Zine vs. Blog Issue #40

Discovering music in the digital age

By Kate Williams
Published: August 1st, 2009 | 12:00am

“The first question I get asked when I explain zines to someone who is new to the medium is, ‘You mean like a blog?’ writes zine librarian Jenna Freedman in the opening line of her essay Zines Are Not Blogs: A Not Unbiased Analysis. “As the reader might guess from the title of this article, my inclination is to give a strongly worded negative response to this irritating question.”

The question of zines vs. blogs, though an irritating one to zine enthusiasts, is also a valid one: Both are DIY mediums that allow people to publish what and when they want, and reach their audience without the help of a middle man. But the main difference between the two is actually revealed in that very question: Blogs reach a popular and massive audience that most zines could never, nor would they ever want to, dream of.

Especially over the last couple of years, the rise of music blogs such as Stereogum, Gorilla vs. Bear, and My Old Kentucky Blog have changed independent music just as much, if not more, than MySpace. They serve as tastemakers who hyper-curate, and one post from such a blog can turn an unsigned, unheard of band into an instant Internet sensation. “The way that major labels are losing leverage has flipped the industry on its head and now the people really are in charge of discovering new music.” says Abbey Braden, the blogger behind punkphoto.com.

Websites such as newbanddaily.com make it easier than ever to find new music, but also easier than ever to tire of it. Just about the time I never wanted to hear Chester French again, for example, they released not their first album or EP, but their first single.

Discovering new music used to be hard. You had to go to shows and read flyers. You had to have a little bit of street-cred. Now new music can be delivered to your inbox, right after your stock quotes and before your DailyCandy sample-sale listings. “Discovering new music this day and age is a giant mobius band. It’s become second nature at this point, like blinking or breathing,” Braden says.

In their heyday, many zines rose out of the obsessive culture of band fandom: they were a way to worship and spread the word. It wasn’t really about just who you had discovered, but who you had discovered and were going to love for the rest of your life. But now, make a zine devoted to the best new band you heard today, and by the time you’ve finished stealing supplies from your office no one will remember who the hell you’re talking about.

The current resurgence of interest in zine culture probably has something to do with a desire for something a little more permanent in an impermanent world. “Zines are a thing I can hold in my hand and take with me wherever I go. To me, zines are someone’s art that you can read, put down when you want to, and come back to any time — you don’t need a computer or an Internet connection to read one,” Allen says. “And unless you got them at a record store or a distro, you most likely wrote to the author, met them at a zinefest, or talked to them to somehow get their work. That’s real.”