Pop Music Notes

So remember that thing about the thing with the thing?

I have been putting pen to paper about music as long as I can remember. In art class, I tried my hand at an album cover. When I discovered the joy of countdown shows and charts, I kept a file box with index cards following the chart positions of every song. And if you’ve ever read this blog prior to today, you know where that love of expressing my opinion of music has taken me. Well, as of this week, I now get paid to write. It’s not enough to quit my day job, but it is still amazing to my mind to make money off of something I do for free in my spare time.

The new gig is with about.com, and I will be writing alongside Bill Lamb, whose Top 40/Pop blog I have been a fan of for several years. One of the first cool moments of recognition of this blog came when Bill linked to a post I made about Sara Bareilles’ “Gravity” video, and we’ve kept tabs on each other ever since. When the opportunity to write for about.com came along, I jumped right at it, and fortunately they decided I was a good fit. Where my focus here is a lack of focus, my area of writing at about.com will be on Adult Pop. If Susan Boyle has an album out (which she does this week), I’ll be all over it.

Fear not for the future of this here blog. My love of all forms of pop music will not be constrained, so I will still be posting here occasionally with the more personal posts that many of you have said you appreciate. My hope is the quality of those occasional posts will outweigh the lack of quantity. Now that I have a bit more clarity about my mission, writing for pleasure will become much easier to do. It sure doesn’t hurt that I am wrapping up my Masters degree after two years either.

I sit here a humbled man tonight. The last two and a half years have been a lot to bear, and yet I still have a life I would never trade. I love where I live, I have people I love who love me back, and I have music. There isn’t much more that I could ask for from this good life.