A few years ago, bands relied on “‘zines,” tours and word of mouth to gain popularity. But now, as the music blogosphere grows at what seems to be an incessant rate, publicity and rock journalism are forever changed. And UCLA students are making their presence felt in this competitive, hyper-influential realm.
The world would be a very different place without blogs. The medium started as an outlet for users’ rants about anything and everything, but it has turned into a force larger and more potent than any other means of criticism or gossip. In other words, if Perez Hilton finds out about a celebrity affair, the world will know within minutes.
Nowhere has this influence been more evident than in the world of music. Groups such as Crystal Castles and Grizzly Bear owe much of their success to the authors of various music blogs, and as the practice gains popularity, more and more artists slip over the cusp between garage band status and relative fame.
“The primary purpose (of my blog) is to turn people on to new bands that I think are great,” said David Greenwald, who was the 2006-2007 Daily Bruin Arts & Entertainment editor and runs rawkblog.blogspot.com. “But I think it is also a good venue to … be able to suggest things in a very opinionated way.”
Greenwald, who received his English degree last fall, made his presence felt early in the competitive world of music blogs, beginning in March 2005 during his tenure at the Daily Bruin. His blogging experience taught him that what many may see as competition between bloggers is actually a cooperative network: It allows news to spread quickly and efficiently.
“The great things about blogs is you have a lot of bloggers who read each other and link to each other and post the same stuff, and so I might post a song that gets picked up by someone else, so music can really spread like wildfire,” Greenwald said.
What appealed most to Greenwald about the world of blogging, aside from its influence, was the freedom that came with being his own editor.
“The great thing about blogging is you’re not really beholden to anybody,” Greenwald said. “You can write whatever you want, whenever you want.”
But not every student entered the scene quite as Greenwald did. For third-year English student Winnie Jaing, it began when her fascination with music sparked her interest in photography. When the two interests met, her first concert photography blog, harmonysynopsis.com, was born.
“Music has been a part of my life since I was really young, but I didn’t own a camera until I graduated from high school,” Jaing said. “I brought my first point-and-shoot to a festival, sneaked it in and took pictures from the mosh pit. They weren’t really great, but I instantly fell in love.”
Since then, Jaing began contributing to the Los Angeles Citizine, a Web site more involved than a conventional blog, but one that Jaing hoped would gain her work a bit more recognition.
Writing for Citizine “was more of me just looking for a larger outlet to display my pictures, but it became something bigger than that,” Jaing said.
Though Jaing and Greenwald may produce stylistically distinct work, their goal is the same. Both want to use their influence to give exposure to lesser-known groups.
“I think, for the most part, I write and review because I want others to appreciate music as much as I do,” Jaing said.
This is another constant the two bloggers share with the rest of the blogosphere. Although the blogosphere is a competitive world, that competition is welcome, as it only fuels the fire and creates new influences.
“I definitely read probably 20 other blogs or so, just to see what the news of the day is,” Greenwald said. “But as far as content, I’ve done the same stuff.”
Among all this discussion of influence, technique, content and critique, it may be easy to lose sight of the subject here: the music.
“Music is something that transcends genres. People from all over the world use music as the sound tracks to their lives,” Jaing said. “It’s something all people can find common ground in. I use my blogs as a way of promoting myself, but at the same time, I use it as a way of promoting artists as well.”