My music-heavy Twitter feed sang a mournful goodbye to a dear friend last night as Maura Johnston logged her last post at Idolator. “Just wanted to let you know that today is my last day as editor of Idolator,” she wrote. “The site will continue on, and I will continue to write about music, but we’ve decided to part ways.” The URL may remain, but it will never be the same mighty blog it was with Maura at the helm.

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While doing my daily rounds of blog-surfing yesterday, I came across a stale crumb from the ’90s that I thought had died for forever: the Backstreet Boys. The boys of BSB have pried themselves out of the peaceful hammock of marriage and rehab to punch out a new single… and (maybe this is just the Generation Y nostalgia talking) it’s good. Who would have thought that the Backstreet Boys could stand the test of time? Read More »

“There are two artists mentioned in the entire piece — both of whom probably wouldn’t have made as much money off their in-game presence were it not for that dadgum music industry.”

- Idolator’s Maura Johnston in a rant post entitled “Why Tech Pundits Should Just Shut Up About The Music Business And Maybe Do Some Research For Once In Their Lives.” The fact that she uses the word “dadgum” makes her our favorite person of the day — perhaps even week. It’s just too early to tell.

Despite last week’s glut of CMJ coverage on music blogs (we’ve done it too in past lives), the most pressing question went virtually unasked: does anyone actually care about this industry conference outside of New York?

Sure, next to its BBQ-obsessed brethren SOUTH BY SOUTHWEST, CMJ is pretty much the biggest game in existence, but that doesn’t mean much in the real world.

Our friends at Idolator (who, ironically, devoted a number of posts to the event) contend that the “breathless commentary…doesn’t mean much to those outside your particular favorite coastal metropolis.”

After the jump, why we think that they’re wrong.
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