For musicians, creating a brand for oneself is the most important factor in becoming a recognized and revered artist; the same goes for music writers. However, the art in music writing is a reaction, a gut feeling everyone gets when they listen to a song is put into words and hopefully understood by the reader. In a clogged market for music writers though, being able to define the way one feels about a song or album isn’t enough; you need to be able to define it quickly in an age where new music spreads across the internet at a stellar pace. It’s kind of petty but seems crucial that music writers know about the next big thing before everyone else does. It lends them credibility and in many cases is what defines a music writer’s career, allowing them to ascend in what is an incredibly competitive field. Take for example Seattle Times music writer Andrew Matson and Seattle hip-hop group Shabazz Palaces. Shabazz Palaces (pictured above) was and still is a relatively unknown hip-hop group from Seattle’s Central District. The group has no MySpace page, and were cloaked in mystery for much of their early existence. Matson was one of the first to publicly write about them and has championed the group ever since, even bestowing them the honor of his “Best Album of 2009”. Recently the group was discovered, in part due to some of his Twitter updates, by Larry Fitzmaurice of the mighty online music site Pitchfork. Matson immediately went to work blogging about blogging. A portion of which is below:
Online tastemaker Pitchfork bestowed the highest honor it affords individual tracks to Seattle's Shabazz Palaces today, blogging about the same song it did last week, "32 leaves dipped in blackness making clouds forming altered carbon" and labeling it "best new music." Check the post here.
Writer Larry Fitzmaurice calls it "eerie" and "super-promising," both of which are true, though I can't help but think about how Shabazz Palaces changed the face of Seattle hiphop and pop music in general last year. In general, Pitchfork is at or ahead of the curve in its field of cool-person's music journalism, but was obviously not targeted by Central District Shabazz star Ishmael Butler and his antipublicity publicity plan, his game of no games.
Last year, Shabazz was smoke, just a website, incredible music and a wish for complete anonymity. An article here and there and several blog posts later, the monumental January 2010 Seattle debut concert gave us a new hero. Seattle's already waiting for chapter two. Pitchfork just got past the title page.
Notice that Matson, while clearly happy he helped propel a group into Pitchfork, is also defensive and makes reference on multiple occasions that while Pitchfork is “ahead of the curve” they failed to notice what he feels (and on a personal note, I agree) is a genius piece of work. Not only did they not find it but he did. No one piece of music belongs to any one journalist but Matson clearly feels as though he’s entitled to some recognition for the group’s success. Understandably so, considering the more recognition and critical acclaim Shabazz Palaces music receives, the more credibility Matson (in theory) should earn, thus the more writing opportunities he stands to garner.
I spoke with Matson about this notion of championing a group or artist in order to brand oneself as a writer, a concept which he and other writers have implemented. “I guess I have a mini philosophy about it,” says Matson, “which is that I can't blog about everything, so that's how I narrow music down and also approach some amount of authority. It also creates a brand, and builds expectations for the type of thing I might blog about next.” He views this type of branding as essential to music writers trying to develop into anything successful. There are thousands upon thousands of amateur music writers on blogs and so forth with generalized opinions.
What separates him (and writers like him, including Andrew Nosnitsky, whom Matson says his style is inspired from) is he “picks artistically relevant acts and then follows their arcs.” Rather than just form an opinion on an act then move on to the next, Matson chooses to brand himself within the brand of the music he profiles, thus making him, in a sense, the expert on these acts. Branding yourself in the world of music journalism is the primary key for success in the post-print era. Sure, there are seemingly an infinite number of facets that go into achieving prosperity in this field, but branding oneself has proven crucial.
The realities of working in the field of music journalism cannot be overlooked. To start with the incentives, benefits include getting the chance to listen to a mass of new music on a regular basis and attend shows with the opportunity to gain access to the artists. Artists and labels are always looking for promotion, so invitations to parties and your name on the guest list are common occurrences. If music and writing about it are your passions, and it should be if this is your career path, this personal contact with new material and especially the artists themselves could prove to be highlights.
The profession also allows the music journalist to become a tastemaker of sorts. You can influence the public and have the authority as a writer to make the types of claims that would often go ignored in a common discussion with friends. It also provides opportunities to weigh in on the musical scene on the whole and hopefully influence the way people look at an entire genre. Matson, for example, writes about a lot of Northwest hip-hop, genre that includes many pre-conceived notions and a general lack of education. Matson has exposed many to not only new artists but at times a genre people didn’t even know they liked, all through good journalism.
Although the field of music journalism is highly competitive it is fairly easy to get your foot in the door if you have a solid writing foundation at your disposal (i.e. and English degree). UK freelance journalist and author Sean McManus explains: “The good thing about music journalism is that you don't need to compete on experience so much: if you can send some articles that fit a magazine's style and are fun to read, you stand a chance of getting in.” Thus, if you can write above average and can produce and send out enough pieces you stand a good chance of getting picked up by someone. The first step to this process is to fully immerse yourself in current music as well as from the past. Relevance and context are major factors when writing about music. It's hard to talk about how much you like LCD Soundsystem if you don't know Brian Eno, and a lack of knowledge on these subjects is a quick way to have your credibility questioned by your peers. The next step is to go to shows, become familiar with local acts who, for the most part, are more than eager to get any kind of media attention. I have a music blog and have been amazed at the way local artists are willing to provide access, either in the form of interviews or material to review. The next step is to write constantly. it might not start out great, but as time goes on it becomes more and more comfortable for those with solid writing skills.
However, the personal brand must be kept in mind. That’s not to say that as music writer you shouldn’t jump at any opportunity to get published but McManus even acknowledges creating a style for oneself: “It can be helpful to specialise in a type of music when writing for magazines…” One of the other major benefits of music writing is that the bulk of it is done by freelance, and while this has its drawbacks, which I’ll describe momentarily, it also provides a freedom to the writer. They can take other jobs, writing or otherwise to supplement their income and technically work for themselves allowing the type of personal freedom many other careers don’t offer. Most writing work is done online now as well, meaning, for the most part, music writers can work from anywhere they can take their laptop, providing even further freedom.
Now for the pitfalls, and this could take a bit. First and foremost, the money is not good and unless you get incredibly lucky, health insurance will be for you to pay. The figures per assignment change depending on length, topic, and whether or not the writer is freelance or on staff at a publication. Once again Andrew Matson discusses the realities of writing for a publication even the size of The Seattle Times: “I'm in a completely unique and mostly self-styled professional situation right now, and view that as a great success. but I am not well paid, and scared all the time, and view those as failures.” Here in lies the other massive problem with music journalism; it is cut-throat. It is a highly competitive field and has only gotten more so with the rise of the blogosphere.
Chris Weingarten, who is one of the elite freelance music writers in America, writing for Rollingstone.com, Village Voice, and Spin Magazine amongst others, takes strong issue with the rise of amateur music blogs as well as Twitter (mind you, he set a record for reviewing 1,000 records via Twitter last year and has gained a fair amount of notoriety for doing so). At The 140 Character Conference Weingarten described much of what he felt was destroying the realm of music writing: “The race to be first is the most ugly, insidious, fucked up ebola virus currently devouring music writing from the inside.” This references his distaste for the race to have information up first but not with quality and how these types of “firsties” articles are destroying the pieces that may have taken a few hours longer but would have been done with the proper aesthetics and meticulous reporting. It is important to stay current and be ahead of the curve as mentioned with Matson and Shabazz Palaces but it still needs to be done with skill and a level of artistry which Matson conveys but very few amateur writer’s focus on. “Insight and artistry are no longer an end goal, they’re an afterthought”, Weingarten says.
Weingarten goes on to describe the scenario which took place recently at Austin, TX’s famed SXSW festival in which AOL’s Spinner (the conglomerate’s music site) decided they were going to interview all 2,000 bands. Instead of hire professional music writers to handle the task, the site delegated the job to a bunch of college students for far less than a professional would have earned. The students did their job and turned in all 2,000 interviews. The problem was the questions they asked were uninformed and the responses were basic and boring in many cases; all topped off with the fact that one of the editors of the pieces questioned whether or not the students had passed “ninth grade”. Considering how many journalists cover SXSW (including Andrew Matson for one) one would assume these amateur write-ups would be nothing more than a small blip on a large radar. However, these Spinner interviews received the most hits out of all the SXSW coverage, and of course what do parent companies care about? Hits. It doesn’t matter to them if the quality of writing is good or not so long as they can sell advertising. Thus the quality is being pushed out of the field in favor of rapid quantity. (Weingarten)
Hard to blame Matson for using the word “scared”. It’s hard to find anyone in this field who can be referred to as un-expendable. Once again this leads back to the concept of branding. Matson and others have chosen to do this through the select acts they choose to profile while Weingarten’s anti blog/rapid-fire Twitter/amateur writing persona has built him a reputation which garners him constant work. Both acknowledge that their jobs are constantly threatened but Matson also acknowledges that he and others like him do have skills that have put them in the position they are in: “I think the writing is most important. I like taking photos and thinking about layout and uploading songs and knowing about mixtapes and twittering and twitpic-ing and Facebooking. I like all that bloggy stuff. But I know I was hired because I can write.”
This is the mentality those with English majors and a passion for music must remember if entering the field of music journalism. The skill of writing is the constant. In the technological era the format which music writers implement will invariably change, it is as we speak, and those who are in the game just because they can use this one piece of technology will be weeded out. However, good, educated, and well-informed writing will always be a necessary asset to those looking for music journalists.
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