yet another new beginning...

and here we are again. back were it all began. and ended. twice.

i struggle even now to rationalize why this blog has been not only frustratingly sporadic, but nomadic, bouncing to and from numerous host services with barely a post a week on average to keep it current. could be that this summer, like so many before it, has all but swallowed me whole? maybe. could it be that i simply have nothing interesting to say? i certainly hope not.

above all other possible excuses, i choose to believe that pop that rocks has suffered from a lack of focus, resulting in my lack of interest. for a brief time (okay, a month or three), i've been finding myself dissatisfied with where i've been taking things. i've spent a good deal of the last couple of weeks trying to think of how (if?) i want to continue with things on here. until now, i spent so much time catering to what i thought the average reader wanted to see or hear that i neglected what i wanted to say. why i originally began this little adventure in the first place...


music.

i began this blog because of my love for music and how it permeates and brightens my daily life. i began this blog because i wanted to share that love with other like-minded individuals who constantly waste way too much time at work researching and downloading new bands and emptying their bank accounts on records and concerts. it is for that love and that purpose that i am determined to continue with this blog, to make it better and more inviting than others if not exactly the most popular. with that in mind, here are some key decisions i've made with the parallel if not exactly new direction i plan to take pop that rocks.

1. obviously, i've returned to my original home of blogger to continue with this adventure. we've had our differences in the past but i always felt that wordpress and i were never a good fit. its somewhat more rigid publishing parameters often made me feel as if i was leasing a space rather than owning it.
   
   
2. rather than constantly focusing on news in the music world that you're no doubt already finding elsewhere at least an hour or two before i do, i've elected to start focusing again on what i feel i do best - reviews. you will see more in-depth opinions of the albums and songs that i come to love and despise, and hopefully those opinions will lead you to discover and try new things, which leads to my next point...
   
   
3. new music. i feel like my focus has slanted too far towards established artists, or at least artists that people are already hearing. i still plan to talk about many of those artists here, but i feel i owe it to myself and my future readership to broaden my horizons. i plan on holding myself to a minimum one post a day dedicated to a new artist. my soundcloud drop box is still active and functional, as is the pop that rocks email address. if you're an artist looking for some kind of exposure, send your stuff my way. if you're just a fan of something or someone new that you've happened upon, spill. i'm a little backlogged in my mailbox at the moment, but i am making progress and i promise that your stuff will get listened to and written about in some form or another.
   
   
4. i still like to do the occasional feature post, something a little extra and unique to this blog. my first impression reviews will still be in play, and i have a few other ideas rolling around in my head for other recurring columns that i think people might enjoy reading. if you have any ideas yourself for what would make a cool column on here, don't hesitate to bring it my way. in fact, this leads into my final and maybe most important decision...
   
   
5. i'm taking pop that rocks public, baby! well, not exactly, but i am inviting other friends and music fans on board to contribute basically whatever they want, be it reviews, mp3s, or any other awesome idea. above all else, enjoying music should be a social activity, and i hope this decision will emphasize that point.

and there you have it. will this new incarnation of a fledgling music blog last any longer than the versions that came before it? who knows. all i can do is dive back in, try hard and hope for the best. i have a good feeling about things this time though and hopefully that feeling will become contagious to all who read this. i know that's not that many people, but that can always change, right?

sorry to make this so long. i'm still going through mail and brainstorming with friends on what and how to post here. but my goal is for the quantity of posts to gradually move back up through the rest of this month and then launch in earnest in september. hope you can hold out until then. if you've held out to the end of this post, it shouldn't be too hard :)