End of the Bled

For a presentation on photo manipulation for Comms 101, I used the Blender cover featuring a composite photo of Britney Spears at the height of her meltdown to showcase the use of obviously fake photos to present a point. Besides the composite photo disclaimer, the cover tag line asked the question on everyone's minds concerning the princess of pop: How Will It End? Ironically, Britney Spears is still going strong while Blender has announced its own demise.

After fifteen year, the music magazine will be publishing their last issue hitting news stands next month. Contributor Robert Christgau compared Blender as a Hyundai trying to be a sports car to Rolling Stones' Cadillac and while those comparisons are fair, Blender will be missed. Their infatuation with lists was a bit over the top, but, to be fair, lists are the bomb (especially year end ones).

Carl Wilson expressed his surprise commenting, "The shocking part is that I had figured Blender was the most commercially savvy one in the music-magazine market - they built their business on photos (especially of scantily clad pop starlets), best-ever/worst-ever/most-outrageous sorts of lists, titillation and trivia, backed up for credibility with a review section full of some of the best working music writers struggling (for a good paycheque) to squeeze wit and insight into tiny little capsule reviews. I hated its glibnesss, but it wasn't snobby - it was pro-pop, pro-hip-hop and pro-indie all at once - and it certainly seemed saleable; if even they can't survive, I'm not sure there really is a music magazine market. Curiously, a lot of the more niche-oriented publications - rap magazines and metal magazines in particular - seem to be doing well still, when I thought they'd probably be the most easily displaced by fan sites and blogs. Perhaps cliqueishness (and even snobbishness) is actually a safer marketing bet?"

Rest in peace Blender. You will be missed.