2012 Best Street Art Blog - MELROSEandFAIRFAX (#1 in the USA - #3 in the World!)

All the hard work put into running the blog paid off this year, and the award for Best Street Art Blog in the USA goes to MELROSEandFAIRFAX!  While 'Best' might be subjective, M&F is objectively ranked the #1 street art blog in the USA, and # 3 in the entire world!~

This is a HUGE victory for the little guy.  Its like David and Goliath.  This is like Hoosiers when the little guy wins an unlikely victory against giants.  The rankings show that M&F has championed a local community, and how the street art in one neighborhood can draw more online traffic than the biggest names painting the largest walls in the world!  

The reason for our success is that M&F takes a lot of pride in being the most 'street' of any street art blog anywhere.  Other sites feature the biggest name artists in the world, which is great and necessary for the genre to progress.  What other blogs do is awesome.  This isn't a competition and props to all the blogs out there documenting the scene. The other blogs holding it down all over the world do an amazing job and and we love to check them for that very reason, to see what the biggest names in the world are doing.  But M&F's recipe for success is unique.  Instead of chasing the big names around the world, M&F has chosen to focus on what we believe street art is about, a local focus on the neighborhood streets.  When we started this blog, we never imagined that it's online presence could compete with all the amazing street art blogs in the world, and we never intended it to.  M&F started with a simple goal to attempt to document the ever changing action on the streets, and try to capture street art before it disappeared.   

When M&F started there was no one else focusing on local street art the way we do.  In the relatively short time that this blog has been running, things have changed dramatically in terms of coverage on the streets.  Social media sites like Twitter and Instagram have allowed anyone and everyone to start capturing and sharing street art finds.  It is extremely unusual that M&F has been able to build itself up to the stature we have achieved, even though we have essentially neglected social media.  

So why has M&F been so successful?  We believe that it is because readers love to follow the action of the streets.  M&F is based in Hollywood, and the action on the streets is like an ongoing mini-series.  And M&F doesn't just post a picture, we tell the storyline.  

Its not just the drama, but after spending so much time on the streets M&F is tapped to the pulse of what is happening, and we have accurately forecast the general direction of the street art movement.  For instance, even last year when street art was still boiling at a feverish pitch, M&F accurately predicted that street art had peaked and there would be a let down this year.  2012 was the morning after to 2011's wild run in Los Angeles.  That said, 2012 was a great year for street art in Los Angeles.  The scene was very active but much more relaxed than the crazy swirling hype which surrounded street art in 2011.  The hype toned down, and perhaps the art slowed down, but everything is relative, and a 'slow' year in LA is still booming.  

M&F's 2013 prediction is that street art will continue to grow and develop in every country around the globe and this genre will eventually be recognized as the largest art movement the world has ever experienced.  Right now, relatively speaking, things have calmed down.  Street art is still hot within its own scene, but it does not have the same hold on the mainstream mind.  This is the lull before the next big boom.  Street art will blow up again, and when it does, just like the artists who put in the work before the boom, people like Banksy and Shepard Fairey, are looked up to as the founders and pioneers of the movement.  We predict that the ground work is being set now, and the next time street art gets huge, the artists who are putting in work now will reap the rewards and be seen by the future generations as the forefathers of the movement.   

BIG thanks to all the artists and fans in Los Angeles who have contributed to the art, the scene, and the success of this blog.  We love you.  Stay up!

Check out more of 2012's Best of LA Street Art:

Best Street Art Pieces 2012 for the Huffington Post

Best Sticker Artist of the Year

Best Graffiti Artist of the Year

Best Street Artist of the Year

And click the jump for full Street Art Blog Stats:

According to Alexa's Online Web Statistics on 12/31/12.

                                               World Ranking           USA Ranking

Wooster Collective                  223,800                      76,351

Unurth                                    343,619                      N/A (listed in the Netherlands)

MELROSEandFAIRFAX          422,198                      59,646  

StreetArtNews                        487,319                      214,969

Vandalog                                491,436                      280,287

Brooklyn Street Art                  529,554                      384,147

Streetsy                                 5,045,778                   N/A

It might not last, but we are going to enjoy it while the moment is here.  Go tell your mom that M&F is #1.  We are gonna put it in our pipes and smoke it~  Stay Up, Los Angeles!