I would say that I finished the decade strongly, in my personal life, but most of that is thanks to this blog. Thanks to my love of classic rock I’ve got to meet and talk to so many cool people around the world and it’s very true that when you write about something you’re passionate about, it really shows and it’s magnetic. Even if people aren’t the biggest fans of classic rock, they still love to see a light of positivity and happiness when someone is talking about what they love.

The Diversity of Classic Rock continues to grow and the views are getting higher and higher. I know that views aren’t everything and you shouldn’t rely on them for your self esteem and validation, but it feels great to know that I have this much of an impact. I like to think of people viewing my blog in some analogies, even when the number itself doesn’t sound like such a flex to others.

• 10 people looking at a blog post doesn’t sound like a lot, but that’s about as many people as I’d invite to a party I’m hosting.
• 20 people are a classroom
• 50 people are a small college class
• 100 people fill up a decent sized lecture hall
• 200 people are a large wedding
• 500 people was the size of my graduating class
• 1,200 people is about the size of my dad’s secondary school graduating class – one of the largest in the country in that year
• 5,000 people is more than a lot of towns’ populations.
• 49,000 people is a large university

The Diversity of Classic Rock in Numbers

I may have failed grade 9 maths twice, but I still think I’m a bit of a numbers geek because numbers and statistics fascinate me. So taken straight from my statistics page on WordPress, I’ll share some numbers that stood out to me.

• The most prolific year at 83 posts published
• 200,000+ words written – That’s four NaNoWriMos worth of words
• A record breaking 455 views on 27 December 2019
• 7,800 views in June 2019
• 20,000+ views on the original LGBT Musicians of the 60s-80s post
• An international following with readers from 159 different countries
• Top 10 countries most viewed in:
  • USA
  • UK
  • Canada
  • Australia
  • Ireland
  • Germany
  • Brazil
  • India
  • France
  • Italy
• 49,488 referrals from search engines and 2,447 from social media
• As of writing this post: 67,691 views total in 2019
• As of writing this post: 49,058 unique visitors
• Average of 185 daily views

In case you missed it:

• The most viewed new post: Vegetarians and Vegans in Classic Rock
• New series:
  • Remastered: Black Classic Rock Musicians
  • Musicians Who Got Ripped off By Record Labels
  • Classic Rock Songs About Space
  • What I’ve Been Listening To
  • Musicians Who Made It After 25
• I interviewed 16 people including: Electric Looking Glass, Devyn Crimson, James Kennedy, Aimée Steven, Toria Wooff, Peaches in Honey, Suzan Köcher, Jim Curtis, Aly Cook, and more!
• Travel posts: Prague, Krakow, London, Manchester, and Liverpool.

Reflecting on this

This year has been a year of me reaching out and going full steam ahead with this blog: making contacts, talking to people, networking, researching and brainstorming new ideas, and always learning new things about classic rock. I have lots of plans for next year and I can’t wait to share these posts with you. It’s hard to believe that the 60s will have been 60 years ago, 70s will have been 50 years ago, 80s will have been 40 years ago, and the 90s will have been 30 years ago. This means that I have no excuses. I’ll have to broaden my horizons and get into the 90s and write about it.

What’s next for the blog? I’m hoping for more interviews and reviews, a brand new series that will be a fun way of getting into deep cuts from your favourite classic rock bands, and more travels! The ultimate goal for me is to turn this blog into a book with illustrations since I’m a firm believer that there is nothing like having a physical copy. Digital is nice because it’s more eco friendly and it spreads more quickly, but a physical book or record is special. It’s a conversation piece, something that looks cool on a shelf, easier on the eyes, and something tangible that I can hold and say: “I did this!”

2020 (less than) 24 hours to go!

Let’s end this post with a throwback video from 40 years ago: When members of the Sex Pistols and Thin Lizzy got together and said goodbye to 1979 and hello to 1980

Happy New Year from The Diversity of Classic Rock!

Shoutout to my friends Patrick and Matt for supporting the blog.

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