As seen on the web at We Want Media.
Bravo, SPIN. With a little flourish and some Klosterman karma, you fooled hundreds of bloggers into thinking that Axl Rose was finally going to deliver after 15 years with Chinese Democracy.
I admit I laughed pretty hard when I read that everyone’s favorite overweight, jersey-wearing 80’s icon finally got it together. Though there is some seed of truth to the pending rumors – there are quite a few demos for the album circulating the internet – no one called Rose’s publicity manager for comment. Instead, some blogs got excited. Some even had the connections to double-check, and didn’t. But when someone not blinded by the little halos around Axl’s cornrows noticed the April 1 review date, well, then all those breaking insider blogs sheepishly retracted their copy-paste claims.
Axl Rose 8, Blogosphere 0. (After all, this isn’t the first time.)
Though blogs are a primary source of gossip, with something so easy to check – like calling Rose’s reps or punching in the numbers of SPIN themselves – major mistakes (on April Fool’s Day, no less – for shame!) make it look like the blogosphere is just a bunch of talentless, unoriginal hacks who all crosslink to one person’s original (but completely false) material.
Oh, and did I get excited? No. I’m a GN’R fan for sure, but depending on Axl Rose to deliver a good album is like depending on Colin Powell to prove Iraq has weapons of mass destruction.
Welcome to the jungle, bloggers.
[We Want Media Andrew Nusca author page with 13 total posts]