Sex, Drugs and Updating Your Blog
Above is a link to a Times story that I think would be good to read before working on our final pieces. The author, Clive Thompson, had to do a lot of research and included several sources for the story. The story begins by introducing us to the lifestyle of Jonathon Coulton, a musician who posts his music on his blog and interacts with his fans. Coulton is used by the author as a way to hold the story together. This is a long piece that is addressing a big-picture issue so it's important that we have a common theme to hold it all together. By leading the story with Coultron and repeatedly referring back to him, the author can continue to explore the bigger issues while the reader is able to have something to hang on to - something that shows us what the reader wants us to see. If the author were to just give us his findings of his research, the story would be bland, like a lab report or an essay. The story needs character and character is what holds this story together.
One line particulary grabbed my attention: "Coulton’s fans are also his promotion department, an army of thousands who proselytize for his work worldwide." It's so cool how getting a cult gathering online can propel a career and how fast word can spread with the internet. And that's what this story is getting at. By showing us how Coulton's business works, the author can now address the bigger picture of the story - which is how the internet has changed the way artists of all kinds are trying to get their work to the world.
I think the biggest thing to take from this story is that when your exploring a phenomenon of some sort - which I think is what we're doing for the final piece- it's important not to forget that your story needs something to hold it together and the easy way to do this is by developing good character. Developing good character will make for good reading and drive your story.
2 comments:
What I found interesting is the catch 22 of the internet for musicians and other artists that use blogging and the like as a primary source for fan accumulation, "For Nicolay, the intimacy of the Internet has made postshow interactions less intimate and more guarded." At the same time it draws upon thousands of personal communication via comments, emails and blogs. By quoting numbers and statistics tracking musicians success, it became clear to me that this is the same technique mainstream artists use, but on a much more user-friendly basis.
In its initial stages, musicians using the internet to post their music was captured well by writer Clive Thompson. I always look at the lede and concluding paragraph before reading an article. If they both match up or seem to flow when put side to side, then it works, otherwise it just doesn't do it for me. This piece worked in that way for me.
This article shined a little bit of light onto the effect of the internet, I was impressed. I know about the youtube trend but was interested to learn more about how musicians make their money. It is such a collaborative effort. I wonder how things are going to change ten years out from now. This makes making a profit from a passion so much more accessible to so many more people. I wonder if the music indusstry will drastically change because of this. Advertising certainly will.
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