saving ink

I’m not a fan of the recent “write anything quickly” microblogging webvelution. Status updates on Facebook. Twitter. And most recently, Musebin, which does exactly what its slogan says: “1 line music news and reviews.”

There is a reason parents tell kids, “Think before you speak.” They should be told “Think before you write” as well. I have no problem with brevity itself. Many writers would do well to keep their verbosity in check. Many people should not write at all. But when everyday human expression is reduced to one-liners, something essential is lost: deep thought.

My beef with Musebin goes even further back. Reviews that state, “Chinese Democracy: What a piece of fucking shit.” (about the latest Guns N’ Roses album, which I agree with, but that’s not the point) or “A wonderful hodge-podge of harmonies, beats, noodling and ambient noise” (about the latest Animal Collective, or just about any electro-ambient album to come out in the last 25 years), have absolutely no practical use to a music fan.

And that’s not counting the complete uselessness of reviews like this: “makes me waiting for the tour” (about Wire’s Object 47).

It’s just a collective of people shouting their opinions, hoping to be noticed by as many human eyes as possible, on a forum where everyone is writing but no one is even reading anyway.

You’re much better off going through a list of new releases, downloading them, and deciding on your own whether to keep (and/or buy) the music or not. And if it’s really, really good and you want others to listen to the album, you tell your friends - or better yet, play it for them.

The point is that not everyone should give their opinion on music. Just as not everyone should give their opinion on every subject, or all the time. There’s a reason academics or journalists get the opinions of experts when researching a subject, and not the opinions of Joe the Plumb… oh, wait.

Eventually people will get tired of posting updates every two minutes. Eventually other people will get tired of reading about you feeding your dog or washing your car. And this e-fad will pass and hundreds more will take its place but the damage will already be done.

When there are more writers than readers, and 90% of the writers have nothing of value to contribute, it becomes increasingly difficult to find the 10% who do.