This is my 200th article on FUXWITHIT.
That’s it, that’s the tweet.
Oh wait, I’m not on Twitter. Sometimes I’m so inured by this social media-centric world that it feels unusual to not have to deal with character limits or have to abide by any algorithms. You know what, here’s a random link just because I can include it without reach/visibility repercussions. Even after 7 years of writing for blogs, every time I create a blank page for a new write up I always experience the same feeling of freedom. I know I’m in a place where what matters are my words, no matter how many there are. When I was a young kid discovering the endless potential of the web for the first time, I used to imagine a glorious future where everyone would have had their own, independent, fully customized website as the core of their online presence. A place where we would have total creative, economic, and privacy control. It’s unuseful to point out that history proved me wrong as for the past 15 years we’ve all been stuck with identical social media profiles, chasing after ever-changing sets of rules nobody seems to be happy about.
But let’s get back to the subject. I was saying that when I create a new article I feel happy because I know that I can pick the topic I prefer and go with the angle I want. This awareness, however, is not given only by the technical reasons I have just illustrated. The human component is central and in the case of FUXWITHIT, it takes the name of Colin. As Editor In Chief (as well as the owner if you weren’t aware), of course he has the final say on the approval of ideas and articles. But as I’ve already specified several times in the past, I’ve never felt limited or judged by him. The support I’ve received from Colin since day one has been immense and has made these hundreds of articles an incredible journey, exactly how I wanted it to be. 200 are not so many spread over more than four years (especially for those like me who have approached the world of blogging with reference figures such as Matt Meadow and his 10,000 articles on YourEdm) but now I am proud to be able to look behind and be satisfied with pretty much all of them. It’s not for vanity that I point out that I have a fairly non-standard approach to writing song reviews. I think it’s obvious to anyone who has read even just a couple of my articles That’s how I like writing and I’m aware that it won’t allow me to be very prolific. I could be doing 5x articles with different approaches but where would be the fun? I’m a blogger because I want to support the music and artists I love, but a big part of the motivation that keeps me writing is that I do it for myself. It helps me take the time to properly listen to a song, reflect on my journey as a listener. It elevates my musical knowledge and helps me to closely follow the evolution of the music trends and culture. Things that wouldn’t happen if I wrote ten articles every Friday.
Every article I write “forces” me to listen to the same track over and over and over. This process allows me to enjoy it in a very different way from how I’d experience it by listening to it in the SoundCloud feed or in a Spotify playlist. But the part I love most is what I learn while looking for information about the artist or the song. Every single time, I spent countless minutes (or even hours) digging the internet for pieces of information. It might start as a simple research about where a producer lives and boom, suddenly I have 20 chrome tabs open and I’m learning the history of a Persian sample on Who Sampled or I’m learning what filthstep is on Every Noise At Once. Is all of this necessary? Absolutely not, but first of all, it’s fun. Secondly, this is what I think my role as a blogger is all about. I believe music blogging in its original conception has undoubtedly died under the blows of the more modern ‘playlist culture’, but it’s also quickly risen from its ashes to fill the gaps this type of mentality has brought along with it. Blog articles may not bring the “plays” they used to, but they give value and dignity to the single tracks, the creative minds, and the culture behind them.
Music blogs still matter. This is my church. This is the belief that made me write these 200 articles and will make me write as many more.
