Idolatragedy

“In retrospect, one of the last meeting points outside of ILM or whatever for a like-minded community of music crits. Everyone I know who does this read that site regularly, though most of them probably did not finish the posts about Lady Gaga.”

Zach Baron, in a back-and-forth with Rob Harvilla yesterday, in honor of the surprise departure of Maura Johnston from Idolator.  I could have chosen any quote from this thing–the best encomium out there other than searching “@maura” on Twitter–because it implies what we all know: Maura blogged correct.  She didn’t just trawl for pageviews, but tried to have it both ways, writing about Kanye and Gaga and MJ and Rihanna, and the Meg White Sex tape and Radiohead changing the world, but doing so with a sharp critic’s sensibility, not a snarky “hey look at this” mindframe. It’s a very, very fine tightrope to walk, and Maura rarely if ever even teetered.

Looking through the comment boards attached to the new Idolator bloggers’ first day of posts, it’s also clear that the audience she entertained and informed for the past couple years agree with me.  It’s also clear that, despite paying to keep the lights on at the place, Buzzmedia either took what Maura created completely for granted, doesn’t understand what an “online community” is, or both.  Probably both.  Neither of the two new bloggers–who can’t hold a candle to Maura, but that’s obvious–introduced themselves or mentioned anything about the drastic transition, and the audience (Maura’s audience) lashed back quickly, as angry at the new people’s incompetence (they should probably be cut some slack; they’re most likely Buzzmedia sockpuppets) as they are sad about Maura’s absence.  One thing that her departure illuminates is that blogging isn’t just a technical competency, and that being a good critic doesn’t mean you’re a good blogger.  Blogging is its own communicative form, with a unique capacity to balance personality and insight, and despite how many people there are who do it, very, very few people do it well.  Maura managed Idolator through a massive change in ownership and vision, when the site was bought from Gawker and stripped of much of its original flair, and steered the transition admirably.  I bet a lot of people didn’t even notice.

The thing I’ll miss most about Maura-era Idolator is her intelligent and entertaining writing about the music industries, at a time when we desperately need someone to make sense of this mess.  I’m working toward a dissertation that greatly involves me trying to figure out what the hell has happened over the past decade or so with labels, the law, fans, and the Web, and I have an entire university library and ostensible grant money at my disposal.  But I could spend an entire day doing research and not get anything near the clear-headed, layperson-friendly knowledge of a 10-minute AIM chat with Maura.  She’s a great critic and one of the best bloggers around, but she’s also an amazing translator.

Sure, Maura’s one of my best pals, and I wrote for the site a few times, so yeah: full disclosure and stuff.  I have no doubt that Maura will find another place to do what she does so well, though music crit will suffer for each day she’s not around.  If anything, she’s got about a thousand letters of recommendation, from seemingly every music geek with a blog or Twitter account.

Filed under: Idolator  Maura  Rob Harvilla  Zach Baron