Rolling Music Writers' Thread

I really don't like contrarian pieces. They break a fundamental rule for me -- they are disingenuous for the most part. I don't think music is a sacred cow, but I'd much rather someone approach a music piece intelligently and coherently than driven by passionate, disjointed drivel

Good writing justifies itself. Your second sentence contradicts the first.

otm

I’ve got some good advice, but, like Albert Brooks says in Lost in America, please, keep this quiet--you don’t want any other would-be rock critics stealing it.

Get yourself a non-writing job that pays pretty well, so you’ll be fine even if you never earn a cent from writing. You don’t want to have to jump through hoops for anyone, and when a certain kind of editor knows you need the money, you’ll have to.

Don’t try to convince anyone of anything. Propose your idea, and if they don’t want it, move on and never try a second time. Their loss, not yours--you don’t need the money, so no big deal.

This approach does have drawbacks. Chief among them is that you’ll get old and die and not get published. If you’re okay with that, it’s a very good system.

one of my personal guidelines is to try not to assume the reader agrees with me, which i feel like a lot of music writing does -- obviously you can start with a baseline of something not too controversial like "the beatles/insert canonical artist here was good/important" but often the first paragraph stakes everything on some loaded premise that not even half the readership is going to be on board with. if you free yourself of that, it becomes a lot easier to express an opinion that isn't conventional wisdom without having to locate yourself on the 'contrarian' (or troll) spectrum.

i like that advice, some dude

If you're going to use "we," make sure you're at least a baron, and always include a mugshot of yourself wearing ermine or gold.

Kael showed how to effectively assume the agreement of the reader. e.g.

We generally become interested in movies because we enjoy them and what we enjoy them for has little to do with what we think of as art. The movies we respond to, even in childhood, don’t have the same values as the official culture supported at school and in the middle-class home.

It isn't that she really thinks her readers agree with her, but arrogating that assumption is a nice way of taking a strong tone, saying "You should agree with this."

that's a v good point. i most enjoy and respect criticism that clearly articulates a position, a point of view. i generally dislike the pose of reportorial objectivity, preferring criticism that explicitly situate its responses in a specific and personal framework. speaking in terms of "i" is self-isolating, but kael's arrogating (and perhaps arrogant) "we" risks the alienation of those who disagree. she did it well. most do not.

^ ...criticism that situates its responses...

Yeah, most don't, and it might actually be a bit old-fashioned. Maybe we only tolerate it from her because we have double standards about past writers.

overuse of the 1st person plural is such a bugbear of mine atm

esp when accompanied by waffle about ~the modern condition~ and, like, laptops

Alfred: Re Phil Collins? Yes, in the UK, imo. This is a general observation and wouldn't apply to writers who know their stuff like DL or Unperson or whoever but I've heard writers, even relatively recently say, 'LOL rappers/R&B singers like Phil Collins.' Now this is dumb on numerous levels, mainly it's because - Homer Simpson style - they're imagining Timbaland sitting in a jacuzzi singing along to 'You Can't Hurry Love' wearing an 'I <3 Phil Collins' T-shirt and not someone appreciating gated reverb on drums as a great production technique or the really expensive sound of his synth production or the potential for sampling on his records (I'm sure some people in these genres straight up just love Phil Collins jams... and why not, I love 'Mama' for example but I'm sure that's the exception not the rule). The worst thing is, you can't even call this rockism, it's just straight up ignorance because at least a rockist scientist would know that Brand X were a rated fusion band, that Phil Collins played on some amazing albums by Brian Eno and Peter Gabriel (not to mention early Genesis in general). But when you've got a magazine like NME that literally only covers new indie and has rules preventing writers from referencing bands and artists (apart from the obvious Beatles/Stones axis) from before a decade or so earlier where is the impetus for young writers to do research? This knowledge is of no use to them. My biggest bugbear is journalistic laziness though. Collins is probably not what you'd call a nice man, or at least, I certainly wouldn't want to spend any time with him. However, this doesn't necessarily mean that he divorced his wife by fax. Not only is this legal nonsense, any amount of research will show that this story came from the front page of the UK tabloid The Sun - a completely discredited source that should be discounted or mistrusted by anyone with journalistic training. But again when magazines don't care for their writers - they have a duty to give writers without formal journalistic training the tools to do the job properly - then what do you expect? You end up with people repeating two facts about him: divorced his wife by fax and said he'd leave the UK if labour stayed in power - only one of which is true, and precious little knowledge about the stuff they should know about, the music. So yeah, as much as I rail against boomer canonical magazines, at least, some of them, American ones especially, know their history. I don't feel you can criticise this stuff without at least knowing something about it.

Also, I don't want to state the obvious but if you know a magazine hates Imagine Dragons or Lumineers or whatever and you're cold pitching to them for the first time with positive feature ideas on those bands? This is a really bad strategy as it suggests you don't read the publication. Why not save that for your third or fourth pitch after you've started to get work at the title.

I read all pitches that are sent to me - literally all of them and there are tons of them - and sometimes a contrarian pitch out of nowhere really catches my imagination but most of the time they're not suggesting anything that interesting and in some cases they're noticeably passive aggressive in their hurt tone about my cruel treatment of, say, Foxygen or whatever.

You've got to remember that taking on a new writer is an investment of time for any editor. The person is completely untried, the cutting they've sent in could have been almost completely rewritten by that magazine's editor. There's no real guarantee of quality from someone you don't know so it's a doubly hard sell when they're asking to write about a band that you really don't like.

As several people - who know what they're talking about - have said upthread: come up with good ideas. They're like rocking horse shit. If you hit an editor with good ideas (in my experience) you will be laughing. 'Why Imagine Dragons Are A Great Band' is not a good idea... 'What The Different Styles Cop Show Themes Are Recorded In Tell You About The Programme' or 'A Short History Of Every Song That Has Been Played By An Astronaut In Space' or 'Varg Vikernes' Secret Past As An EPMD Fan' or 'Why Imagine Dragons Were Predicted By Nostradamus' are good feature ideas.

One thing that very, very rarely works … telling an editor they have to use you because they are old and dead and out of touch and you are young and vibrant and the future. A surprising number of people try it. You have to have written a very funny covering note, and hope the editor is in an extraordinarily good mood, on a day when every single thing has gone right, to have any joy with that.

I'd like to think no one older than about 17 would ever do that. Though I doubt that's the case.

if you know a magazine hates Imagine Dragons or Lumineers or whatever and you're cold pitching to them for the first time with positive feature ideas on those bands?

Magazines/websites should not hold party lines on any band (ex. the obv Skrewdriver etc), they should be open to good writing on any band even if they are normally critical whipping boys

i don't think that's how professional publications work

XP: Yeah, and I should get paid for every piece of writing that I do at a rate per word that's gone up noticeably in the last 25 years but I don't. I just wrote a piece on a feminist Egyptian film maker documenting an underground revolutionary dance scene in Cairo. It's gone up on my site because no one will pay for it. In an extremely abstract way I think this is wrong and that NME or Q should give me a decent amount of money and cover my travel expenses, instead of me having to save up for ages so I can pay to do my own job but I'm not upset about it - it's just the way things are. So you can either deal with what things are like and get work or sit round complaining about what they should be like and not get work. There are enough threads on ILM about how rubbish the music press is, I was under the impression this thread was different and about practical advice.

And, as I said, quite clearly, I am open to good writing on any band but I'd sooner give that kind of work to a trusted scribe. If you are cold calling as a first time writer how do I know you're going to provide good copy? More often than not people sending these kinds of pitches in are indulging in immature passive aggressiveness: "I want to work at your magazine - here's why I don't like it."

I'd recommend telling them to move to London, meet a few friends who're cooler than yourselves, then bam, you'll end up writing for Vice like me.

I've never been paid for anything, which sucks a bit after doing music writing nearly week in week out for four years now.

*yourself

i think it's very important for people to ask themselves why they want to do something, regularly

NV otm.

I don't pitch pieces or hustle but I imagine it's pretty stressful. Writing pieces can be stressful. Sending pieces for review is stressful. Seeing them published and having dozens of people telling you that you are a idiot for liking x, y or z is stressful. It's also fun and rewarding but doing it every day and knowing my financial security depended on it would be too much.

I accidentally wound up writing for money after being approached by a publication whose message board I posted on. It's possibly an underrated way of getting your ideas, tone and style seen by editors.

xpost A former ILX regular once used that very tactic with me, Nick.

I can probably guess who.

https://twitter.com/Spinner/status/327858136218206208
https://twitter.com/Spinner/status/327858952425574401

what was it?

(tweets gone now)

aol shut down spinner effective today

And AOL Music in general, it seems.

Say I have what I think is a good idea for a profile piece. However, I'm an untrusted scribe. If I pitch the idea to an editor and they like it, wouldn't they just say "yes, good idea" and then commission one of their trusted scribes to write it? Alternatively, should I go ahead and write the piece and then submit it in full? If I do that, though, I wouldn't be able to say to the subject of the profile that I was writing about them for such-and-such a magazine.

http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/214774/spin-lets-its-editor-in-chief-go

Ouch.

http://crumbler.tumblr.com/post/87321590093/the-oral-history-of-music-tumblr-2008-2014

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLKnCeeAW48&feature=kp

is "music tumblr" something different from regular tumblr? i've never actually tumbld. i've always hated how tumblr looked.

if i read someone lamenting the death of music pinterest in 10 years i will know that i have lived too long.

This music tumblr---well, this tumblr of pics and links to music---is good-to-great:
http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/

courtesy ilxor's own tylerw.

this is a big deal

okay, i guess it makes sense. like music blog. i guess i'd never heard it used like that. like, in the title of something like that. so people who tumbl probably don't like it when you call their thing a blog, right?

I don't know about that, but tumblr occupied (occupies?) some area in between blogs and message boards.

though that was just where the livejournal crew ended up

number of times the phrase "safe space" comes up there is telling i might suggest

"I’m not sure critics are necessary for musical evaluation purposes as much as they used to be. Which is why, when you see music criticism on Tumblr now, you’ll mostly find discussions about feminism or queer representation or other social and cultural concerns. It’s becoming less about the music and more about the discursive implications of performance and image and art. Which is interesting in some conversations, but also obvious. Like, I get talking about Beyoncé’s feminism or Macklemore’s queer activism, but why isn’t anyone mulling over the discursive elements of a One Republic song? We need to get less obvious, I think.” — nervousacid

word

norm is the best dude in that whole cascade of whatever, otm

doomandgloom a stellar music tumblr also otm

"number of times the phrase "safe space" comes up there is telling i might suggest"

tumblr is a platform with millions of users who belong to many different demographics. this is the equivalent of saying "number of times #tcot comes up on twitter is telling"

Extended trailer for Ticket To Write, new doc about rock writers in 60s and 70s, with appearances by many of the same. From director of A Box Full of Rocks, The El Cajon Years of Lester Bangs, also linked on this page, with much other Bangsiana, incl. "Let It Blurt."
Director overhypes it a bit, but mostly comments by crits in this nice-sized sample
(do we get the whole thing if subscribe to his channel? Haven't tried it yet)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQ1isHKPHbA

Seems like emphasis is on early to mid-70s with less late '70s (but that's just a guess based on the trailer)

Think so, yes. More info when I get it.

Ron Charles ‏@RonCharles 20m20 minutes ago Manhattan, NY

Ellen Willis's daughter Nona accepts #NBCC Criticism prize for ESSENTIAL ELLEN WILLIS.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B_7so-_UwAA0vyt.jpg:large

One the first, still one of the best.

Posted this on a freelancers thread but maybe its better here:

http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6707243/music-journalism-usa-today-times-picayune-daily-news

Music coverage at metropolitan dailies has taken a major hit in recent weeks, with writers at several legacy city papers leaving their full-time positions.

Jim Farber announced on Sept. 17 that he had been let go from the New York Daily News, where he had been covering music since 1990, in a round of layoffs that hit the paper's highest-profile talent particularly hard. New Orleans’ Times-Picayune dissolved its music department in a 21 percent budget slice of the paper's content operation. The Advance Publications-owned title laid off music writer Alison Fensterstock and offered her colleague Keith Spera a metro reporting job that would, according to a Facebook post, allow him to "write the occasional music-related news story."

The 2.8-million circulation national daily USA Today, meanwhile, said goodbye to its longtime music writer Brian Mansfield. The Nashville-based 18-year veteran of the paper reveals his next move will take him out of traditional journalism into a new role as content director at public relations firm Shore Fire Media (Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, St. Vincent).

Saw Alison Fensterstock speak at an EMP re New Orleans bounce music and other subjects, and have read her stuff. Its a shame she has been laid off