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year end wraps · by Rafi Kam
“Wraps of Mass Destruction” care of Switchback Fair
I’m not sure if I trust Tex-Mex food from a British blog… But anyway year-end wraps actually have been a WMD-style buzzword of the past few weeks.
Are they dangerously lame and deserving of nothing but parody? Or do they provide something of value for both the publisher and reader?
For the publisher there is a clear value in that they tend to be popular features. In spite of debuting on a Friday (a good day for movie openings but a bad one for web content) our own 2005 wrap-up has been putting up very respectable numbers. When December comes, the year end lists instantly become commonly spread links on various message boards.
They’re popular for a few reasons. Yes, they give people something to debate, criticize and comment on. But as important is the Godin-sian value of year-end lists. That these lists provide a lens, a perspective of what should be noticed in a world full of clutter. Or did you have time to listen to all of last year’s music releases?
This year for me they also helped a few blogs rise up above the usual clutter. I plan to regularly start checking Status Ain’t Hood and Straight Bangin’ both of which I found through links to their end of 05 posts. Year end lists might be a decent gimmick for getting you some visitors but checking out these sites also showed me a steady record of good writing on diverse topics which is what gets visitors to come back.
Meanwhile for Grade A Hateration, you have to leave that to the pros. Noz of Cocaine Blunts came through with the surefire blog post of the season hating on all the darlings of 2005 backpack rap.
We liked a few of these albums enough to give them spots in the 2nd half of our top 10 but still cracked up at the truth in lines like: “That’s cool that Madlib has a bunch of weird dialogue records to sample, but maybe he should just make a mixtape or write a book about them or something, because I’m not trying to listen to em randomly pasted together for an hour.”
Excellent work Noz. If we’d been paying attention to blogs long enough to do a 2005 year-end of best of blogs list that would probably be on there. Maybe you’ll make it to next year’s.
Comments for "year end wraps"
Rafi,
I hadn’t seen that Cocaine Blunts list yet. Funny. I don’t know how I feel about year end lists. I sent in my favs in to the p&j pollsters but if I had to do it again I might make some changes (include Freeway’s “Where You Been” to best singles, for one). I’m moody when it comes to music. One album resonates at one moment, another album later. Who knows?
— jb Jan 9, 01:03 AM
Thanks for the shout.
— Joey Jan 9, 11:46 AM