Rolling Music Writers' Thread

the occasional realisation that "lustening to music" COUNTS AS WORK is totally amazing for me!

ha, same, although while I was in my previous job the pace abd atmosphere were such that it sometimes seemed like listening to recorded music was beside the point.

(cough)

It's funny. For years and years I wanted, prayed, for a music editor job. It didn't happen for a variety of reasons, and I was sad, but ultimately now (look back from the age of 35) maybe that was for the best. I still love music but I'm selective about what I spend time with, and actually writing about music as a profession would require me to care about way, way too much awful shit. Also as I get older I'm just not as screaming obsessed about tunes and muso minutiae - I'm more inclined to view what I like through the non-muso lense.

Also, I'd like to play more SPORTS

(no, seriously)

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1828132368/uncool

Hmmmm. New online "publication"

We’ll be running exclusively longform writing -- in-depth profiles of fascinating musicians, thoughtful criticism, archaeological discography expeditions, personal essays and much, much more. They'll all have one thing in common: length. Our monthly "cover story" feature will be a minimum of 3,000 words and some might crack 10,000, with our other articles going long as well.

...

We’re also going to pay our staff. Great journalism is a profession, not a hobby, and that's where we need your help. We’re going to run a single piece a week, not 10 or 20 or 100, which means we'll be able to pay our writers a fair rate for good work.

seems sort of bizarre to discuss this as a viable publication considering they need to raise 45k in the next 9 days

Who says its viable?

Maybe writers could have something like online busking: put a piece out there, and see who tosses something in the PayPal? On Bandcamp, lots of name-your-price (or even set price)downloads can also be streamed for free, h'-m-m... Or offer an excerpt of your literary goodness for free, and for more, make a donation.

x-post--

UNCOOL is being edited and run by founders David Greenwald (Billboard, GQ, Rawkblog) and Daniel Siegal (Rolling Stone, Los Angeles Times).

I'm not familiar with these two.

Dow, that's an interesting idea!

Toward the end of this piece, about the return of serial fiction via Twitter, there's a success story about offering first taste free; also a way of gauging overall audience response. In this author's case, it's still a way of getting an established publisher, but might work out anyway, depending on the writer's goals: http://www.wired.com/underwire/2012/05/jennifer-egan-black-box-twitter/?utm_source=Contextly&utm_medium=RelatedLinks&utm_campaign=Previous

Hey I agree with your opinion on Miguel, here's 50p.

lol

let my paypal adorn you

"Uncool" failed to get the money they wanted on Kickstarter

Anyone know what's happening with the Best Music Writing 2012 anthology (which was supposed to cover writing published in 2011)?

Yeah, I'm still at the point where I just really want to read it, rather than the point at which I'm starting to get a little concerned about where the money I sent them has gone to.

http://funboring.com/BMWeditorialboard

Anybody know anyone on their board and ask them?

This week we launched our new website for Feedback Press, the new home of Best Music Writing. Soon we'll be making it a comprehensive resource for all things music writing, and this March we'll be launching another series. Check it out and stay informed!

http://www.feedbackpress.org/category/best-music-writing/

March...

One of our writers was informed that they were going to be in the anthology when it comes out. And this was probably only about a month or so ago. They said more information would be forthcoming but nothing as of yet...

Finally some news!! Thanks folks

Yeah, the writers chosen were informed at least a couple months ago. That's all I know, really.

good to hear. the BMW twitter account follows me so i sent a DM recently politely asking if there was any news forthcoming and got no response.

BRAGGIN 2013

well it was the big baller move i had to do to placate raymond so he'd stop reviving threads about it

i know that a certain ilxor is appearing in the new edition, i believe, and very much deservedly too.

Discussion of the failure of "Uncool" web zine and what it represented and whether it was just more white boys writing about Mumford & sons and over on this thread:

This Is Uncool

Pretty good xgau interview--don't agree with every bit of it, but some is prob all too true:http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reports/article/102822/Concision-and-Clarity.aspx

And some is rights on!

The National Arts Journalism Program blog that Christgau has contributed to, has gotten pretty quiet

http://www.najp.org/articles/

That whole site is pretty much dead, actually.

So once every few years at work a student gets sent to me or finds me and asks how to get into music journalism. I have one such student who I'm meeting on Thursday, who (sensibly) just wants to write as a hobby around a day job. What should I tell him?

Tell him the outlets that pay are getting fewer by the day, and pay less by the day.

That is kind of top of my list.

My local paper no longer has a freelance budget. And yet, every week, features are printed that were written for free.

And furthermore, their pool of freelance reviewers is three or four times bigger than three or four years ago.

If he wants to do it as a hobby (and make sure he knows it's unlikely to go much further than that), here's what I'd say:

- You're not a writer till you write something. I can't believe how many years I went round thinking 'I'd love to do some music journalism' without actually doing any. If he wants to see his name in print or online, he should have a go at some reviews - live, album, opinion etc and putting them on a blog. With a handful of articles under his belt he should have something he can send to an editor.

- Know the market - which mags and sites cover the kind of music he's interested in. No point in approaching Terrorizer if you don't care about metal.

- Read a lot of music criticism and work out what you like and what you don't.

The opportunities to write are greater than ever before. But that means there are more writers than ever before, and it's harder to get noticed by the titles you might want to write for (that's assuming he wants to get as many readers as possible, rather than just writing for the sake of it).

Also - and this is serious – tell him he needs to be reasonably thick skinned, because these days music journalism involves a lot more being told you're a useless wanker than it did before the glorious advent of below-the-line.

And tell him to think about the writing first, the music writing second. He'll be a better music writer if he is able to write about other things. First, it gives you a bigger hinterland. Second, it means you don't automatically think in "sophomore album" music journalese.

Thanks for this; all very useful.

Something I always struggled with; how is best, especially these days, to approach a new publication that you'd like to write for?

I'm not the one to answer that, but networking and asking around helps. Failing that, writing to the right person and showing enthusiasm while making sure they know you've got your head screwed on properly can't hurt. Worth having some stock ideas for articles at hand so that you can pitch if asked. I guess you're much more likely to get a gig if you can offer something that the other three-dozen writers can't.

Also, when approaching a new publication …

Sell yourself. I'm always shocked by people who write to me suggesting they are in some way doing me a favour by sending me a two-line note saying they are willing to write. Are you? You and tons of others, sonny. And make sure there are no errors of spelling or punctuation in your pitch. You are meant to be a writer: don't show you are unable to do the basics when you are asking for work. Ditching people who can't spell (or who won't check their spelling) has always been my first line of weeding. It's the Van Halen brown M&M logic - if you can't be bothered to get that right, what else are you going to get wrong?

"Don't."

tell him to post on ilx, worked for a few ppl

it's bootcamp for rookie writers, admittedly.

Anymore for anymore?

As dog latin says: Ideas. Single thing most likely to get you a commission. I've commissioned writers I've never read because I thought the idea was so good that it didn't matter if the writing was shit - I can always make writing better, but a good idea is a good idea.

I sent a long (and ignored) email to one guy about this, but the biggest takeaway from it I'd cite: have favorite writers, not favorite publications. publishing trends will probably only make that better advice.

xhuckx's advice back in the day was pitches should say a) why this article is worth writing and b) why you're the right person to write the article. also if you're trying to get a foot in the door, you can enquire about writing on spec. even if it gets turned down, you can toss it up in the internet these days on a blog or suchlike as part of your virtual portfolio or whatever.

also yeah don't expect to make a living doing it. even if you can, you probably don't want to.

also once you have some clips, even if they're just on like blogs or online pubs or whatever, you can just find the contact info for editors of a pub and contact them saying a) here are my clips, if you are interested b) even if you aren't (they probably won't read them but who knows), i'd like to find out how _you_ like to be pitched and what you are looking for (if you like things on spec, if you're happy to toss a capsule review or show review my way as a trial run, etc).

I don't speak from experience, just as an outsider, but the music writing 'scene'/music journalism sounds so horrible.

It seems like you're constantly trying to get the approval of your higher-ups when these people base your ability on their personal taste. But I'd love to be proven wrong.

This is why I agree that it really shouldn't be about the technicalities of writing (grammar, punctuation, etc., except maybe diction) but about the ideas themselves. But really, there seems to be only a handful of music writers with semi-interesting ideas. What I mean is, not everybody is a [insert your favourite music critic here], whether it is people like Barney Hoskyns or Christgau.

But usually, the type of music writing that is done by and large is stuff anybody can do, and not genuinely interesting ideas or ideas that help understand popular culture/music, like McLuhan did, for example. Or maybe all the scholars and intellects are all in hiding!

these people base your ability on their personal taste

Not my current editors at the alt-weekly I contribute to. They do not share the same personal taste.

Or maybe all the scholars and intellects are all in hiding!

Some interesting ideas were just expressed by critics and academics at the regional 2013 EMP Pop conference(s)