Rolling Music Writers' Thread

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

"Music Coverage Endangered" in a world where there's like three Noisey posts on the fucking Future/Drake tape

obviously great but not surprising -- the thinking is almost certainly "show previews can run in briefs, national music stories can be wire."

fwiw the person who got me into journalism in the first place is still at the paper but again it's more metro/lifestyle

*NOT great. christ. (as if anyone doesn't know my stance on newspaper layoffs by now)

re: writing for free

I've never done it because I generally don't think we should, but do you all make exceptions for, say, a badass publication that covers great shit and all-around rules but exists largely thanks to the efforts of volunteers? (They do sell ads.)

Like I love this magazine - a sort of fringe-ish but substantial publication in a big city - and pitched a story idea and they say no one gets paid for contributions. Which I don't have any reason to NOT believe.

Should I be more skeptical?

If it's something like ESOPUS or whatever that clearly exists to exist, the do it.

If it's like Brooklyn Mag or the L Magazine or whatever the version of that is in your city, then pass with a quickness

Or just go pick any Vice vertical and they'll pay you a little bit more than free!

more the former than the latter, imo

thanks wgw

(xpost)

Sometimes I wish there were, or had been, a music publication that worked on a similar model to the old Mean Machines mags I used to read: A small, familiar editorial team; not afraid of being ribald or humorous; two-page major album features including 2-3 capsule reviews by different members of staff representing differences of opinion. Could that have worked?

Mean Machines? gaming zine

yeah from the early 90s. I used to love it when I was a spotty teen. They weren't afraid of making fun of themselves and the content they were covering. I guess Select had a similar sense of humour in its heyday. But yeah, I never knew why it's always been the case that publications and sites depend on the view of just one person when talking about an album for example.

Down Beat publishes 3-4 reviews a month where 3 different writers cover each album. But that's jazz so nobody knows about it.

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/media/2016/01/8587714/grantland-redux-mtv

5 Grantlanders now at MTV Music News website plus Greg Tate and others

From Jess*ca Hopper tweet--Brian Phillips, David Turner, Hazel Cills, Molly Lambert, Amy Nicholson, Meaghan Garvey are @MTV now.

Oh, and Jessica is now editorial director at MTV news! I guess Pitchfork has some job openings now

Have people ever gone to MTV.com for music writing before this? I can't remember ever reading an article there. I just assumed it was there so people could stream whatever episodes of The Challenge or Teen Wolf they'd missed.

I never have.

So I missed the old news from November 2015 that Hopper was leaving Pitchfork
http://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2015/11/13/music-critic-and-editor-jessica-hopper-on-her-departure-from-pitchfork

http://www.mtv.com/news/2727414/brother-from-another-planet/

Greg Tate's piece on David Bowie from the site

jessica was the one who let me do the dollar bin column for pitchfork review. haven't heard anything since she left. so i guess i'm not doing it anymore. it was fun while it lasted!

Don't see who her successor there is, listed online...

serious question? have things ever been worse? obviously the answer is "no, but you've never" but I can't think of a time in the past... 7-8 years or so with a worse ratio of people who want me dead (via twitter and email, sometimes in those words) to people who want me not-dead (via payment for work)

I haven't suffered that (thank goodness) but in terms of pitching and getting responses, I can't begin to imagine the floods people are dealing with on all levels. (Heard an anecdotal story that confirms what it must be like on the editorial front.)

I can't imagine any freelancing situation that could be described as a "flood"

In terms of promo mail to sort through on the one end and pitches on the other? If I'm not in a constant flood myself, I don't know what else to call it.

relevant

https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2017/mar/31/five-things-i-learned-as-guardian-music-editor-rock-music-writing-michael-hann

that one is a treat.

"There used to be room on the charts for something dynamic and exciting such as the Arctic Monkeys."

TBF, that was a quote from someone else.

what is this "fair" you speak of...?

it was just a bright neon quote to me.

here's a thing I wrote about music writing way back when...way back.

https://medium.com/@markcoleman57/the-opposite-of-a-career-or-how-i-became-a-rock-critic-787020176542

Now that there is a good read.

id like to know how ppl keep from feeling like 99% of the writing they do isn't just ineffectual in the grand picture of life—wasnt it ever thus or w/e—but ineffectual even at reaching the ppl you want it to reach, or even making waves in the smaller communities in which we're writing

it just feels like shit isnt moving, theres no sense of a 'conversation,' just a lot of ppl being mad

try teaching

I wonder how much of it is just down to circumstance and luck. I mean: writing for the AMG when I did meant that as time went on I kept hearing from more and more people who had read my work and, in a number of cases, had said they discovered many bands as a result, that what was 'just' my words intrigued people and meant something. I still get occasional comments on those fronts, so in that regard I've been lucky enough to get a sense of validation, for lack of a better word. I don't feel my work is deathless, but knowing that it connected with others at a particular time and (virtual) place is enough.

"Over the course of 1977 and ’78 I attended concerts by, among others: Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon, Ella Fitzgerald, Roy Eldridge, Johnny Griffin, Woody Shaw, Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra and The Art Ensemble of Chicago."

that there's an edumacation.

"it just feels like shit isnt moving, theres no sense of a 'conversation,' just a lot of ppl being mad"

there are lots of little conversations everywhere.

the internet makes me not want to read music writing at all. that's the truth of it.

I'm still adjusting to how disposable music content is these days. Publications used to print reviews with great authority, as if they were the final word. They were literally archived, and re-printed year after year. They were written so you could go back to them.

Now many reviews (to the extend publications even run reviews) are designed to grab clicks by commenting on "the conversation" or whatever the outrage or hastag of the week is. They're takes that are intended to look like they're original or even contrarian, even though they're clearly intended to square with the value system of their perceived readers. And it does work for grabbing clicks, but the content ages horribly because of it.

The other challenge, mostly unrelated, is for whatever reason readers seem less interested in ever in curated recommendations. People don't want to read about bands/artists they've never heard about

just looking at the gig listings in the village voice when i was a kid was powerful and overwhelming. i don't know what i would be like if i were growing up now. the too muchness. i would probably just retreat into one of those smaller conversations on the web. i suppose it would have been nice to have people to talk to about stuff i liked when i was a kid.