Those of us who devote time and energy to blogging about music are all very aware that the popularity of the genre peaked a long time ago. It’s always been the same with how we listen to and consume music.
I hate the word consume, but it’s appropriate in this instance. Growing up, it would have been nigh on impossible, in the UK, to imagine a world without Top of The Pops, and in later years, I would never have believed MTV and similar channels becoming irrelevant. Even when the streaming services in the shape of Napster etc began to have an impact, I think we would all have under-estimated the way most people, and particularly those who are young, would actually listen to music at the quarter-point of the 21st Century.
Today’s post, from a personal perspective, looks back to 6 April 2010, and what I consider to be the apex of the collective impact of music blogs. Paul Haig Day II.
It all goes back to events in March 2009, when the original Vinyl Villain blog was the subject of a DMCA takedown notice for an article about Paul Haig on the basis that the copyright holder of the song offered up as an mp3 download had demanded its removal as well as the words accompanying the article. But the article had been put together with the help and support of Paul Haig and his manager, meaning that the actual holder of the copyright article, far from raising a complaint, was actually in support of it being used.
Further chats with Paul’s management led to the idea of designating 6 April 2009 as Paul Haig Day, when as many blogs as possible would write about him – either as a solo artist, his time with Josef K or of one of his collaborations – and that the songs used in any articles would come with his blessing.
Twelve months later, the idea was to do likewise, but hopefully bigger and better. It was best summarised by one of the other bloggers who took part, “Home taping didn’t kill music and the world wide web isn’t going to either.”
The response to Paul Haig Day II was truly incredible, with everyone’s efforts boosted by the man himself, with what was an exclusive (at the time) brand-new remix of one of the songs from his most recent album for use on the Vinyl Villain blog:-
mp3: Paul Haig – Trip Out The Rider (remix)
Here’s a list of the 38 bloggers and supporters who got involved in one way or another on the day:-
adam from ‘Pretending Life Is Like A Song’
ally from ‘Dusty Sevens’
Blogmeister from ‘Everything Starts With An A…
Brian from ‘Consolation Prizes’
Chris & The Team at ‘Exit 97.7 WEXT’
ctel from ‘Acid Ted’
Davanelli from ‘The World According to Davanelli’
Davis McArdle (guest posting on The Vinyl Villain)
Dirk from ‘Sexy Loser’
Drew from ‘Across The Kitchen Table’
Duncan from ‘Flippin Kids’
Ed from ’17 Seconds’
Erika from ‘1001 Fun Things To Do In Aberystwth’
Fernando from ‘Por si llueve’
FiL at ‘Pogo-A-Gogo’
Friend of Rachel Worth from ‘Cathedrals Of Sound’
G from ‘How Does That One Go Again’
Greer from ‘A Sweet Unrest’
HD from ‘Helpless Dancer’
Herbal T from ‘The Mixed Up World Of Herbal T’
James from ‘Appetite For Distruction’
Jim from ‘Aye Tunes’
JJ from ‘Spiralphoria’
Mel from ‘London Cafe : The Best Of UK Indie’
Mona from ‘Exile On Moan Street’
Nat from ‘Another Aging Hipster’
Paul from ‘You Would Say That Wouldn’t You?’
Phil Spector from ‘Plain or Pan?’
Postpunk from ‘Postpunk’
Rol from ‘Sunset Over Slawit’
Sean from ‘Battery In Your Leg’
Simon from ‘The Songs That People Sing’
Swiss Adam from ‘Bagging Area’
tart from ‘Love Shack, Baby’
The Cat from ‘Jock’n’Roll’
Webbie from ‘Football & Music’
Will from ‘Between Thought & Expression’
Will from ‘We All Want Someone To Shout For’
It was also mentioned across a range of music aggretator sites etc.:-
The Hype Machine
elbo
Broken Controllers
Pop Librarian
Cowbell FM
Lintom
Indieblips
gigulate
Blip FM
wikio
Friendfeed
And not one of us was the subject of a DMCA notice!
Sixteen years on, and most of the above blogs are no more. I know of at least one author who has passed away, and given the fact that many of us who were so heavily involved in blogging were of, shall we say, advanced years, there are likely to be others.
I can’t remember exactly why I didn’t push things for Paul Haig Day III, and sadly April 2013 is one of those period where all the posts on the old blog have been lost forever, not captured by The Wayback Machine, but I’ve a feeling that what I did was look around the blogging landscape and notice that fewer people were involved in posting regularly, and rather than have any event diminish in numbers, I decided not to pursue it.
Nor did I know that just a few months later, in July 2013, I’d have been on the receiving end of one too many DMCA warnings (I think it was my fourth) and Blogger.com decided to wipe the original blog off the face of the earth without any warning.
Scary to realise that the (new) Vinyl Villain has lasted twice as long as the original blog….but then again WordPress has shown itself to be much more sensible whenever it gets a DMCA complaint in that the opportunity is offered to remove the ‘offending’ piece of music.
mp3: Paul Haig – Justice (unreleased 7″ version)
As included on the compilation album, European Sun, released via the Belgian-based Les Disques Du Crépuscule in 1987.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 