My Space friends
Hello Ms. Melody Stone,
I wanted to write to ask if you would stop putting a tally count of local and touring artists' myspace friends next to their names when listing upcoming shows and events. As a local performing artist and contributor to the creative scene in Humboldt (in coordination with a vast majority of other artists who've I've consulted about this matter) I feel that putting the frivolous count of digital people's from an online social network next to any musician's creative project listing really doesn't provide any insight about their personal aptitude or ability. It disheartening to be judged by a hit counter. Something has happened in the myspace universe that has penetrated the way people react to music, without even listening to it, and I just wanted to try to ask in hopes of trying stop it's quickly burgeoning phenomenon. Myspace is cool for independent musicians in a vastly expanding national scene of independent (touring) music, but it is not the be all, end all. I believe you to be one of the better music journalists in the area (of the 3-4 that exist) and think you're reporting would be all the better when not referencing such fleeting digital devices.
I'm keeping the person annon because I didn't ask if I could blog about them.
So what do you'all think?
I've been thinking about changing up my column because it's true the market is saturated with "scene guides." I like Monica's column style, somewhat in-depth thoughts about a certain band or happening. I feel like mine is just a shorter version of what Bob Doran does.
I know readers I've talked to enjoy the my space tally. It's not to really belittle bands who don't have a large my space following, more to high light bands that are huge. Ya know? You might be an up and coming band and be just as good as some big band from the city, and that's fine. No one is reading my column and saying "I'm not going to see that band, they've only got 100 my space friends." I don't believe the merit lies in the amount of friends, just saying, this band might be a big deal because they have tons of my space friends. You may have never heard of a band before, like Left Over Crack, but they are "kind of a big deal" and you can see that by the My Space count.
I also think it's says something about how long a bands been around, which is nice to know, but once again, doesn't really factor into if I'm going to attend the show or not.
But seriously folks, what do you think?
I have 503 My Space friends. Monica Topping, my fellow rock journalist has over 1,000, am I threatened by this? Do I think this makes me a less desirable writer? Nah, it means she's been doing it longer than I have.
I do respect and appreciate this feedback from my column, thanks to the person who wrote this letter.
To help me decide if I should continue listing the myspace friends visit http://melody-stone.blogspot.com/ and vote. Thanks.
To read this week's column click here
I wanted to write to ask if you would stop putting a tally count of local and touring artists' myspace friends next to their names when listing upcoming shows and events. As a local performing artist and contributor to the creative scene in Humboldt (in coordination with a vast majority of other artists who've I've consulted about this matter) I feel that putting the frivolous count of digital people's from an online social network next to any musician's creative project listing really doesn't provide any insight about their personal aptitude or ability. It disheartening to be judged by a hit counter. Something has happened in the myspace universe that has penetrated the way people react to music, without even listening to it, and I just wanted to try to ask in hopes of trying stop it's quickly burgeoning phenomenon. Myspace is cool for independent musicians in a vastly expanding national scene of independent (touring) music, but it is not the be all, end all. I believe you to be one of the better music journalists in the area (of the 3-4 that exist) and think you're reporting would be all the better when not referencing such fleeting digital devices.
I'm keeping the person annon because I didn't ask if I could blog about them.
So what do you'all think?
I've been thinking about changing up my column because it's true the market is saturated with "scene guides." I like Monica's column style, somewhat in-depth thoughts about a certain band or happening. I feel like mine is just a shorter version of what Bob Doran does.
I know readers I've talked to enjoy the my space tally. It's not to really belittle bands who don't have a large my space following, more to high light bands that are huge. Ya know? You might be an up and coming band and be just as good as some big band from the city, and that's fine. No one is reading my column and saying "I'm not going to see that band, they've only got 100 my space friends." I don't believe the merit lies in the amount of friends, just saying, this band might be a big deal because they have tons of my space friends. You may have never heard of a band before, like Left Over Crack, but they are "kind of a big deal" and you can see that by the My Space count.
I also think it's says something about how long a bands been around, which is nice to know, but once again, doesn't really factor into if I'm going to attend the show or not.
But seriously folks, what do you think?
I have 503 My Space friends. Monica Topping, my fellow rock journalist has over 1,000, am I threatened by this? Do I think this makes me a less desirable writer? Nah, it means she's been doing it longer than I have.
I do respect and appreciate this feedback from my column, thanks to the person who wrote this letter.
To help me decide if I should continue listing the myspace friends visit http://melody-stone.blogspot.com/ and vote. Thanks.
To read this week's column click here