Friday, June 4, 2010
Music Journalism- By Devan Cook
To put it
simply: music journalism, or music criticism, is reporting about music. Critics
of popular music will often write album reviews, song reviews, concert reviews
and previews, band/artist profiles, music related news, etc. While music
journalism is most frequently associated with magazines like Rolling Stone and
Spin, music critiques can be found everywhere from local weeklies, television
broadcasts (this once included MTV, back
when the “M” actually stood for music), websites and blogs, and major
newspapers like the New York Times.
How does one get into the music journalism
field? Anyone who has seen the 2000-film Almost Famous knows the scenario: A
young, aspiring journalist with a passion for music is taken under Lester
Bang’s wing, gets “kidnapped” by his favorite big name band, tags along with
them on their cross country tour, and before he knows it, Rolling Stone is
calling.
And then there’s real life.
Unfortunately, most of us are not Cameron
Crowe. The path to becoming a music journalist requires a lot of time, skill,
and hard work, and even after landing the job, it isn’t always touring with
bands and writing Rolling Stone cover stories. In fact, MTV learned a tough
lesson when they made an attempt at airing a reality series about music
journalists in 2007: a lot of the job of being a journalist can be quite
boring. Countless hours spent transcribing interviews, doing online research,
and sleeping head down at a computer desk doesn’t exactly make for riveting
television. The MTV series titled “I’m
From Rolling Stone”, a reality series about six 20-somethings competing for
a 1-year contract as a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, tanked after just
one season.
Even if music journalism isn’t exactly the
fantasy one dreams of in youth, there are still many perks that make it a
rewarding career choice—at least if you are willing to settle for free concerts
and promotional CD’s as ‘benefits’ as opposed to a solid salary and a 401k
plan. According to stateuniversity.com, the average salary of a music
journalist in the United States is $43,000/year. However, a quote given from a
music editor at a major city’s largest alt-weekly, who has held the position
for three years was $27,000/year, a salary that had been decreased due to the
ever-growing newspaper industry crisis.
But back to the perks: Indeed, Music journalism
is a career for those with a strong passion for music. For those that love
music, having a job that not only allows, but requires you to listen to albums before they are released to the
general public, attend a multitude of concerts, and interview musicians can be
a highly rewarding career.
Music
journalists write a wide variety of music articles. A concert preview, often
seen in local weeklies, will give general information about the band/musician and
their musical genre/style, including comparable acts, and a personal analysis of
why readers should/shouldn’t see the act live. For concert reviews journalists
will often obtain a press pass to attend a show, then reflect on the show as a
whole, the setlist, specific moments of interest throughout the show, a
personal analysis of whether or not they liked the show and why, and the
audience reaction. Music journalists also write Q and A’s and artist profiles,
where the writer will sit down with an artist and either ask a series of
questions and write their responses in Q and A format, or write a profile piece
of creative non fiction, generally meant to dig deeper into the character and
music of the artist.
As the music
industry changes, so does the music journalism field. In fact, music
journalists are currently being hit with a double whammy: a music industry that
is changing rapidly and whose future is uncertain, as well as a newspaper and
magazine industry in peril. Because of these changes, many journalists are
finding themselves shifting towards the blogging and freelancing paths.
Freelancing can be a challenging way to financially support oneself as it does
not guarantee a steady workload, and because a freelancer generally does not
have a full time employer, most find themselves without benefits, salaries, or
health care plans.
Changes within
the music industry are also affecting the way music journalists write. While
album reviews were once a general standard, more and more artists are evolving into
“singles” artists, releasing one song at a time. Because of the emergence of a variety
of websites, both legal and non-legal-- where people can download or preview
music, often before it’s official release dates-- music journalists that work
for online publications or that have their own music blogs are also changing up
their material- frequently writing brief excerpts describing songs, albums, and
videos, then posting links and mp3’s of the music and minimizing their words
and allowing the general public to hear the music for themselves. According to
the Wikipedia entry for music journalism: “In the
2000s, online music bloggers are to some degree displacing newspaper and
magazine-based pop music critics.” There are many unknowns about the newspaper
and music industries at the moment, but most everyone is in agreeance that the
internet will be the most sustainable market for careers in both these fields.
Unlike many
other forms of journalism, music journalism tends to be more opinion-based
writing. There is often more leeway for creative non-fiction styling, opinion
based praise and criticism, a conversational writing tone, and other writing
techniques less traditionally utilized in the fields of journalism that cover
hard news, sports, science, etc. This can be both an advantage and a challenge.
While there is a freedom in using one’s own words, developing personal voice
and opinions can be challenging. Hard news or sports writing that relies heavily
on quotes, statistics, and facts can often prove to be simpler- and more
straightforward- to write. However, it can also become redundant, and the
freedom of creativity allowed to a music journalist, along with the variety of
article formats, be it a profile one day, a Q & A the next, can keep the
job feeling fresh and inspired.
So, what’s the
best way to go about researching music, and music journalism? Well, probably
the best bet would be to examine publications and writers that are already
established. Magazines like Paste and Wax Poetics are known for having a strong
sense of voice and identity, and each are focused in specific areas that help
make them authorities on their selected subjects. Paste focuses on Indie- Rock
and Alt-Country/Americana genres, while Wax Poetics is strongly centered on
African-American musicians in the genres of Hip Hop, Jazz, and Soul. In the
online world, pitchfork.com is one of the most popular sources for music
criticism. The website includes album reviews, song reviews, frequently updated
music news, and forecasts of upcoming singles. It is a multimedia site with
mp3’s, videos, and photos, and the formatting varies from article to article.
The website could almost be considered “interactive journalism” as nearly every
article contains links to other related articles, and/or videos and music,
allowing the reader to decide how much content they want to consume from each
piece.
There are many
well-established music journalists (both living and deceased) that stand alone
as household names as opposed to merely representatives of a select paper or
magazine. Some of the most famous music journalists include Lester Bangs,
Cameron Crowe, Greil Marcus, Chuck Klosterman, and Ellen Willis. Many of these
writers have expanded from journalism to other writing fields, such as Cameron
Crowe transitioning into film-writing, and Chuck Klosterman who has gained
commercial and critical success with his series of novels and non-fiction essay
collections of pop culture commentary.
A music
journalist must have applicable writing skills, as well as a vast knowledge of
popular music, both past and present. While a degree in writing, music, or
English may be helpful, degrees are not always required for music critic
positions (depending on the employer). A few different ways to begin work in
the music journalism field include starting a music blog, pitching articles to
websites, magazines, and newspapers as a freelance writer, or applying for
internships with a local paper or a desired employer in their music
departments. Almost all music journalists are going to start their careers with
some sort of unpaid work, be it working for themselves on their personal blog,
or working for someone else as an unpaid intern. While most music journalists
will have to hold a separate job (unless they are independently wealthy) in the
beginning of their writing careers, the experience acquired with blogs and
internships and even eventually freelancing gigs will help to build up a respectable
resume and portfolio that will (hopefully) eventually be presentable enough for
applying for full-time positions with major publications. Everybody’s got to
start somewhere, right?
In a sea of online
blogs and poorly written internship applications, an English major with a
background in writing holds a clear, strong advantage when it comes to the
music journalism field. Like most writing fields, employers are still looking
for someone who can write concisely, and eloquently, often with limited word
counts. While a knowledge and passion for music is important, equally important
are applicable writing skills.
Music journalism
is not a 9-5 style office job. As much of the job will be outside of the office
as within it, and the journalists often hold long and random hours. The same
music editor making the $27,000/year salary finds himself often working 60+
hour work weeks, between a full time schedule at the office of his publication,
many hours researching artists online and listening to their music outside the
office, and attending several concerts a week. Sometimes an artist is only free
for an interview after a show at 2 a.m. Sometimes said review will be due by
noon the next day. Music journalism is not a career for someone that lives,
eats, and sleeps according to a consistent daily routine.
Each year the
Experience Music Project in Seattle hosts the EMP Pop Conference, a three-day
conference consisting of presentations on music related topics by some of the
biggest musicians and music critics in the world. This is a conference well
worth checking out if one is interested in a career in music journalism. (A
link to the website is included below). For more information about music
journalism, as well as some excellent examples of music articles, websites,
books and magazines, I have included a list of links and other resources below.
Remember, if you
always aspired to be a rock star, but didn’t have the rhythm for drums, the
pipes for singing, or the feel for a guitar, as long as you’ve got writing
skills you can do the next best thing: criticize those that do.
Additional Links
and Resources:
Experience Music
Project Website:
Pitchfork
Website:
Wax Poetics
Website:
Article about
rock criticism from NY Times:
Books:
Electric Ladyland by Lisa L. Rhodes
The Da Capo Best
In Music Writing series.
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