Work Cited

My Project Quotes and is Informed by:

Aarseth, Espen J. Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature. Baltimore, Md.: John Hopkins UP, 1997.

Gitelman, Lisa. Scripts, Grooves, and Writing Machines: Representing Technology in the Edison Era. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford UP, 1999.

Hayles, N. Katherine. Electronic Literature: New Horizons for the Literary. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame, 2008.

Kirschenbaum, Matthew G. Mechanisms New Media and the Forensic Imagination. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2008.

Kittler, Friedrich A. Gramophone, Film, Typewriter. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford UP, 1999.

Manovich, Lev. The Language of New Media. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2001.

Arjan Writes Music

Arjan Writes Music is different from a majority of the other blogs I have discussed as it focuses on mainstream and popular music. This can help us with our comparison of the medium and content. Is the blog the best or an appropriate way to present the discussion of popular music? How does blogging change with the change in genre?




Although Arjan Writes focuses on popular music, it's format is closer to that of a blog based on amateurism and community than some of the other blogs which focused on "indie" music. This blog is similar to gossip blogs such as Dlisted.com and Perezhilton.com, based on their rising popularity and the strong voice of the author.

KSPC Blog

KSPC is the non-profit radio station of the Claremont Colleges, and at the beginning of the 2008-2009 school year, decided to start a blog. This blog is comprised of promotional material relating to the station, such as in-studios, interviews, and giveaways, but also features album and concert reviews.




While the dynamics of blogging are different considering KSPC's non-profit status, the community surrounding it is shaped by their radio content rather than actual blog content. Interestingly as well, these are two machines informing each other, the radio and the computer. Since KSPC radio focuses on the independent labels and local content, its blog does as well. Also, as a student radio station, there is an inherent amateurism associated with the station, and this carries over to the blog as well. Inconsistencies in formatting are not uncommon, and are not reprimanded either. The blog is meant to present student opinions in greater depth, and act as extension of not only the radio machine, but of the individuals who work their as well.

Musicians' Take

While I've been primarily focusing on the medium of music blogs, I think it's also important to talk about the content. Music blogs are unique because a lot of controversy surrounds them and their relation to the phenomena of file sharing.

Here are some musicians takes on the world of music blogging:

Emily Haines of Metric



Jermain Dupre




Lilly Allen




Also, Grizzly Bear's Edward Droste was contacted by "Web Sheriff" when he posted a track from Animal Collective's then new album. He talks about the incident and file sharing in an interview with The Portland Mercury:

Can you talk a little bit about album leaks, file sharing, and how that's affected you as a band, and also a music fan (i.e. the Animal Collective incident)?

Leaks are reality and we've come to terms with them. I'm more disappointed about the way people approach an album now rather than losing sales. I think people become a bit entitled with the internet and expect things as soon as they want them and on their own terms. People will download dozens of albums a week, do flash armchair reviews and often dismiss lovely albums when they haven't even listened to them in high quality. On the flip side, it reaches more people around the world and people find other ways of showing support via coming to shows or buying a T-shirt. Ultimately we are a band that would greatly suffer without the internet and we are very grateful for all the blogs and websites that were early advocates of ours. I only worry about the art of making an "album" that gets listened to in entirety (and I'm speaking from experience) because often people or myself will get an album and just delete the tracks they don't like or shuffle the album. I catch myself doing it and I think to myself wait, that's NOT how the artist wanted it to be heard. Obviously in the long run I'll like what I like as will anyone, but it's at least important to try and listen to an album once straight through and in high quality.

Here's a link to the actual blog post as well.

Radio Free Silver Lake

Radio Free Silver Lake is yet another blog that changed it's interface with its rise in popularity. Originally, it was based on a small scale server, and was in line with ideas on amateurism and discussion.

original layout:


New layout:


The original layout was built in blogspot, and was simplified verison of its newer self. If we position Radio Free Silver Lake (RFSL) within the framework we have created for Electronic Literaure in class, we can see the progression of media and the blog. Initially RFSL followed the format of a traditional blog - a linear stream of information, provided by well informed, but amateur authors. RFSL has moved into the realm of professionalism, like many of their fellow bloggers. Their new host, typepad, describes itself as:

1. We make blogging simple. TypePad’s intuitive interface allows you to add content, pictures and links quickly and easily. Whether you know a little bit about technology or a lot, you can go from blank screen to live blog in minutes.

2. You maintain complete control over your blog. TypePad offers the ultimate in blog management tools, allowing you to customize your design, moderate comments, decide whether or not to display ads, and much more. We think that’s the way it should be; after all, it is your blog.

3. We make it easy for people to find your blog. All TypePad blogs are search-engine optimized. In addition, we provide valuable services such as Google Site Maps, a PubSubhubbub hub, search-engine friendly URLs and site structure, and the exclusive Six Apart Atom stream used by Google and other search engines that make your content easier to find.

4. You (not advertisers) are our customer. Since TypePad is a paid service, advertising spam will never appear on your blog. You may decide to display advertising, but that’s up to you; you’re in control. We spend our time, effort, and energy to stay on the edge of innovation, and you are the beneficiary.

5. Your TypePad blog looks good. Really good. We’ve commissioned talented graphic designers to create design templates that make your blog look sharp, professional, and creative. You can customize the templates an infinite number of ways; or, if you’re so inclined, you can code your own.

6. You get more bling for your buck. TypePad is continually adding new features and functionality to help our customers stay a step ahead. Recent innovations include industry leading mobile support (most recently with the iPhone and iPod Touch) and social networking integration with Facebook.

7. We’ve got your back. From spam prevention to comment control to powerful back-end data protection, TypePad is committed to keeping your blog content safe. All of the content you upload to TypePad is hosted in a world-class data center, giving you exceptional reliability, uptime and system performance.

8. Grow as much as you want; we’ve got the technology to handle it. Whether you have a readership of one or one million, we’ve got the backend technology to accommodate your needs. TypePad is the only service that balances ease of use with sophisticated functionality and high-traffic capacity.

9. We’re here to help. Here at TypePad, we’re passionate about customer service. We provide customer support 7 days a week, 365 days a year. We want you to get the answers you need, and we’ve developed a huge Knowledge Base and a responsive online help system to make sure that happens.

10. You deserve the best. TypePad’s parent company is Six Apart, the worldwide leader in blogging software and services that changed the way millions of individuals, organizations, and corporations connect and communicate. We take an active role in blogging education, attending 50+ conferences and seminars around the world every year.
    (http://www.typepad.com/about/)

What else separates typad from hosts such as blogger and wordpress? Well, it costs money. Fiscally, blogging is moved into the realm of professionalism by this switch in hosts. Typad is geared to business, which represents a shift in the community of blogging. Capitalist institutions have been taking complete advantage of the world of blogging as a free marketing tool, and now blogs have shifted from "weblogs" to businesses. Even an example like Perez Hilton, which began as someone just posting things he found interesting, has turned into an extremely lucrative career. Blogspot even has a tap called "monetize," were bloggers can have adds posted on their site, in order to make a profit.

Here's a video on "How to Blog"

It deals with the same issues. This video is based on efficiency and gaining traffic to your blog. Nothing about content, community, or dialogue. Have blogs simply turned into a capitalist venture, or are these the blogs that are more accessible because of the tools they have purchased to help them move up on the google search engine.

Paste Magazine - Looks Like A Blog

Paste Magazine was initially known for its print form, but now with the rise of the digital age, they have been forced to down scale their publication to the size of a small handout, whereas initially they were a substantial magazine.



Now a majority of Paste's focus has shifted to the web. While their website is not considered a "blog," it seems to fit the format of most of the blogs I have seen thusfar. This leads me to the question, what makes a blog a blog? Is it the webhost, the author, what are the defining properties that separate our everyday websites from blogs.

Blogger definies a blog a:

"A blog is a personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts. Memos to the world. Your blog is whatever you want it to be...In simple terms, a blog is a web site, where you write stuff on an ongoing basis."

Now this definition seems to be vague, yet oddly fitting. But if this is the case, aren't all websites blogs. Is the internet just a platform of bloggers, all of which have different agendas which inform the way we write and what we choose to write about.

In Andy Carvin's article, "What Exactly is a Blog, Anyways," which was written of 2006, gives the history of the blog, which many of us are removed from now considering how the blog has become part of our everyday lives. He discusses how the blog sprung from "web logs" that came out of mediums such as livejournal and and open diary. The difference between blogs and websites seems to be based on the interface. With blogs, the interface is built for you, and is founded on ideas of accessibility and user friendliness - this has shifted over the years, as bloggers have been given increasing control over layout of their blogs.

If this is the case, then no, Paste Magazine is not a "blog," but they do however, have a blogs section on their website, showing a differentiation in content.


So what are the differences in content? Honestly, not much. It seems like Paste Magazine has acknowledge that print media is slowly dying and is trying to capitalize on the blogging trend as soon as possible.

The Death of the Music Magazine - and the Rise of the Music Blog

As I've been thinking about this project I realized that the music blog has a direct correlation to the death of the music magazine. Over the past couple of years, various music publications have been forced to downsize or have gone out of business, while music blogs have flourished, expanded, and sprung up all over the internet. How can we view the music blog as a new form of interactive electronic literature - as it builds musical communities, and transfers music based literature to the web. Katherine Hayles opens her book, Electronic Literature, by saying

"Is electronic literature really literature at all? Will the dissemination mechanisms of the internet and the Web, by opening publication to the public to everyone, result in a flood of worthless drivel? Is literary quality possible in digital media or is electronic literature demonstrably inferior to the print canon? What large-scale social and cultural changes are bound up with the spread of digital culture, and what do they portend for the future of writing" (pg 2)

These question correlate directly to my discussion of music blogs, and I argue that it is the audience that serves as the publishing filter. Only those blogs that are well written and that are engaging gain a large readership, and those that are less than are often abandoned. Electronic Literature has lead to the rise of peer review, whereas with print, editors at large judge writers on a set criteria. Now readers have taken on this role. Readers have become active agents in the writing process as the readers comment can relate to anything in the post - ranging from content to typos.

What does this mean for the future of literature? Who knows, but I hope to continue to explore these questions as I read more and more music blogs. I think the engagement of the reader is exciting, if nothing else, and this will shift the way writing is approached. Now writers truly know their audience, and can engage in a direct dialogue with them if they choose to. The possibilities are endless.

Also, here is a video about blogs, and why they're important