Bloggrass

For this entry I am going to review the internet presence of bluegrass music. I will discuss the presence of Australian bluegrass websites among international sites, along with blogs centred around bluegrass, and any definitions of the genre that I can find on these websites.

Australian bluegrass is represented primarily by two websites, www.bluegrass.org.au and www.australianbluegrass.com, which proclaims itself as THE Australian bluegrass blog. Both of these websites appear to be designed primarily for delivering the latest news of bluegrass events around Australia. www.bluegrass.org.au sports a calendar of upcoming events, of which users can add their own bluegrass related events, from festivals to instruments for sale, and this appears to be its main feature and use, otherwise providing only links to other related webpages and blogs. The single other major Australian bluegrass site, www.australianbluegrass.com, is also predominantly concerned with upcoming events and news, and also providing a well organized list of links and information for those new to the genre.

Outside of Australia, unsurprisingly regularly from America, bluegrass websites are more numerous. However, once again, these sites are primarily blogs, focusing on upcoming events, album releases and news updates, rarely providing definitions of bluegrass music. It appears the largest of these is www.theblugrassblog.com, an America-centred site which provides several updates a day, for those needing to know the latest from the bluegrass world. This website is similar to its Australian counterparts in being primarily concerned with recent bluegrass activity, as opposed to a history of the subculture. Only within the FAQ section of this site, however, is there any kind of information relating to cross-subcultural comparisons. The related question asks “How do you define what is and isn’t bluegrass?”, however they’re answer does not provide any open and shut conclusion, merely stating that they will, in all probability provide information on what some might not consider to be bluegrass. We are also provided with a few examples of music which may be contested as un-blugrass; predictably, country and folk are mentioned, but we are also given “old time” and “newgrass”, the former of which was mentioned in my first entry by Ralph Stanley, a definitive forefather of bluegrass, as he attempted to define his own music.

Ultimately, the most informative website on finding a definition of bluegrass style music was, dare I say it, Wikipedia. We are given a, however arguably unreliable, history of bluegrass and a rough guide to bluegrass instrumentation and vocal styles. All of the few references used with the article are also from book sources, citing no information gathered from the numerous internet sites based on the genre because, as I have discovered, these sites provide only news relating to bluegrass and little on the genre itself.

Maybe the lesson to be learned from this review of major local and international bluegrass sites is that this genre is centred around the live performance, the seeing-is-believing aspect, which bluegrass listeners may feel is needed for full appreciation. Once again, though not entirely unexpected, no clear definition of the bluegrass genre is attempted by any of these sites, which, as occurred in my previous entry, where I myself had issue with an attempted definition, is fraught with danger and contention.