In his sparse free time , sophomore English major and Ross Commons Co-Chair Patrick D’Arcy busies himself as the primary writer of music blog Kickin’ the Peanuts (KTP). With 10-15,000 unique hits a day, KTP is distinguished as one of the more prominent blogs on the Web, often listed in the “Most Popular” posts of music blog aggregators. D’Arcy talked with The Campus and revealed how he does it.
Middlebury Campus: What is Kickin’ the Peanuts?
Patrick D’Arcy: I like to think of KTP as a music blog of all genres. I post music from the musical libraries of characters from [Charles Schultz’ comic] Peanuts. Each character has his own music taste — for instance, Snoopy is really into electronic music and DJing; Lucy, she’s kind of snarky and as Charlie Brown’s nemesis, is into mainstream pop and dance; Linus is an acoustic indie soul and Woodstock is into hip-hop and rap. A format like this works great for me because my own taste in music isn’t really definable, I’m all over the place and like everything — this way I can post whatever I want. It also means that I end up with a pretty diverse readership, because the music I post is so diverse, which is cool.
MC: Can you describe how KTP came into existence?
PD: I had been reading a ton of music blogs for a while and I thought it would be something cool to do — I love writing and I love music. I started it in January of 2008 with one of my friends from high school and it’s kind of just taken off from there. There are a million music blogs out there and when we were thinking what we wanted ours to be like, we wanted something that would immediately set it apart from the other blogs, because as a music blog it’s really easy to get lost. We gave KTP the Peanuts theme and made it a multi-genre blog — you actually don’t see too many of those — to make it a little more memorable.
MC: How has it grown since its creation?
PD: It’s undergone two renovations — we’ve changed its layout twice, and it’s gotten a little funkier with each renovation; we’ve started selling advertising and readership has grown. I’ve kind of moved away from strictly adhering to the Peanuts characters’ music tastes too; the stripe on the web site is an inverted Charlie-Brown-stripe now, with purple, but it’s obviously still one of the fundamental parts of the blog.
MC: How do you manage to keep up with a quickly changing music scene as well as a full course load?
PD: I have a few music blogs that I go to every morning right after I wake up and download the music that they’re writing about and posting. Starting my day with music that way makes it pretty easy for me to keep up. Sometimes it gets really overwhelming, just because of the amount of music and information about music that exists out there, so for Kickin’ the Peanuts, I actually try not to post too much. I want to be a kind of filter for people. I know I could post 50 times a day, as a lot of the most popular blogs do, but the blogs I really like to read, filter and prioritize for me, so that’s what I try to do too.
MC: Has KTP opened any related doors for you?
PD: One cool idea that I’ve had for a next step is a kind of “boutique” record label. A music blog is a great platform for artists who are unexposed to get their music out there — it’s really the way to make a name for yourself today. It’s not unheard of for a music blog to start promoting an artist they feel really strongly about by selling a debut single or EP from the band. That’s something I’m interested in pursuing next. I’ve talked to Peter [Coccoma ’12], Sam [Wyer ’12] and Ava [Kerr ’12] in the Middlebury band Ava and the Gardeners about starting something with them. They have a sound I believe in so much and a sound I believe could really take off with the right type of promotion and exposure.
I also have so much music that DJing is something I’d like to get more into. I’ve done it a few times, and while I’m not really sure what I’m doing, I know how to use iTunes and it’s fun to play music for people who want to dance. I love to dance, too.
MC: What are some artists you’re currently listening to?
PD: I just got the new Beach House album the other day, which is amazing. It’ll most likely be one of those albums on everyone’s 2010 lists. The song that just came on in here is equally divine [Taylor Swift, “You Belong With Me”]. I was a big fan of the La Roux album [s/t] last year, and Phoenix obviously and St. Vincent. I’ll always love Rihanna. And [Nancy Ajram’s] “Mashi Haddi” was the best song of 2009, I’ll say it. I actually posted a list of my 100 favorite songs of 2009, which is currently up on Kickin’ the Peanuts.
MC: What’s your advice to someone who wants to learn more about music?
PD: Just spending time on blogs is a great way to find out more about what’s going on in the music world. Go to Kickin’ the Peanuts! The music industry is in a really interesting place right now, and blogs are becoming more ubiquitous and powerful as people start to rely on the Internet as the sole place to find out about music. Because blogs have become so influential on consumers of music, it’s really becoming up to blogs to define what the music industry is going to look like in the future, and no one is really sure of that right now. We have a big responsibility as bloggers, and it’s a bit of a paradox because we might be bringing down the industry that we live for. It will be interesting to see how blogs live up to their responsibility. I haven’t exactly figured it out yet.
Visit the blog at http://www.kickinthepeanuts.com.
Spotlight on... - 1/14/10
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