I’ve been sitting on this topic for a few days now, but last night I read Jezebel’s re-purposing of Slate’s Nicki Minaj piece and many things struck me, tying back to this post over at The FADER. Mainly, The Way We Argue On The Internet, Especially When The Topic Is Rap Music.
We are all suddenly idiots when we visit websites. Regardless of one’s age or level of education, anyone is prone to calling someone a fag or a retard during an online disagreement. That doesn’t mean it will always happen, but when it does it’s unfortunate and annoying and drives well-meaning writers and bloggers batty. (There are, however, a number of bloggers that don’t mind this sort of thing if pageviews rely on the endurance of catfights.) Multiply that times music and pop culture, which attracts any variety of fans, “experts” and youth and it doesn’t matter how rich and entertaining your turn of phrase is if you’ve decided Gucci is wack, or dope, for that matter. People largely aren’t reading your opinions to be entertained by them; they want your opinions to be in tandem with their own.
Ever since Myspace became Facebook’s bottom bitch it’s been walking around in a perpetual shrug like it doesn’t know why it sucks. But you and I know, don’t we? It’s ugly, mainly. Not since the days of Blackplanet and Tripod have personal web spaces been so eye-rapey. They just let people do anything, which is sort of the Internet’s gift and curse. But Facebook and Twitter, thankfully, have imposed “fuckery limits” which is why they are so popular. This is a fact. So now, desperate ugly Myspace is on some AOL shit, reinventing itself as a “destination for entertainment”, which makes sense since News Corp’s digital chief is Jonathan Miller–a former Exec at AOL that has experience with failing enterprises.