The decision to read heavy metal magazines and websites is simply a decision to willingly be exposed to highly targeted advertising. That's all the magazines and websites are. Every single page, every single sentence. They tell all about new albums through reviews (that is advertising), they'll give you the latest news which revolves around new albums (more advertising), and they'll talk to artists to discuss
you guessed it, their new album (yet more advertising!). The process works because people are convinced that if they're not on the cutting edge, then they're not as committed as the next guy. Not paying attention every single second means missing something.
It doesn't have to be that way, but the past fifty years of music publicity effort has so ingrained itself that attempts at music writing not geared towards the latest and greatest are never going to be as popular as writing dedicated to the usual fare. I predict this issue of LotFP will be the least popular issue in its history despite its unrestricted availability simply because it has nothing to do with current releases or performing a single function in the publicity process. I must say it feels good to not be a marketing tool.
The publicity process is not some form of moral corruption or evil descending down upon the heavy metal world. After all, the best heavy metal album to ever be heard hasn't been recorded yet and we all want to know about it as soon as it comes. We just have to be aware about what we spend our time reading and be honest about why we read it. The media of the heavy metal world needs to be aware of why they cover heavy metal as they do and be honest about it. The media needs to be free and independent of the record companies releasing the albums. Only then will the entire publicity process work for the heavy metal fan instead of victimizing the heavy metal fan.
It doesn't have to be that way, but the past fifty years of music publicity effort has so ingrained itself that attempts at music writing not geared towards the latest and greatest are never going to be as popular as writing dedicated to the usual fare. I predict this issue of LotFP will be the least popular issue in its history despite its unrestricted availability simply because it has nothing to do with current releases or performing a single function in the publicity process. I must say it feels good to not be a marketing tool.
The publicity process is not some form of moral corruption or evil descending down upon the heavy metal world. After all, the best heavy metal album to ever be heard hasn't been recorded yet and we all want to know about it as soon as it comes. We just have to be aware about what we spend our time reading and be honest about why we read it. The media of the heavy metal world needs to be aware of why they cover heavy metal as they do and be honest about it. The media needs to be free and independent of the record companies releasing the albums. Only then will the entire publicity process work for the heavy metal fan instead of victimizing the heavy metal fan.
