Today marks five years since I launched popblerd.com. I feel compelled to write something to acknowledge the milestone.

I’m sure that if you’re a regular reader of this site (blog? what is it, exactly?) you’ve realized that the frequency of posts has slowed down tremendously. It’s February 9th, and I think I’ve only posted three times this year. No, the site is not dead. There are more podcasts coming, I’m sure I’ll think of interesting things to utilize the site for at some point, and if you’re interested in what I’m doing more of in the internet space, feel free to check out the tumblr page associated with the book I’m working on. It’s a project that’s taken up the majority of my writing time this year, and it’ll probably be my primary focus until it’s published.

The past five years have seen a lot of changes in the way music is written about on the internet, and for most of those five years, I’ve reacted accordingly. There was certainly a point in time when I had grand designs for this space to become a hub of pop culture discussion. That’s not my goal anymore. Not only am I not near the center of that area of discussion anymore (and I’m cool with that, btw), but as I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, I like the idea of this being my space where I can talk about the stuff I like when I want to talk about it and not have to worry about so and so premiered a song an hour ago so we have to write about it right now! In my day job, I research a lot of other music/pop culture websites where writers my age or older are forcing themselves (or are directed by higher-ups) to write in a way that’s beneath their talent, all so clicks are generated. That seems soul-sucking and desperate to me. My opinion might change if I was getting paid-but I’m not. So there’s no need to post about Fall Out Boy or Meghan Trainor (or Kanye or Rihanna, to use examples of two pop culture-centric artists I actually enjoy) if I don’t wanna. If I do decide to write about them, though, I won’t put myself on a timetable anymore. We live in “first” culture these days, and I’d rather have something important or interesting to say than involve myself in a dogfight to be the first to say something.

I’m one of those weird kids who was putting together his own charts and writing about music in my spiral notebook before preteen age. I interviewed for The Source when I was 17. Writing about music, one way or the other, is in my blood. Believe me, there are times I wish it wasn’t. I am grateful to have this space, to have had it for a fairly appreciable length of time, and to have supporters who are interested in what I have to say, even though they may not always agree with the message or the delivery of the message. I am also grateful to the people who have contributed to the site in some way, shape or form. No one who gets anywhere gets there by themselves.

I’m not going to wrap up with a “keep your eyes on this space, because big things are coming!” message, because truthfully I don’t know what this space is gonna become. Depends on a lot of factors; how much new music motivates me to write about it, how much I feel like being heard over the noise that is the internet, how many times I read things like Rembert Browne’s Grantland pieces and get those competitive writing juices flowing. I might post every 45 days, I might post for 45 days straight. I might do both at different periods of time.

So, uh, welcome to Popblerd’s sixth year. Who the hell knows what’s going to happen? Maybe I should put that on the site’s masthead.

MJ

Feb. 9, 2015