Blogging Global Music

As music evolves, so does the way we discover it. In the '40s and '50s, radio DJ’s and jukeboxes introduced new tunes to the masses. Magazines like Creem and Rolling Stone hit their stride in the late '60s and '70s. They introduced a journalistic edge, championing new bands with longform interviews and provocative photographs. In the eighties, video killed the radio star with the ascendancy of MTV. Nowadays, commercial radio rotates the same 100 songs, and you’d be hard pressed to find music on MTV.

In the past decade, the Internet became the place to discover new bands. Musicians like Lily Allen or Clap Your Hands Say Yeah attribute their fame to MySpace and music bloggers. Music blogs develop cache by spreading the word on emerging artists.

Last year, Jason Cranwell started a blog called The Pop Cop to showcase Scotland’s music scene. Now he’s taking it a step forward. He’s asked each of his favorite foreign music bloggers to contribute a song by an artist from their own countries, which will then be posted on all of their Websites. It's a kind of cross-pollination he calls "The Music Alliance Pact." Jason Cranwell joins us now from Glasgow.