ә‑ˈhm‑ē

Fans have always spread the word about their favourite music – now they spread the music, too. And despite gloomy predictions of the death of pop writing in an MP3 age, the word still matters: since attention is scarce, the fan’s passion and knowledge will always be crucial. Even so, it’s heartening that over the last couple of years a second strain of music blogging has thrived – where sharing music isn’t as important as sharing stories.

The facilitator for this has been blogging platform and social network Tumblr – beloved of teens, media outlets and smut peddlers for its easy image-posting and rapid turnover of content. Tumblr has its share of MP3 blogs but it’s also home to some of today’s most original, personal and funniest music-writing.