Crumbler

Once upon a time, my Tumblr Dashboard was full of writing about music. I started a Tumblr with my friend Steve in the spring of 2008, and at first it was the random short-form tumblog I thought that Tumblr wanted from us. But owing first to Steve’s departure for law school, and then to my own all-consuming passion for music news and criticism, Crumbler gradually became a place to think about songs and artists and the strange collisions between them. In part, that was because my Tumblr Dashboard had been taken over by music writers, or writers who wrote mostly about music: perpetua, agrammar, tomewing, maura, barthel, tombreihan, and twentyfourbit, to name some. Many of those writers had grown famous on other platforms. But Tumblr also helped to nurture a new generation of music writers — some who were enthusiastic hobbyists, like hamtunes, and softcommunication, and 1000xpm; and some who would go on to write for Pitchfork, Time, and many other established music publications. Music writing was always a hobby for me, and as I grew older it became less important to me. Crumbler posts these days are now few and far between, and are mostly reblogs. Good reblogs! But reblogs nonetheless.

At some point I had the idea of reaching out to some of my favorite writers and ask them a bunch of questions about Music Tumblr, in hopes of putting together an “oral history” that was actually an “email history.” I reached out to a dozen or so people and just about everybody responded. The only people who did not respond, unfortunately, were the women writers that I contacted, and I felt really bad about that, and shelved the project for a couple months. But now that folks like markrichardson and popcornnoises are talking about the death of Music Tumblr I felt like I should just let you know what I found out through my half-assed journalism, because the writers who did respond were generous with their time and brilliant, as ever, in their responses. What follows makes no claim to be totally representative, and acknowledges that there are many still people on Tumblr writing well about music. 

SO. 

What follows are 2,500 or so words about the life and death of what some folks, myself included, are presumptuously calling Music Tumblr. It died for four main reasons:

1. The easy accessibility of all music through YouTube, Spotify, and other platforms made the MP3 blogs from which Music Tumblr arrive largely irrelevant. (I wrote about this in some detail a couple years ago.)
2. Tumblr drew in writers because it was a surprisingly good broadcast platform: reblogging meant that it could travel a very far distance, and attract new fans to your work, including other writers you admired. But Tumblr itself never embraced writers — its text tools remain rudimentary — and the smart set has moved on to Twitter and more recently Medium. 
3. The best music writers stopped writing for free and started taking paid gigs at music publications
4. The amateurs got tired and moved on. 

Music Tumblr was a glorious thing, and in the time before I left my old depressing job writing about politics in Arizona to start my new amazing job writing about technology, it was the thing I looked forward to most in the day. A few months ago, as it entered its death throes, I wrote to some of my favorite Music Tumblrs and asked them to help me memorialize it. Here’s what they had to tell me. 

What was cool about Music Tumblr
“ Part of the early appeal for me was the offhanded informality. I could bounce thoughts off of people I found interesting, and read their thoughts, without worrying too much if what I was saying could be considered stupid or taken the wrong way. There was a certain safety there, a space to try out new thoughts and interact and feel like you were in a comfort zone. Unlike Twitter, Tumbr wasn’t a broadcast medium. It was a medium for conversation. And interaction. Great music writers still do stuff on Tumblr, but the quality and level of professionalism is often way beyond what I could ever pretend to bring to the medium, and that makes it more intimidating to respond. I liked it as a space for enthusiastic amateurism – for sharing parts of me I didn’t necessarily want to pretend we’re important but which could maybe unobtrusively complement what came across in my professional writing. Probably the highlight for me was Pitchfork Reviews Reviews, who really embodied Tumblr in many ways– funny, fervent, commentary on commentary, completely of its moment, almost too good to be true at times but also too good to check.” — desnoise

“The best and worst thing about music writing on Tumblr was the fact that it was a community first and blogging platform second. Getting to actually know people like you or seeing that a music blog I liked reblogged one of my posts made it feel like I was actually part of something cool that was thumbing our noses at Pitchfork, Stereogum, and the established music websites.” — about-today

"I guess my favourite thing about it was the sense of possibility, and I probably feel this way because I wouldn’t be writing for money/an audience today if someone hadn’t plucked me from e-obscurity. There were a lot of established personalities taking an active interest in conversation, guiding discussions, and keeping an eye out for new voices, no matter who they were, where they where, or what they had to say. There were also a lot of younger writers trying to scrap for recognition or plaudits with fresh thought and excitement, which kept people’s feeds churning. It just seemed like a real culture of stewardship existed on Tumblr, with older writers believing they had a duty to find new talent and sustain the profession (because older writers had helped them along through another medium, whether it was email or blog comments or forums or whatever) and subsequently taking younger writers under their wings.” — jamiesoncox

“Discovering a new song or artist I liked every other day or so, from bands I would’ve NEVER heard about otherwise (mostly music from northeast, it seemed). Feeling like I ‘knew’ some of these people, despite not speaking to them outside of tumblr or twitter. Feel like I was part of that community was cool.” — hamtunes

"Personally, I loved the immediacy of Tumblr. Of posting a rant about Nicki Minaj at one in the morning and waking up to see it liked and reblogged over 300 times. That sort of widespread community reaction to a piece of writing is something that I wasn’t used to as a print journalist. Whenever I wrote for a magazine like Alternative Press or VIBE, I basically just filed the piece and moved on. I never got any direct reader response. I also think that I’ve seen writers on Tumblr grow and get super smart, and that’s pretty awesome from a spectator standpoint. Jake Cleland and Jamieson Cox have both really improved in dramatic ways; they’re writing things now that are just good as anything in the print world.” — nervousacid

"The best thing was the thought that the next gem of a song or artist was just around the corner. Everyone was posting what they thought was great stuff, and everyone was talking about it all the time. THAT was fun. I remember feeling my love for an album intensify when reading someone else’s gushing write-up, or when perusing the year end lists. It was a blast, and feeling like I was part of that, even in a small way, was a lot of fun.”  — 1000xpm

"It felt a like an actually diverse group of people without it feeling forced at all. I guess, because I was 18 when I started my Tumblr and coming from a prominently white Christian high school, there is was very limited worldview, partially imposed and partially just the kids that we got, that I was exposed to. And the thing about Tumblr was seeing music writing that was so much more personal than stuff I ever got reading Pitchfork or other sites. I also always appreciate the friendliness of people, which I say only because a lot of people’s whose Twitter/writing personas are kind of prickly turnout out to be really nice people when you actually talk to them.” — dalatu

Why people stopped Music Tumbling
“One explanation is that the old guard was successful enough that they had other things occupy their time besides personal blogging. I know a lot of people have gotten regular paid gigs (Britt Julius, Miles Klee, Tyler Coates, etc.), and I know that during the few months I was a columnist pretty much any idea I had for a Tumblr post got turned into a column. I imagine it’s the same for them.” — barthel

"I think people are growing up and finding new hobbies and filling their time with other hobbies as well. I know when I started doing it I had more free time than I do now, and music in general was my passion on and off of tumblr. I personally found other passions outside of music to work along with it. Because of this I also began to care less about other people’s take on music "at that given point”. The people I followed for music were on my music account and because I wasn’t seeing them on a daily basis anymore, I cared less and less each day, like a break or something. Then I didn’t care at all.” — hamtunes

“The movement of music discussion elsewhere is the big one, I think, and it’s happening on two fronts. The first is Twitter: it’s so much better at facilitating conversations that are happening in near-real time, and it’s also a more potent networking tool. (Of course, it also tends to rob these conversations of a lot of their nuance and depth of thought, and refuses all of us the time to deliver considered responses, but hey.) The rise of "music Twitter” has stripped Tumblr of much of its power as a forum for discussion, because you can do it faster and with more people on Twitter. The other issue is that many of the writers who came up on Tumblr in the last few years are now doing a lot more freelance work or finding staff positions when they’re available, and if someone has a personal incentive scheme that weights the freedom of Tumblr posts over cold, hard cash, I’d love to have a look. It’s something I grapple with a lot: I only have so much energy to apportion to various writing tasks, and if I have to choose between getting even a small sum of money for a Pitchfork blurb or review and writing something else (even if it’s not tethered to the news/release cycle) for Tumblr, I will almost always choose the former. And then there’s the proportional leaps in time required and money/attention gained for larger pieces vs. Tumblr essays, which any person with an eye on their career/brand thinks about constantly. So, in short: people are always getting busier and blog time is typically one of the first things to get cut, and if they want to write and talk about music they can get more money for it and/or do it faster and easier using another platform.” — jamiesoncox

“While I tend to believe that generational thinking is pretty dangerous, there does seem to be a little bit of a 'Tumblr generation’ of music writers. People of roughly the same age coming from roughly similar attendant views on history and the social value of music all working out their voices and getting noticed on Tumblr together. Off the top of my head: Jamieson Cox, Jake Cleland, Jeremy Gordon, Sophie Weiner, David Turner, Michelle Myers, and so on. In the last couple years, most of these guys have been asked to write for big publications—Pitchfork, Complex, Buzzfeed, etc.—so there is a little bit of a sense of graduating to the big leagues there.” — popcornnoises

"One of the other things that has certainly effected Tumblr is stuff like Pitchfork’s ’The Pitch’ or even Noisey as a whole. Those are places that post tons of glorified Tumblr posts, no shots I’ve done both, and at some point it gets to being like 'I can work on this Tumblr post or take a chance and get paid for my work.’ I say all of this, but still think Tumblr has one value that even a real site cannot match, which that these are mostly personal blogs. That allows someone a lot more freedom of topic, and to address topics without an editor to say it isn’t a good idea.” — dalatu

Where we go from here 
"I’m still following the old stallions and not much else, save maybe a few more personal blogs/people that make me laugh. I’m trying to use all social media less as time goes on, so I’m certainly visiting my dashboard less, but there’s certainly less music writing going through there than there was, say, two years ago. A lot of people have mostly moved on, me included. But I still lurk in the background and try to get a post up every once in a while, when time permits.” — jamiesoncox

"I’m still following the old stallions and not much else, save maybe a few more personal blogs/people that make me laugh. I’m trying to use all social media less as time goes on, so I’m certainly visiting my dashboard less, but there’s certainly less music writing going through there than there was, say, two years ago. A lot of people have mostly moved on, me included. But I still lurk in the background and try to get a post up every once in a while, when time permits.” — 1000xpm

“Places on the internet have a shelf life. Before there was music writing on Tumblr, there was ILM and other message boards. Tumblr might’ve had its day and, as far as I know, nothing new has yet come along to symbolically replace it. Personally, I’m not planning to jump ship any time soon. Regardless of whether a vibrant community still exists there, I like using Tumblr to post my own thoughts on music and it remains a popular and accessible blogging platform for people outside of music writing circles. I still look at my dashboard every day and still try to make time for reading the big stuff that looks interesting to me. I don’t follow much else besides music writers.” — popcornnoises

" I almost never visit my Dashboard anymore! I still have a few Tumblr blogs I follow via my RSS reader, and other people I just follow on Twitter or wherever. When I’m back on my Dashboard, it’s usually because I spotted something on the media-criticism blog I’ve read at lunchtime everyday for at least a decade, The Daily Howler, that I couldn’t help but quote. Turning my Tumblr into The Daily Daily Howler Reblog doesn’t seem very useful to anybody, though.” — desnoise

"I keep meaning to move some Tumblr blogs over to my RSS reader, but I just never get around to it. I will occasionally load up Tumblr on my tablet and see what’s going, but it’s happening less and less, I’m afraid.” — about-today

“Music blogging is less vital than it was in 2003, when I started Nervous Acid. These days we have access to everything all the time. Whenever I hear about a new band, I can go to YouTube or Bandcamp or Rdio and just fire it up and make up my own mind. I’m not sure critics are necessary for musical evaluation purposes as much as they used to be. Which is why, when you see music criticism on Tumblr now, you’ll mostly find discussions about feminism or queer representation or other social and cultural concerns. It’s becoming less about the music and more about the discursive implications of performance and image and art. Which is interesting in some conversations, but also obvious. Like, I get talking about Beyoncé’s feminism or Macklemore’s queer activism, but why isn’t anyone mulling over the discursive elements of a One Republic song? We need to get less obvious, I think.” — nervousacid

"I remember back in 2010 or so realizing that a lot of my new followers mostly posted gauzy pictures with text or anime fanart and spoke Tagalog, and after I got over the surprise this seemed perfectly fine to me. I like my internet expansive and weird and full of crap! Sure, the churn of argument wore me out on Tumblr after a while, as it apparently does for everyone, but I just got more selective in who I followed and now everything’s fine, mostly. I’d rather have the shitty stuff in my social media platform be teens arguing who’s more kawaii than self-important political journalists having a circle jerk.” @barthel