blogosphere. Nice to see you.

Truth be told, it has taken me a while to become fully enthusiastic about blogging, in spite of it being an obviously exciting medium. First there’s that word: blog. Blurgh, more like. An apostrophe would help (yes, I know, we’re all busy, and saying “weblog” is just so very time-consuming, but a little acknowledgement of the forsaken “we” would be nice), but it remains a rather dumpling-esque syllable.

Then, there’s the whole self-indulgence perplex. (Case in point.) I mean, I love writing, and I think it’s a great outlet for musicians and the otherwise insane, but is there any reason to inflict the accumulated detritus from one’s brain on an unwitting public? I’m reminded of Dave Eggers’s brother, whose capsule review of Dave’s memoir allegedly read, “Ooh, look at me, I’m Dave, I’m writing a book! With all my thoughts in it! La la la!” Make a few key substitutions, and subtract the compelling life story, and you have this blog, my fearful thinking went…

On top of that, there’s a more personal issue: music is, by a large margin, the greatest passion of my life, and my preferred means of communication. I find it to be much more powerful than words - simultaneously broader in scope and more precise. Why on earth, then, would I use a lesser medium that I am less skilled with? Why dance about architecture?

Well, for many reasons: Because I’ve been moved and educated by things I’ve read in ‘blogs. Beause, as nice as it is as a line, I don’t actually believe that writing about music is just dancing about architecture. Because I think analysis, done well, gives a map of music’s emotional content. Because you’re only as interesting a musician as you are a person, so why pretend that the two can be separated? Because I think it’s good for musicians to engage with the world - on every possible level. And above all, because any method of spreading a passion for music can only be positive.

So here it is, some of my brain’s finest detritus. La la la!

This entry was posted on Monday, June 25th, 2007 at 12:40 am and is filed under Blog, Writing about music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.