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aberdeen-music

The Death of Music Forums


Sam 45

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Not a whole lot of posting going on in the music discussion these days. UGS has died, Jockrock is as good as dead, Edinburgh-Music never really got going. The board on DiS still seems to be fairly active though. It's kind of a shame, forums can herald a lot of good things.

Would be interested to know other peoples views on this...

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Guest idol_wild

I think less and less people are getting seriously into music on a nerdy level, so people feel less inclined to post on the internet about it.

Also, in the advent of social networking sites, lonely people who are into different music don't need to use forums to find like-minded people who may share the same level of interest in specific bands.

I dunno. It is a little odd that the music discussion section of this entire website is only moderately active, given that it is essentially a music website.

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Its the same on a huge number of music forums, and has been for years and years. The off-topic discussion always seems to be incredibly more active, and alot of people on other forums only post in that section, and never about music, as if it were just an extension of all the social network sites they're probably subscribed to.

Bring back individual band guestbooks. That's where things really got angsty.

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Everyone's more interested in talking about football and the relative merits of hipsters in the General Discussion area.

Music Discussion was busier and more entertaining when ridiculous arguments got out of hand and mentalists like Stripey had an eppy when folk discussed the wrong electronic type acts. Now it's all just -

"I like band 'x', what does everyone else think?"

"Yes I also like them"

"No not my cup o' tea old chap".

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Also, in the advent of social networking sites, lonely people who are into different music don't need to use forums to find like-minded people who may share the same level of interest in specific bands.

This

Although Facebook is becoming ever more unwieldy if you follow/like loads of bands/labels/venues/daft pages etc (which I try not to tbh)

I get the feeling there'll be something else just around the corner (either Facebook-related or not) which will help you filter stuff a bit better somehow,

Don't ask me what it is though. I wish I knew.

I really fucking wish I knew

:D

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Younger folk just don't want to talk on forums now because facebook and all that i reckon. None of my mates fancy logging on to a forum about Music or Football but they will spend hours everyday sitting reading mundane status updates.

EDIT: Putting a little more thought into that, the gap doesn't seem to be massive though, just a few years. I know a lot more 22/23 year olds and above who post on forums, but very few below that age, in fact i think Euan and Craig on here are the only two i do know.

Thats yer actual, real life generation gap, working in a large educational establishment I have seen it. When I was at uni, even fuckers 10-12 years younger than me were, culturally, quite similar, and that carried on til about 2005, everyone who has come of age since then is pretty culturally different, not more using of tech, but more centred in it. It's not better or worse, just different, and it was always inevitable.

The most negative thing I could say is that books seem to be devalued, and that concentration time is fragmenting, maybe the world as it is demands that, I still don't approve.

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Another possibility is that some folk join the forum because they want to start up/join a band rather than as a medium for talking about music, I know that was the case for me. I have very little interest in taking part in music discussions for the reasons Plinth mentioned above - they revolve around either ridiculous circular arguments formed around some blatently obtuse statement or everyone agrees on something and it goes nowhere.

There's not much new blood coming through on here either, we're all part of the establishment and we have a tendency to not be the most welcoming group that ever existed. That's not a problem that is specifically the case for ab-mus but a symptom of any long-lived internet based forum, stagnation is bound to occur from time to time and there needs to be an influx of new views and opinions before things start moving again.

I'm having problems forming coherent ideas this morning but hopefully my points come across well enough.

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It seems like there just isn't enough people with similar tastes to keep a high level of discussion going. If I hear a band for the first time that I really like, I'm not that likely to start a thread about it because threads I have started received few responses. Also there are often threads which don't interest me as I don't like/ am not interested in the subject matter.

Maybe it's just me but it does seem that any thread about a specific band dies quite quickly. The threads which grow are ones which allow people to continuously post something they like without actual discussion developing.

The only other forum I visit is as busy as it ever was (it has always been much bigger though), so I can't really comment on whether there is a general trend of decline.

[Edit]

The facebook/ myspace factor probably has had a big impact on this board in particular (and other boards for local music scenes).

I imagine many joined this board as a way of keeping up to date with the local music scene, gigs, ep releases of their favourite bands etc. Social networks have made Ab-Music much less relevant in this way.

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From what I see, this site is just a collection of regulars who more than often take the piss out of threads which kills them where they stand. Already this threads heading off rail and to its demise. I think the activity is going downhill due to there being other big music sites which are superior in near every way. Cant really compete, the main/only plus this site has is its local to Aberdeen.

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From what I see, this site is just a collection of regulars who more than often take the piss out of threads which kills them where they stand. Already this threads heading off rail and to its demise. I think the activity is going downhill due to there being other big music sites which are superior in near every way. Cant really compete, the main/only plus this site has is its local to Aberdeen.

I think Alan Cynic is to blame for the downfall of all internet music discussion too.

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Maybe it's just me but it does seem that any thread about a specific band dies quite quickly. The threads which grow are ones which allow people to continuously post something they like without actual discussion developing.

Yeah, I can't be arsed with anyone's opinion unless it's the same as mine, which I already know so it's links or GTFO basically.

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I wasn't too well either...had threadworms, but I managed to kill them all with incessant bad-punning :(

The other music forum I go on still chats about specific areas of music, but there aren't that many folk using it regularly (my fault, too???).

it's not often I find athread about bands/solo artists I really like.......anybody want to discuss Kevin Coyne with me?

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'Blame it on the night' would be my next one! I saw him live on the 'Marjory Razorblade' tour...then again a few years later.

'Babble' is pretty good too,....as is 'Politicz'.in fact I like them all.

Have you heard the last session he did for Andy Kershaw? He had to have a wee tank of oxygen to gasp at between songs. I did a cover of one of his last songs, 'I'll be your sugar daddy'.

thanks for that!

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