Paper or Plastic?

The internet has arrived and it is not going anywhere.  Newspapers and magazines are becoming a thing of the past.  Journalists everywhere have followed suit by catering to younger readers over the computer screen.  I myself have a habit of staying up on what is going on in the world of music.  Magazines like the Rolling Stone are basically antiques with only septuagenarian readership.  Seriously, how many times can Bob Dylan make the cover of that thing?  True, other magazines like Spin or XXL pursue a younger crowd, but they are seemingly unaware of the fact that nobody in that demographic pays for any of their music!  Much less a ten dollar magazine.

On the other hand, internet-based music publications like pitchfork.com or stereogum.com, once dismissed as a lesser means of musical press, are becoming increasingly relevant.  I am a music nerd so I visit each of these sites at least five times a week.  The articles are fun to read with just the right amount of wit and the writers are just as well versed in musical history as their paper-using counterparts.  Once in a blue moon I might walk through Walgreens, only intending to purchase some toothpaste, and see Led Zeppelin in all their glory grace the front page of Rolling Stone.  I might ask myself “what hasn't already been written about Houses of the Holy?” and I fumble through the pages for a few minutes.  Sadly, my attention span cannot last longer than that.  There are no songs a click of a mouse away.  There is no live footage just begging to be streamed.  So I lose interest, put it back on the shelf, and buy my hygienic necessities. There is simply no need for this situation ever to play out any differently.  Printed news is dead.

Also, I worked on this stuff for 8 hours this weekend while I was at a cabin in Washington with my whole family and a bunch of friends so give me credit!