Still music image

All my posts so far have been about music and video combinations and I thought it'd be good to look at something a little different this time around; Webcomics.

I like to look at webcomics as a kind of blog (well, many of them anyhow). There's a lot of social commentary and popular culture used as subject material for the comic strips and there are many that use music as a prominent theme. Two webcomics that spring to mind that often use musical subjects are Diesel Sweeties and Questionable Content.

Both of these comics discuss the culture and ideologies surrounding music (primarily 'indie' music, especially in in Questionable Content) in a way that could even be considered analytical, although the purpose each time is (at least superficially) to make a joke. It it clear that the writers of these comics have a good understanding of the 'scene' that they're lampooning as the humour stems from intelligent observations that both writer and reader would have to have some level of background knowledge to understand and appreciate.

From these comics as a whole, I've selected two specific strips that I think illustrate the level of thought that is involved in these works. One from Diesel Sweeties and one from Questionable Content. Both of these examples are commenting on the state of musical reception; 'coolness' if you will. They go beyond mere observation by proposing theories to maximise the potential popularity of the music by implementing certain situational elements that in some ways are actually quite philosophical. One is purely speculative while the other is impossible (unless someone has managed to travel back in time and kill Elvis?), yet both prompt interesting thoughts about the nature of musical popularity and how seemingly unrelated it sometimes is to the quality of the music itself.

I think that the use of comics and humour to discuss this is both appropriate and ironic, being that the discussion is about pop-culture and webcomics are exactly that. I don't think that simply writing an article would have the same impact that the comics are providing as the visuals supply additional points of interest that will help snatch the readers interest.