First though, I realize that I have quoted Allmusic dozens of times through these posts and have never really said anything about who they are. In 1991, Michael Erlewine founded the All Music Guide as an Internet-based consumer guide; he later launched All Movies Guide and All Games Guide. The owners reported in 2011 that there were 3,000,000 unique visitors per month to the three sites. The music site – which has undergone several name changes: AMG, Allmusic, allmusic and back to Allmusic – has become a very popular resource. Michael Erlewine’s nephew, Stephen Thomas Erlewine later became a senior editor at Allmusic.
Michael Erlewine was active in the Michigan folk scene in the 1950’s and 1960’s; he hitchhiked with Bob Dylan in 1961 and made his way to Greenwich Village in New York and also to San Francisco.
In 1965, he and his brother formed a blues band called the Prime Movers; original bandmembers were Michael Erlewine (lead singer, harmonica), Dan Erlewine (lead guitar), Robert Sheff (keyboards), Robert Vinopal (bass), and Michael “Spider” Wynn (drums). After Wynn left the band, he was replaced by James Osterberg. A few years later, Osterberg began performing as Iggy Pop; and under this name, he founded the proto-punk band the Stooges. His nickname was due to Osterberg’s serving as the drummer for another Michigan band called the Iguanas.
What I have found about most Internet music sites is that they are mostly geared toward modern music and don’t help me very much. Even Rolling Stone only goes back to 1967; the Rolling Stone Record Guide that I had pre-Katrina covered only albums in print except for the biggest artists. Allmusic truly tries to cover everything, though some of the UARB’s and UARA’s don’t show up in their database. Generally speaking, Allmusic has more bands and artists than Wikipedia, though some bands with a big write-up in Wikipedia have almost nothing in Allmusic.
