Step In Some Stereogum
Wednesday, October 20th, 2010Have you ever found yourself looking for a place to find new music that is a bit off the bea
ten path? Look no further than Stereogum.com. Stereogum came on the scene in 2002 and remains at the forefront of mp3 blogs. In addition to mp3’s you can also find music videos, photo galleries, and music news stories. Stereogum has also issued a number of tribute releases for free download.
CLICK HERE to check out “OKX”, a tribute marking the tenth anniversary of Radiohead’s “OK Computer” featuring bands like Vampire Weekend and the Cold War Kids.
Stereogum’s news stories are often clever, short and sweet, a characteristic that makes this site appealing in today’s ADD ridden society. The majority of news stories are accompanied by a video or an mp3 by the band or artist the story is discussing. Stereogum often operates as an aggregate news site at times frequently linking to longer stories on music magazine sites like NME and Pitchfork. My favorite aspect of this site is the lists section. Here you can find lists compiled by Stereogum staff as well as other sites like Amazon, Spin, and Rolling Stone and artists like Morrissey.
CLICK HERE to see Stereogum’s list of their 69 Most Anticipated Albums of 2010.
One of the downsides of Stereogum is that it does not act enough as an independent news source. They do have a great selection of original content like their review section “Premature Evaluation” and their Op-Ed section. I feel that if they were to put a stronger focus on music news they would become even stronger than they already are. Another weakness of the site is that when navigating the site it is difficult to get back to their original content, which makes it seem like more of an aggregate site than it really is. They would benefit strongly from adding a side bar that links to “Premature Evaluation” and their other sections.
CLICK HERE to read the “Premature Evaluation” review of the forthcoming Kings of Leon album “Come Around Sundown.”
Unfortunately Stereogum does not accept freelance writers but here are a few stories that I would pitch if I could write for them:
1. I would with a feature that would be a pop music retrospective from 1980-2010. In this story I would take a look at pop music over the last thirty years. The trends in pop music would be examined and evaluated to see what elements have stuck and which ones did not last that long. I would also include an aspect that covers the pop princesses of the 80’s like Madonna and the pop princesses of today like Katy Perry.
2. I would examine in an op-ed piece my theory that the popularity of pop-punk bands today stems from the late 90’s popularity of boy bands and how the teenage girls that currently swoon over bands like We The Kings or All Time Low today would be swooning over *NSync ten years ago.
3. Lastly, I would write a feature that examines the rising popularity of pop-dance music from bands like Neon Trees and Phoenix and how the evolved from dance-punk bands that originated in the early 2000s like Death From Above 1979 and LCD Soundsystem.