Ubiquitous Marketing

While its premise, opening statement, and initial round of posts wildly contradict each other, I still give Idolator a good chance at escaping the Gawker cemetery that claimed Oddjack, Screenhead, and that Drudge competitor.

Even though Idolator will likely step on its own logic five times a day, I learned my lesson with Vice: most kids just don’t care about that shit. Something to do with ADD or something.

First, a quick disclaimer: I like the Gawker kids and I have interviewed a couple for my actual job. There is no ill-will driving such an exegesis. I love Deadspin and remember Will Leitch from a previous job. Another one, a blog about music here. This is, I think, my snarkiest review.

But Gawker Media is forever chasing its own shadow - such as, that Gawker proper is no different than a brattier US Weekly (via Gawker Stalker and things like the flatulence of Larry King). Also, its tendency to forever chide the media while being a part of it. Just because your Party Crash review is snarky doesn’t mean that the publicists that invite you don’t use you like they use everyone else. And so on. And on.

And I have a feeling that Idolator will have to run further from its contradictions. Look at its Mission Statement.

Of course, being music lovers ourselves, we also want to steer you in the direction of a good song or artist, which we’ll do every day. We aim to be discerning, but not snobby. And every time we introduce you to a new artist, we promise to wait at least three months before starting our own backlash against them.

Forgetting for the moment that snobbery is the backbone of any Gawker post, let’s pretend that the Idolator posts won’t contain any of them Gawker hobo spices. While there aren’t any real music reviews or suggestions as far as the eye can see yet, there’s a feature: LunchRock, which posts three tracks with absolute no crit. Well, that’s one way to do avoid the fray.

Music criticism is all about snobbery. There’s no ifs or buts. Even the anti-rockist criticism is likewise steeped in its own elitist stance (don’t get Jeff Klingman started on this).

But the snobbery at Idolator exists elsewhere: Rolling Stone, P. Diddy, and mp3 bloggers who are perhaps blinded by the hype and the wills of PR people. That’s fine; perhaps they deserve it. But I, who am squarely in their target psycho and demo, really don’t need to read snark on those subjects.

Idolator wants is both ways: its own license to snark at anything, except for the stuff it truly likes. What, other than a haughty mission statement, makes it different than any other music blog.

It seems like Idolator is trying to out-Stereogum Stereogum. The music scene already had its share of those entities; Gawker Media is too late to that party. But, of course, I will give them a shot. What else can I do?

UPDATE: Idolator’s debuts its first suggestion, Honey Comb, a female R&B group from the 70s. They call it extrodinary; I call it, ehhh. And I love 60s-70s girl group soul and R&B - many people can vouch for that. I wonder if it was to ensure they weren’t pitching something another blog was already loving, like CSS.

Tags: Idolator