How the Song Bar community was set adrift and inspired a revival
On September 1, 2005, music writer Dorian Lynskey started a weekly feature at The Guardian called Readers Recommend. He posted a topic on the Guardian’s music blog asking readers to recommend songs on that topic. The topic was Change. The initial post stayed active for two weeks and he sifted through the 438 responses and wrote a column published in the print as well as online edition highlighting ten of the nominated songs.
The feature was a huge hit and went through some changes over the years, culminating in volunteers from the online community picking the final playlist and writing the column, which was dropped from the print edition and became an online only feature.
Then at the end of 2015, The Guardian decided to discontinue Readers Recommend. Writer Peter Kimpton who had been writing weekly topic introductions wrote a final retrospective on Readers Recommend published on Dec. 31, 2015. He invited readers to note the songs that have inspired them over the years, zedded or not. And reflecting on the Guardian’s decision to end RR after ten year’s he wrote,
The past week has seen a tidal wave of feeling and articulate passion about this wonderful place of musical participation. I might be the doorman and landlord, but it is the readers who have made it, without any question, the best place on the internet. And how, recently, I have felt moved. How I’ve felt uplifted. My sorrow has been made sweet. I’ve felt a bit like George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life, staring into an icy river of despair only to discover the community rallying round to try and save the Building and Loan from a greedy banker and small-minded bureaucrat.
And rally they did. Letters to the management of The Guardian and so much more. That column generated 2414 responses and included a readers rebellion. Readers Recommend might be officially dead, but the readers would continue the tradition right there in that blog.
Did you know there were five columns published that were never officially published as part of Readers Recommend or the Song Bar? Five topics that were assigned over five weeks and readers responded. Five volunteers from the community wrote these informal columns over five weeks. Because the columns are all embedded within the 2414 responses to Peter’s column, they are a bit difficult to find, and often the playlists are spread over several posts separate from the columns. So I have recreated them all on The Marconium. The topics and their writers are in the table below. Note that all the topics related to the Guardian’s decision to discontinue Readers Recommend.
| Date | Topic | Writer | Reproduced Post | Original Post |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan. 14, 2016 | Survival | Declan Mills (angryirishpunk) | Column | Column |
| Jan. 21, 2016 | Limbo | Stephen Males (severin) | Column | Column |
| Jan. 28, 2016 | Rejection | AliMunday | Column | Column |
| Feb. 4, 2016 | Passage of Time | Sheila Deane (thoughtballoons) | Column | Column |
| Feb. 11, 2016 | Treachery & Betrayal | Sue Saxby (suzi) | Column | Column |
These five along with the rest of the RR community were trailblazers. They showed that they didn’t need the sanction of the Guardian to continue a beloved tradition.
The response of the community persuaded the Guardian to continue with the Readers Recommend feature which reappeared for the next topic, Overturning the Odds. But there were some provisos. Peter Kimpton was relieved of his duties as gatekeeper and introducer of new topics. The topic introductions became perfunctory and brief, not the rich textured intros Peter had been providing.
And the seeds of distrust had been sown. How long would it be before The Guardian once more decided to throw in the towel?
Peter launched his own independent website, the Song Bar, on Feb. 11, 2016. The topic was Moving On. The first guest guru was treefrogdemon.
For almost two years there were two communities of enthusiasts, one at the Guardian and one at the Song Bar. Some readers patronized both. Others stuck with one. Until the Guardian threw in the towel for good, the two coexisted, with the Song Bar column appearing on Wednesdays and the Guardian column on Thursdays. The last Readers Recommend column was published on August 2, 2018. But the Song Bar has endured and continues to this day. Thanks to the dedication of Peter and the Song Bar patrons.