Of Buzz and Competition

By Julene McCoy in Arts & Entertainment on Mar 14, 2006 4:33PM

Yesterday at the Chicagoist offices, we were all worked up over this article by Jim DeRogatis of the Sun Times. It's always interesting when someone writes a piece denouncing the very thing that they do. It's along the lines of gossip columnists who complain that Paris Hilton is in the news too much in their own columns. If we were drunk, we'd get into the whole hit-driven economy of the entertainment industry, but we're tired thinking about it anymore. It's not a bad thing to have more than one soi-disant tastemaker out there. Don't worry, Jim. Rock-n-Roll isn't dead and neither is your job - the field just got a little more niche-driven is all.

Which brings us to another smack in the face of the hit-driven entertainment industry - Chicago's very own little music festivals that could - Intonation and Pitchfork Music Fests are making the grade. In the next issue of Newsweek, they get a mention as quite the bargain compared to the veteran fest - Coachella. We're still waiting to find out the final line-ups, but anticipation is always a good thing.

The times are achangin' and eventually, these small fests and our fave online music critics will become the Coachellas, Lollapaloozas and MSM writers of the future. We're ready to see what happens in the mean time to music, to marketing, and to criticism. Competition never hurt anyone - well - except for that ski jumper in the "Agony of Defeat" commercial, but that's not the competition of capitalism where marketing and buzz are where it's at.