June 22, 2008 | Tags: none

If anyone was wondering where the hell I’ve been, I got a new job. And it’s pretty much ruling my life right now. What a way to spend the summer, right? Even though most of the time it keeps me very occupied, there are a few times throughout the work week where I can’t do anything except sit around shooting the breeze while something downloads or whatever. Sometimes I can hop on the internet and peep a select few unblocked websites, and sometimes I just can’t touch my computer at all. So I’ve found myself reading not only a lot of random websites that I normally would ignore, but also some print magazines.

Is it just me, or have a lot of music-related magazines fallen off? Not only music magazines, but a lot of magazines in general. Sports magazines, cooking magazines, tabloids, you name it. Sure, sometimes things just get a little wild amidst the staff at various print publications (just look at the changes XXL has gone through in the past year or so), but I don’t even think it’s the things like the seemingly random exit of YN that are the biggest issue throwing magazines a curveball. So what am I getting at?

Timeliness.

Kind of like the way I haven’t written a blog here at DX for something like two weeks, which surprisingly seemed to agitate quite a few of you (thank you for caring!), and therefore I have climbed a bit on the ladder of wackness and end up being late on damn near every subject I speak about – magazines face the same thing. Think about it – you can read about pretty much anything going on in hip hop here at DX (or to be fair, at almost any other hip hop site on the net), so once you pick up a magazine, the news within it is probably pretty dated. Even worse? You have to pay for that dated news that lies within the magazine. Well, assuming you didn’t just steal the joint from 7-Eleven when people’s backs were turned.

The only thing that magazines seem to have going for them are editorial pieces, features, and interviews that aren’t necessarily time sensitive. That last Blender interview with Lil Wayne that I mentioned a few blogs ago was straight comedy, and I was kind of glad I read it. But if you’re paying close attention, you’d realize that I not only mentioned the article in that piece, but I also linked to it. You could read an interview for free that you would have to pay to read in print. So why the hell are people still buying magazines? I know when I buy one, I have a damn good reason for doing so. And it’s a pretty rare occurrence.

For the record, I get Blender for free at the crib. Go figure how. I surely did not pick up an issue of that just for that interview. If I wanted to read that Weezy interview that badly, I’d just stand in the store and read it, then put the magazine back. Yeah, I’m cheap and have too much time on my hands. Or at least I used to…

Anyway, since I’ve now thrown in the random word fart that seems to happen in every post I put up these days, let me get back to my point. The internet is now giving readers just as good quality material as the magazines try to sell you. And all for the ridiculous price of…well, nothing. Unless you count the fees you pay your internet service providers, if you even have to worry about that! Now that free Wi-Fi has become about as popular as organic pomegranate seeds simmered in a green tea reduction sitting on the biodegradable plate of a skinny jean-wearing twenty-something in a free-trade coffee shop that has “go green” bumper stickers on their Honda Fit, it seems that nobody is complaining about their high-speed internet bills anymore. Man, the trends in America are something else right now. I hope free Wi-Fi is one of those business tactics that ends up sticking, though.

Last random sidenote of this post: “organic” food needs to go. It hurts my wallet. And I’m sorry, but a “certified organic” lemon really tastes the same as a lemon that was for some reason not worthy of that title and is therefore half the price. I mean, really? Come on.

Fact of the matter is a lot of you are probably reading this blog for next to nothing. You could walk to a public library, log on the net, and read this for free. You can find news, interviews, opinion pieces, album reviews, and amazing photography in mere seconds with a few clicks of the mouse. No matter how hard magazines try, they just can’t keep up. Until magazines are putting out daily issues, much like a newspaper, the phrase “hot off the press” loses its significance. Hell, even newspapers seem like they’re having trouble keeping up with the immediacy that the citizens of developed countries have come to demand. People want to know what’s going on in that particular instant. By the time something like the Washington Post can print it, chances are that cnn.com has already run the story.

As technology progresses, we just get more and more impatient. And the internet just keeps on winning.

The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the writer and not necessarily those of HipHopDX.com or Cheri Media Group.

Loading Comments…

	June 2008
S	M	T	W	T	F	S
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30
« May					Jul »

Use these links on your blogs, messageboard posts, etc.
URL
HTML
BBCode

Your Name: (Required)
Friends Email Addresses: (Comma Seperated)
Message:
Verification Code:

© CHERI MEDIA GROUP All Rights Reserved
	Hip Hop Hip Hop News C & E Features Hitlist Release Dates Album Reviews Lyrics
	Community Blogs Message Board Chat Room DXNext Contests
	Media Audio Videos Mixtapes
	Lifestyle Features Parties & Pics Beauty & Brains Movies The Boondocks Video Games
	Fashion Features Men Women Toys
	Contact Us Intership Advertising Search Plugin Site Map Terms of Use Privacy Policy

Blogs

The Undisputed Truth

Internet Killed the Magazine Star

Share Blog Link

Loading Comments…

Enter verification code:

Note: Registered members are not required to verify posts. Click Here to register. Some BBcode and HTML may be stripped.