Here’s a bit of surprising news: Bob Dylan has a blog. And it’s on MySpace—the very popular social network of friends, or people who call each other “friends”—where else? Modern times indeed.
If you go to myspace.com/bobdylan, something 1.7 million people have already done, you will be greeted by the sad, sharp sound of the blues guitar that opens “Thunder on The Mountain,” the first track of Dylan’s latest album, “Modern Times.” And if you stick around long enough, you’ll hear another song from that album. Wait around a little more, and you’ll hear a classic like “Mr. Tambourine Man.”
If you’re not sleepy and have no place you’re going to, scroll all the way down the page and check out what some of his 80,000-plus “friends” have to say. “cool! bob dylan is my friend,” wrote Melissa on April 19. “I lovvve your stuff. keep it up.” Four minutes later, she posted another comment: “do you really read this???”
Good question Melissa. Almost 15,000 comments have been posted on the site since it went up a year and a half ago, and it’s a safe bet that Dylan hasn’t read any of them. One reason to think so may be that he has never posted a blog entry. Well, there is actually one entry. A few weeks before Dylan’s latest album was released, Columbia Records posted an invitation to listening parties in cities like New York, San Francisco and Boston. “Winners will be notified via email.” Modern times indeed.
But don’t you want to find out what this guy Bob Dylan is all about? The “About” section in MySpace is where members usually post their biography or any other information they deem pertinent—in the loosest sense of the term. “All About Bob Dylan” is a six-paragraph press release where Columbia Records Chairman Steve Barnett is quoted as saying, “This is a staggering record by any standards, and is a major priority for our company, worldwide.”
Bellow the various advertisements for the new album is a video screen, on which baby faced Bobby (circa 1965) is wearing sunglasses and a black suit. Press play. It’s his latest video, “Thunder on The Mountain,” a collage of concert, studio and press conference footage from the mid-’60s to the present: Dylan in the back of a car with John Lennon in the ’60s, Dylan on stage in white makeup in the ’70s, Dylan at a jam session in a wide-shouldered suit in the ’80s, and so on. After every other music video there’s a 10-second commercial for Loreal, Puma or rare Dylan paraphernalia. And after six Dylan music videos, the tide changes—to videos by the Dixie Chicks, Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera. And so it goes.
So is this even a blog? Since Dylan has never posted a single comment, and blogs are supposed to be about communication, the answer has to be “No.” It’s a non-blog in blog’s clothing. Most likely, the human relations department at Columbia Records runs the site, which gives them the ability to reach a mostly young audience in a new way. It also gives them a chance to make the fans feel closer to their idol. It is, however, a triply false sense of proximity. When you first meet people, you cannot claim to know them (layer one). When you look at someone’s MySpace page, you cannot even claim to know a person (layer two). And finally, if you come across a MySpace page that’s not run by the person whom it’s about, then you cannot even claim to know that person’s MySpace page (layer three). Modern times indeed.
Supposedly, Dylan has always either avoided the press or provided interviews so confrontational or cryptic that some reporters wish he avoided them. Some of Dylan’s Socratically sarcastic exchanges with reporters in D.A. Pennebaker’s “Don’t Look Back” serve as prime examples. So the idea that he would just shed all that and chat freely on a blog seems ludicrous yet exciting. But after seeing it once, you’ve seen it all. There is no conversation here. No insight. No intimacy. No Dylan.
