The increasing popularity of indie music is due in part to the explosion of music blogs. Although Montreal's online activity lags far behind its musical clout, blogs like Said the Gramophone, created by McGill alumnus Sean Michaels are taking definite strides towards creating a local web presence.
While at McGill pursuing his degree in English cultural studies, Michaels wrote mostly in print media, for local magazines and newspapers. He experimented briefly with blogging during his time at McGill but abandoned it shortly after. It was only in 2003, after what Michaels calls the "music blog revolution" that he began to post again. At the time, Fluxblog was steadily gaining notice for posting songs with short written attachments. This change in the blogging format seemed to Micheals like an innovative way to go beyond the typical music review, and it enabled him to combine his love of music with his work in fiction.
"Traditionally it has been the responsibility of music journalists to describe the music in fairly concrete terms," says Michaels. "On the Internet you don't have to do that; there is no need for me to say this is a nice quiet folk song. Instead we get to address how we relate to song on a cerebral level, on a narrative level."
Michaels paired up with Dan Beirne, a Concordia graduate with a theatre background, to create their own music blog Said the Gramophone. While they differ in their academic roots, both share a love of music and creative writing. This mutual interest allowed them to separate themselves from the crowd of self-appointed Internet music cognoscenti by integrating narrative into their posts, which vary from the anecdotal to the surreal. Michaels claims that this "aspect of literariness" ties Said the Gramophone closer to print sensibilities than the tempestuous world of blogging.
While Said the Gramophone may be gaining ground in the online community, Michaels and Beirne are quick to point out that the site has no desire to become a comprehensive critical guide. "I'm more interested in talking about the ideas surrounding music rather than what is good or bad. I think that's why I only post things I like" says Beirne.
Said the Gramophone recently joined forces with bloggers Catbirdseat, Chromeowaves, Fluxblog, and Large Hearted Boy to form the MBV music collective. The effort was spearheaded by New York-based Ryan "Catbird" of Catbirdseat. According to Michaels, Catbird approached him saying, "I don't know what this team up will be, but we have to do something to ensure that this whole world doesn't pass us by, [we have to] make our voices heard in all this shuffling."
MBV features original multimedia and written content that is unique to the site. Michaels claims the impetus for starting the site sprung out of frustration with typical online commenting. "We're hoping that MBV becomes a haven for some of these discussions about music that goes a bit deeper than 'that sucks,' or 'that girl is hot' and into some really interesting music issues," says Michaels.
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