Why write?

For quite some time I've had a feeling that it seems quite strange to write a blog. There are probably thousands going on millions of people writing their thoughts on the internet, most likely getting less than 10 hits a year outside of friends and family. It's not often a blog turns into an international sensation without the blogger being famous beforehand (unless you're gonna post exclusive pictures and scoops of celebrities doing things that are similar to what non-celebrities do, something I hope to be pursuing when I've given up living a decent life).

Okay, so before the why I'll start with the what. I'm about to enter my third, and probably final year of university studying Music, both classical and popular. Over the past couple years my perspective on music has changed drastically, or possibly fluctuated from one idea to another and back again several times. I've also started writing concert reviews for the Merseyside Post, Brickface Press, Liverpool and a blog that lasted a couple weeks last year with some course friends, as well as preparing an essay for Love Without Care Press, Newcastle. Alongside that I've started promoting bands and have just been offered an internship at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall.

So I'll be writing about stuff that has just come across my mind whenever it pops up in seperate categories:

• New artist spotlight: Musicians and bands that I think are relevant to current music, that I think/hope is the future of popular and art music, stuff which I feel needs to be discovered. If you already know an artist I'm talking about then power to you, get in touch with me and tell me more.
• Old artist spotlight: Musicians and bands that I've yet to discover or am rediscovering, how it relates to music now if it even does. Pretty much the same as above
• Rants and Discourse: Mostly regarding thoughts on how the musical world works, what I'm currently pleased or angry about. Basically my points of view, no matter how skewed and biased.
• Personal Canons: Music I already know about and personally revere. I'll try not to go on about people like Black Flag and Springsteen as most music fans have probably heard enough to make their own mind up.
• How my taste came to be: Probably the most egotistical of subjects, but I'll probably enjoy it a lot more than you, the reader, will. I'll write about stuff that I was into when I was younger, how it changed my perspective of music and the industry
• Lists: you get the idea
• Anything else?: If it doesn't fit in the categories above, then this is my miscellaneous pile. I might even not talk about music here.

I'll also be posting album reviews, gig reviews and listings for happenings in Liverpool.

So now onto the why. As I've just begun writing for other reasons than to get a degree I've thought it important to have one place to collect my ideas as raw as possible, so I can look back and see how my views evolve as they will inevitably form the make-up of proper published articles in the future. I also hope to look through this blog chronologically and see how my writing style changes, and also just to wonder why I said such things. Obviously in any public forum one's views are likely to be watered-down, so perhaps I'll get good practice in just writing. Most importantly I hope the blog will encourage me, as well as you, the reader, to seek out new music, stuff that I wouldn't immediately go for, try to empathise with different bands and genres, and be able to manifest my viewpoints on how music should be made and how the industry should be run.

So, all there is to say is that I hope you bookmark this and you'll enjoy reading as much as I'll enjoy writing.