Ask the A.V. Club

Recently discovered The Onion's Ask the A.V. Club feature and I'm quite impressed with its high quality of answers. I enjoyed seeing some scholarship when they addressed (halfway down the page) the great question of who originally wrote that 'Chinese music' melody?. I gave the full research project a once-over and was happy to see that Rush was not ignored.

A later entry tackles the question of whether American Idol is bad for music and fields it as well as I can imagine. One thing I like about AI is how it give exposure to those who want to be exposed, freeing serious musicians from falling into that trap. I've also noticed that it may be helping make cover bands more acceptable as people realize that a rock/pop canon has formed and it's not so bad to see non-original artists performing it.