In the midst of the Black Kids’ over-hype meltdown, Idolator blasted the notion of “blogger-friendly hooks” as if such things don’t exist. But, if you reflect on the recent rise and fall of bloggerly hyped bands over the last two years, a rather clear sound/style emerges – bands like Tapes n’ Tapes and Voxtrot et al. (I realize these are rather old examples, but the most obvious that come to mind apart from the aforementioned Black Kids.) The sound is, more or less, white boy pop (to elaborate, pop primarily made by white boys and/or primarily enjoyed by white boys. Yes, I know that not only white people listen to the music. Yes, I know that not only white people make the music. Yes, I know that Black Kids are an obvious exception to this – but I’m thinking in terms of the largest portion of the listening demographic here, capiche?). This isn’t so much of a surprising thing, especially when you consider that a large percentage of music blogs (with the exception of this one! and some fine others) are, well, run by white boys. Let’s not waste time characterizing whether this is a “good” or “bad” thing – the point here is, it exists, and it exists rather clearly.

I mention this because I got an e-mail in my inbox today for a group that embodies, to me, what the blog-loved sound is all about these days: Murder Mystery.

Murder Mystery: “Love Astronaut” (download)

The name caught me, and I’ve been in a particularly patient mood, so I decided to listen, and the first thing that came to mind was, “the blogs are going to love this.*” It’s poppy, it’s mild, it’s cutesy, it’s fun. It’s not particularly offensive by way of weirdness or lack of ambition/talent. I checked on Hype Machine and Elbo.ws, and, sure enough… (keep in mind, the band’s first album doesn’t come out until January ’08, which is what the press release was about).

For this time only I’m going to waive my regular comments denoting good or bad and say simply this: a blog sound? yeah, it exists.

*yes, I know this is a blog.