post something there and ask.

Think about it - everyone surrounding and branching off from Blissblog and the Ewingian Empire are exploring the informational terrain, acquiring sites and outposts of relevant activity, incorporating them into our place in the WWW. k-punk is quite good for this, and TMFML have a massive linkage list of discovery. I'm wondering if the alternative universe would have been found by now?

Moreover, there's some of the most preeminent print music journalists in operation here - no need to list 'em, but is there anyone missing from the fray? Really? Anyone with an online presence that hasn't yet been roped in? Even Greil Marcus has been linked up through CityPages...

Maybe it's something to do with the values ambiguously maintained at around this sphericle that creates an impression of the centre - I'm sure, for instance, that's there's some interesting places to go for specific fanatic knowledges (the Dave Matthews Band forum/blogosphere?), but in terms of metacritique, multigeneric dilettante journalism - this is where it's at.

Congratulations, Matos! I very much look forward to reading it!

There's something just a little too self-congratulatory in the above statement for me. This may be the "centre" but there's alot of fascinating things happening elsewhere that aren't covered that fully in this blogosphere(although of course bloggers aren't obligated to write about anything they don't want to write about). And as for the reference to the "Dave Mathews forum/blogosphere" , I'm not talking about fanclubs, I'm talking about cultural stuff those guys aren't necessarily writing about(some of which I've read about in non-online publication the Beat and elsewhere--the new Sam Mangwana cd, the new cd from Brazilian Carlinhos Brown; Puerto Rican reggaeton music that I've read about on ILM and in the NY Times but not in the Blissblog led blogosphere; Malian outfit Neba Solo... There's also obscure Americana that doesn't get mentioned in the above-mentioned blogosphere--Otis Taylor; New Orleans and other chitlin circuit r'n'b; D.C. go-go; Arhoolie reissues...

While those blogs do indeed provide outstanding coverage, there's so much out there...

(There are exceptions obviously - TWANBOC's great indian music entry of last week for instance)

JUST SOME THOUGHTS:

Generally, I think that it would be too difficult to argue a case for the Blogosphere in isolation from discussion-groups like ILM or the records been considered, or the print journalism regularly linked to and discussed, even the P2P networks, etc. - it's part of a much wider space of critique; the wider discursive arena of the mediasphere...

So, the function of this tripartite you've delineated Tom is actually quite complex. I'd say that most of the ILM affiliated blogs maintain a semblance or shred of each these values, but only to a certain extent and in hetereogenous dosage. The master-narrative is incredibly flexible in so far as 'new music' may be included, if you can successfully argue a case.

Certainly, a lot of the best writing here revolves around redeeming a style or genre from obscurity or popular disdain - often music that's generally maligned or cast-off as low-culture. For instance, the dramatic entry of Siegbran through history/knowledges of metal, the 'redemptive' project of NYLPM delving directly into the pop-mainstream, the fascination/curiousity of 'Ardcore and Grime thanks to Sreynolds - the complex reconfiguration of lumpen music by the digitari...

Therefore, in terms of tone, most of the critique is explicitly celebratory - see Tim Finney's call for a positivist criticism in particular, i.e. making people excited about music, or sharing an enthusiasm for a song or track...

Finally, maybe people at africaonline.com have an encyclopedic knowledge of Congolese artists, but it might just be limited to that. The writing around ILM can opened up to include 'the Other' so long as it the style is cast as sufficiently 'global' - not in a kind of 'world music' sense, but in terms of Internet participation as deterritorialized...

The people at Africaonline.com are only interested in Congolese music. They write about Koffi Olimide as much as people here write about Dizze Rascal. I had gone to that site in search of more coverage of afropop than I find here at ILM or on the blogs. Unfortunately their area of interest and approach is pretty narrow although as a Congolese music fan I am getting something out of it. But except for TWANBOC most of the blogs do not consider non-English African, Caribbean(non-Jamaican), Latin, etc of interest. There are various odbball blues and roots reissues or new artists that they also aren't interested in( Otis Taylor, Arhoolie reissues, Malaco and other Southern chitlin circuit soul). I read Jon Pareles in the NY Times on certain Brazilian artists like Bahian afro-funk samba performer Carlinhos Brown and their New York City only summer appearances but I saw nothing about that here or in the blogs.

Somebody posted here about Puerto Rican reggaeton and I read a Pareles piece in the NY Times on it, but the blogs haven't touched it. The coverage here and at these blogs is very flexible I'm just nitpicking about being too self-congratulatory...

which must nevertheless be pretty much entirely coming via music-based sites (oh and ppl googling narnia i guess)

(haha or "seventeenth century, language, empiricism, metaphor" wahey!)

We were invoking the universal call for goodness, sir.

This was just supposed to be a compliment for sorts...

But, after this thread HERE (noting esp. the next post after S. - Holy shit!), I was thinking about the tribute by Lord Custos 2.0 beta Siegbran-ize!...

How many ILMers get this kind of response, I know that you'd been posting before then - but, in terms of coming into your own.

In terms of the Blogosphere, too much self-analysis can sometimes be a bad thing. I was originally questioning the existance of a parallel universe, 'cause obviously there couldn't be. There is nothing else like ILM/music blogosphere for all sorts of reasons, there's definitely activity and analysis online as interesting, certainly more so - but the values maintained elsewhere are going to be dissimilar; issues, topics, etc.

It is interesting to note that no-one really responsed to the call to arms anyway;

Our new hero at ILM has got to be Siegbran Hetteson, who gave a vocal and info-laden overview of modern metal... and to celebrate gaving us such a "+5, Informative" post, I'd like to give anyone who wants to take a crack at it the opportunity to do the same.
The only rules are: a) You must eloquently offer the community information of great depth, obscurity and potency about a genre ILM generally doesn't tackle all that often. b) stop typing every 3 pages (we stull don't know how much will overload the system.)
You may begin your attack run.....nnnnnnow!

Granted - there is a critical lack of speakers some genres - personally, I'd love to see a Cy-blog, more Dancehall related info, more stuff I wouldn't normally encounter; Puerto Rican reggaeton or whatever. The offer is certainly on the cards, that's all I'm saying...

But yeah - let's not get too self-congratulatory, I agree; it's just a forum and a couple of interesting weblogs, really...

Anyway, according to my nedstat thing (which you can all go look at, because it's on my page and anyone can see it), I've been getting traffic that is in the 400-500 hits range on weekdays lately, and generally around 300 on weekdays. Some recent weeks have been more like the 500-600 range, it just depends on what I've got going on and who is linking to me. I had a few crazy peaks over the summer, mostly because some other heavy-traffic blogs were linking to specific posts that I had.

I'm not really comfortable talking about the "blogosphere." I like and read a lot of blogs, but I don't really think about them all that much in terms of what it all means. My personal goal is to just have an outlet to plug things that I enjoy and have some kind of daily routine that gives my weekday mornings some kind of shape since I don't have a regular job. Generally, I don't have much to do with a lot of blogs being mentioned in this thread - I'm aware of them and occasionally read them, but I'm more involved in a different social circle for the most part.

Likewise. Although there was an news item recently stating that Australia has the highest proportion of homosexuals in the world, which maybe accounts for the 'queer Aussie massive' in the blogosphere. Vietnam has the lowest.

i want to see more female bloggers in this particular blogosphere -- di do you have a blog? (mine is here)

This might genuinely be the most dated thread on ILM.

Update, anybody? I have no idea what the popular music blogs are.

http://twitter.com/JOHNcmayer

bummed that fluxblog's no longer selling crepes

the blogosphere is roughly the size of Wales.

in diameter?

Ha

Dj M, where's the updated stats?