A Welcome and a Statement of Intention...

Starting a blog is something that I believe has many risks and negative connotations to it.  On one level, you risk yourself by putting your thoughts and your work out into the ether for anyone to trawl through and make comment on.  On another level, there’s something egotistical about putting everything out there assuming that people you don’t really know will be so moved by what you have to say that you simply must publish it.  It is with these two things in mind that I feel the need to justify what I intend to do with this blog and why I have been moved to create it.

What I intend to do with this and the reasons for creating it are inextricably linked, but also very simple. I intend to keep a blog of reviews for new albums and live shows that I attend.  Occasionally there may be a retrospective review or an article about my personal thoughts on certain aspects of the music industry, or even film or theatre reviews, but the focus will mostly be on music.  Why? Because I enjoy doing it, and a friend urged me to do it.  Simple.  What I am not attempting to do though, is present myself as an all-knowing god of music.  I make no claims to be anything other than a fan of music.  I hold no qualifications, nor do I have any connections within the industry.  I am merely someone who has enjoyed music for much of his life (like anyone else in the world) and therefore, I make no claims at being unique.  There is absolutely no reason for my opinions to be held any higher than anyone else’s.  The reason for this blog existing is pure hobby.  Therefore, this blog will never claim to be anything more than my own personal musical journey through 2012 (and beyond should I keep it going).

As such, this blog will be focused on music that I am interested in and will never attempt to trash things that are outside my usual musical experience.  The reason for this is that I find that it is easy to put down something you don’t understand.  It took me a long time to realise this, but I believe there is merit in every kind of music produced.  For me, good music is something that elicits some kind of emotional response.  If it makes me feel something, I like it.  For other people, music is about the technical prowess of a performer and their control over the instrument, for others it’s the ability to make them move and dance.  Whatever reaction people want to get from music, there is an artist out there to fulfill that need.  This being said, I will endeavor to never put down any artist about their music.  That’s not to say there won’t be negative reviews, but these reviews will focus on the artist’s inability to make me, and only me, feel something.  That is not to say that the music is bad, it’s just not music for me.

The kind of music that this blog will cover will be revealed over the next few days.  Beginning tomorrow, I will be counting down my top five albums of 2011.  Each day a new album will be revealed with a mini-review until my favourite album of the year is unveiled on New Year’s Eve.  On New Year’s Day I will publish an article about the year to come and the things that I am excited to see and hear in 2012.

So, finally, thank you for reading this far (I know it’s long and in this world of the internet and instant gratification, the chances of someone reading this much are very slim).  Hopefully you will join me in the coming days and beyond.  Before signing off, I’d like to leave you with this quote from Pixar’s 2007 film Ratatouille and it is with this quote in mind that I will try to write my reviews and opinions -

“In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little, yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment…[b]ut the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so.”