One Big Step To The Side

In reading about blogging, particularly music blogging, around the web, I too often run into the same nonsense: Everyone posts a ton but isn’t really posting anything, really. It’s all a race to be first with very little reflection—outside of some random self-indulgent nostalgia—and very little thought. It’s all… hollow.

So I suppose that’s why I don’t really write all that much here at Dangerous Strings. While I feel like music blogs—hell, blogs in general—are very important, I also feel that 90 percent of them could disappear and we’d be fine. I mean, for Christ’s sake, MySpace is now in the game of writing about the “daily news” of the music world. And for what?

In looking at what I see posted so frequently, we’re all yelling the same damn thing with a slightly different voice and/or vernacular. There’s nothing special about one blog or the other unless they’re actually doing something special. One particular site, which I won’t link to, has a lot of garbage going on within its Internet walls, but they at least offer a lot in terms of unique content. Then again, I’ve heard they pay their employees absolutely horribly, so what am I saying, really? And did I just reveal who I’m talking about? Damn… I think.

My biggest issue isn’t even the lack of unique content or anything like that. Hell, I barely have the time to do anything truly inspired here outside of the piece of drivel I churn out every few days. Yet, it still feels much more rewarding doing this instead of chasing the ghosts of web traffic.

Anyway, as for the photo I’ve attached here, I’m going to leave that up for interpretation. If you feel like leaving a comment, let me know what you think it means.

The UK Underground Goes Goth?

While more passive listeners may have difficulty keeping up with the mainstream music scene, it’s truly nothing compared to what’s going on in the underground. Everything about it can shift at a moment’s notice, mostly because it’s a breeding ground for artists destined to blow up or retain their spot below the radar. There’s also the middle-ground, where more and more acts are beginning to dwell thanks to an increasingly attainable independent-but-not-really status. So what, then, are you to do when you’re simply searching for some underground bands to get familiar with? You head to the never-ending blogosphere, which is what led me to this post at Mooky Chick outlining that there’s apparently a new gothic music scene on the rise.

Awesome Rapper Quotes About Playing Cards

When reading an interview with a rapper (or any musician for that matter), you’re typically waiting for him or her to drop some knowledge that you’ll be quoting for the next week. And for the most part, they’re waxing poetic on the music industry, their peers, their upcoming projects, or life on the road. But in certain cases, they’re sharing gems on topics outside of the norm and it’s these that end up being the most memorable.

Digging Into The UK’s Post-Rock Scene

Keeping up with the underground music scene in the U.K. is something I hold dear, if only because there is so much of it to dig into. From shoegaze to post-rock to stoner metal, everything and anything residing under the radar with some killer guitars has a place on my musical palate.

Samsung (Re-) Enters Streaming Music Foray With Milk Music

Just after another company extended its reach into the world of streaming music earlier this year, Samsung has (re)entered the battleground with its own service: Milk Music, which launched Friday, March 7.

Snoop Dogg’s Identity Crisis

Upon reading tepid reviews of Snoop Dogg’s work over the past years, I thought to myself: “Could it be that Snoop just wasn’t feeling his work either?” It’s likely. In the years following his very average Doggumentary, he’s faced a series of identity crises that have led to not one but TWO (!) alter-egos for the legendary California rapper.