Please Tell Me Why People Outside Of NYC Should Read CMJ Coverage, Or “I Don’t Care How Long The Line At Pianos Was”

Trying to find interesting content today has been a bit of a challenge thanks to the music corner of the internet’s 24/7 fascination with CMJ clogging up the tubes. And that–coupled with my current location some 2,500 miles away from New York City–is making me beg for the music media’s outsized obsession with this festival to end, or at least abate a bit.

I certainly understand the appeal of seeing a ton of bands day and night, but what does all of this coverage add up to for the reader who doesn’t happen to be in New York City during the second-to-last week of October? Sure, I may (have some repressed anger toward the area I live in, but most of the acts being raved about on every blog every day just don’t matter to me now, and they’re not likely to ever matter, thanks in part to their getting lost in the endless ecstasy. As much as the fellas at Brooklyn Vegan might be totally psyched about Passion Pit, telling me that their live show doesn’t quite have the impact of their recorded output doesn’t mean they’re ever likely to actually play here–and even if they do make their way out to the West, they’ll probably be broken up by this time next year.

I like wearing laminates and feeling important too. But occasionally it helps to think of your audience, and in the end, the “as it happened” photography and attendant breathless commentary (not just on BV, which at least has the excuse of being a blog written primarily for a New York audience, but all over the place) doesn’t mean much to those outside your particular favorite coastal metropolis. The much-written-about singer Lykke Li might have been great at that private show she played for that magazine the other night, but at some point, writing one of the the nearly 300 blog posts about her performance teeters over the line from “chronicling your every move this week for the benefit of your readership” to “feeding your own ego for liking her and being there first, and not much else.” Sure, there are probably a few worthy bands that somehow flew under everyone’s radar until this week, but in the flood of “I was there!!!11one” posts loaded with beardo-laden photos I’ve been forced to wade through since Tuesday, I wouldn’t have noticed.

Idolator’s CMJ 2008 Coverage [Idolator]