Music writing. It can be a truly self righteous platform sometimes. I've read enough about music in my life to differentiate between the writers who love music and the writers who simply have a job to do and feel the need to cut down bands and musicians for whatever reason. The ones that bother me the most are obviously the latter. The collegiates without a musical bone in their body who at one point must have had to face the fact that all they were really cut out to do, was diss the artists who actually gave it a shot, be it bad or good, and put themselves out there. That, or champion a band in hopes that they get some sort of recognition for thier praise.
This leads me to my next point. I believe I am one of the former. Although I am a musician who, for the most part am particular to one style, I have a genuine love for knowledge about music and am a fan of many genres. A firm believer that you don't have to be a virtuoso to make enjoyable sounds and that sometimes not being so, is more valuable to the craft of rock and roll. Sometimes, clearly being the key word there. I would never put down a band for not being technically on par with, say, a band like Led Zeppelin or anyone in that upper echelon. There is no standard to which I hold any artist. That would, of course, just be snobbish of me.
This now segues me nicely into the next part of my mission statement/manifesto/disclaimer. Something I want to address and have felt rather strongly about for about the last half decade or so and maybe more is the issue of negativity or negative band reviews. It's my belief, that in the digital age, it is completely irrelevant and redundant to slander a band for doing or playing whatever it is that they play or want to do. While I do believe that writers are looked towards for their opinions and that at one time it was valuable to fans in that they would decide whether or not to spend their hard earned money on a record or a concert or not, I believe there is no longer a need for general criticism. These days the fan now has almost exclusive control over their own opinions with platforms such as MySpace, Itunes etc. and there is no need for someone behind a desk or computer to tell you why you shouldn't listen to a certain artist anymore. After all, it can take as little as typing in the name of the band and giving them 30 seconds of your time to decide whether or not they are worth it to you. That being said, there will be no slandering here unless an artist really gets my goat by way of cashing in, being phony and deceptive, or are just generally fucking assholes or idiots. In which case, the latter offense would most likely just call for a general ban on said artists music or opinions.
So, for those of you out there who might actually read the posts on here to come. I bring you Buzz Church! Ideally, I will have sometime collaboraters to help me stay off of a soapbox and bring some needed variety to the table here. Also it should be said that I am in no way a schooled writer and tend to ignore tradional editing and grammatical techniqes. I am a musician a fan and -hopefully- someone whose knowledge can be gained from. I hope to bring to your attention old bands and new. Artists that I think are important. Artists that I think are criminally underrated. And artists that just about the whole world may have heard of but that I just want to talk about.
So feel free to comment, rebut, learn and occasionally correct me in this endeavor. It should also be said that this is a lobor of love for me (unless you show me the money) and will depend on time and availability. I which case the collaboraters and contributers will come majorly in handy. So enjoy, friends. I'm here for you. If you have any questions about bands or a certian artist and it is within my ability to help. Feel free to ask. Interactivity is a best case scenario for this page.
Love, Stu Ruggling
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