Listening Post is multivocal

Who would have ever thought that sites entirely dedicated to music could be stuffy? Such is the case, however, in most of the blogs that are directly relatable to my topic: technology and the music industry. Many read like a newspaper article, informing the readers of new developments in the world of music, without infusing any soul into the blog itself. Listening Post benefits from having several contributors who add separate elements to the site.


Eliot van Buskirk is the editor of the site, and he focuses more on the news and technology posts on the blog. The subject matter of van Buskirk’s posts is often hilarious enough on its own to make too much of an attempt at added humor seem superfluous. Take, for example, this post about Stonehenge. Any attempt at comedy would have paled in comparison to the videos themselves, so he very wisely chose to simply explain the videos and post them. Nobody outwits Christopher Guest.



(If you are a Spinal Tap fan at all, I highly recommend watching these videos. There are links to the other four on YouTube.)

Van Buskirk does, however, manage to slip in subtle humor into most of his posts, however newsy they might be. His wit is dry and often of the ironic persuasion, as shown at the end of his post “Dead Men Do Sell Nikes:”

No doubt this would have been a huge hit with Kurt Cobain, John Lennon, Jerry Garcia and Jim Morrison, who are, of course, all widely remembered for their love of synergistic marketing, product endorsements and co-branding opportunities.

For those of you who have been living under a rock for the last 50 years, all of the abovementioned artists were outspoken opponents of the corporatocracy.

The rest of his post, however, sticks to the straight newspaper article-style of writing so popular with other industry news bloggers; he sticks to the facts, supporting them with direct quotes and links to his sources. His posts are well-proofread, grammatically correct, and intelligent-sounding, while still easy to read (again going back to the newspaper feel).

Another favorite van Buskirk line of mine comes in the post “Fans Rip Metallica a New One.” He has spent the entire blog quoting outraged fans who claim that Metallica has done “too little, too late” in making their new website, Mission: Metallica, a more direct-to-fan program. He follows all this up with, "People -- tell us how you really feel.”

Van Buskirk’s subtlety contrasts with the other bloggers on the site, such as Scott Thill, whose posts are more artist-centered, giving him much more room for development of a personality and voice in his writing. He is bolder with his posts, suggesting in one that his readers attend an exhibit “naked, in the spirit of ‘Gobbledigook.’” If van Buskirk is the newspaper reporter of Listening Post, then Thill is the odd one with the weekly column.

I very much enjoyed reading through the blogs on Listening Post and I recommend it to anyone interested in music in general and the industry in particular. The writers are knowledgeable and they choose a wide variety of treats to appeal to every palate.