December 10, 2001

Blogging is Like Punk Rock

Hey, I just got some email from Moira Breen, whose Inappropriate blog is one of the best ones out there. It's weird to admit, and maybe a little silly, but it was a surreal experience, kind of like bumping into a celebrity on the subway. I'd been reading her writing for some time. Then I kind of sheepishly started a little warblog of my own and boom! there she was in my inbox. Plus she and Matt Welch (a guy I've also been reading for some time) quoted and linked to me in their blogs-- I feel like some kind of big shot.

I'm reminded of the first time my little punk rock band ventured out of town to play a show in Seattle, long, long ago. To my amazement, three members of the Young Fresh Fellows, and Kurt Bloch from the Fastbacks (two of my favorite bands, and indeed my "idols") were there-- practically the only people in the room, it must be admitted. I couldn't believe that they knew about my little group (we had put out just one self-released record at the time.) But that was really how easy it was-- and still is. You just take the plunge and "get out there," and there you are-- that's what they had done a few years earlier, and that's what zillions of others did after that and will keep doing. (Trying to make a living from it, though, is another story... but that's another story.)

Matt Welch mentioned the fact that around half the bloggers he liked have all put out records of some kind. I also remember reading something from master-blogger Glenn Reynolds about a weblogger being like a kid watching a rock band and saying "hey, I can do that." (I can't locate the specific post right now, but I know it's in there somewhere...)

In many ways the weblog phenomenon is a lot like the often unrealized ideal of punk rock, which is that everyone has a band, and all the members of all the bands are in the audience when they don't happen to be on the stage. There is an absolute equality of opportunity, yet it's also a true meritocracy since the ones with the most appealing or interesting content get the most attention; and there's very little subversion of this meritocracy, very little incentive for people to pander to the lowest common denominator to increase "market share", since the financial angle, if it's there at all, is minimal at best. At least, that's the theory.

And I do think that the quality of the writing in the various warblogs is astonishingly high. It's kind of hard to be satisfied with the old kind of formally published opinion journalism (print- or web-) once you've realized that there is so much else out there that is as good or better. I've been a politi-critical junkie for years, but, like a lot of others I'm sure, I find it hard to believe I ever managed to get along for all those years without Ken Layne.

Posted by Dr. Frank at December 10, 2001 06:07 PM | TrackBack