Looking back over close to three years of blogging, I’ve been struck by what kinds of blog posts attract the most comments from readers.
The posts that seem to compel by far the highest number of responses are the ones where I take an unpopular viewpoint on some element of popular culture. The barrage of feedback (some of it unpublishable!) I’ve received over the past few days following an entry I wrote about Britain’s Got Talent chanteuse Susan Boyle is a case in point. When I wrote in a similarly skeptical vein about the movie Mama Mia! last summer, I received an even greater volume of outburst from readers — and still receive occasional emails on the subject to this day.
Obviously, the high number of responses I have received to these posts can be attributed to a degree to the fact that both Boyle and Mama Mia! are part of pop culture and consumed by people all over the world.
I’m fascinated by the passion with which people have defended both subjects of my posts and I’m extremely happy to hear from all these avid music fans. I only wish that readers would engage as enthusiastically on other topics.
While I realize that live theatre and music performances are experienced by far smaller audiences than blockbuster summer movies and YouTube clips of prime time TV shows, it’d be great to receive similarly ardent messages from readers, telling me that they agreed or disagreed with what I wrote on a recent blog post about, say, countertenor David Daniels’ most recent appearance at the Herbst Theatre or Mark Jackson’s new play at Shotgun Players.
This doesn’t happen very often. Sad.