Insider Extra: March 24

I’m Todd L. Burns, and I put together Music Journalism Insider, a newsletter about music journalism. The newsletter collects some of the best stuff I hear, read, and watch every week; highlights news about the industry; and features interviews with writers, scholars, and editors about their work. My goal is to share knowledge, celebrate great work, and expand the idea of what music journalism is—and where it happens. Questions, comments, concerns? You can reach me anytime at music.journalism.insider@gmail.com.

In this edition of Insider Extra: Reading recommendations, job listings, and more!

401K? More Like 180 Grams Amirite?

One Thing At A Time

I’m Todd L. Burns, and welcome to Music Journalism Insider, a newsletter about music journalism. I highlight some of the best stuff I hear, read, and watch every week; publish news about the industry; and interview writers, scholars, and editors about their work. My goal is to share knowledge, celebrate great work, and expand the idea of what music journalism is—and where it happens. Questions, comments, concerns? You can reach me anytime at music.journalism.insider@gmail.com. And if you’re not already subscribed to the newsletter, you can do so at musicjournalisminsider.com.

Today in the newsletter: Interviews with culture journalist Hannah Edgar, experimental music expert Cisco Bradley, and Maltese music researcher Philip Ciantar. Plus! Reading recommendations, techno, and much more! But first…

The Pipeline Is Real

Though its exact origins in Germany remain somewhat fuzzy, the term “techno” was apparently first used in Frankfurt in the early ’80s, when DJ Talla 2XLC—then working at a store called City-Music—began sorting electronically-produced records into a separate category called “techno.” Talla eventually founded Technoclub in 1984, a club project dedicated exclusively to electronic dance music, and the madness quickly extended to other major cities, including Berlin, Munich, and Hamburg.

This story marks the beginning of Maren Sextro & Holger Wick’s We Call It Techno!, a journey through the history of a sound so influential that it not only managed to crossover from the underground to the mainstream, but also played a key role in the cultural reunification of a post-Berlin Wall Germany.

More than a simple documentary, We Call It Techno! offers a comprehensive analysis of the birth and dissemination of the genre in Germany. Built around interviews with some of its key players, like Wolfgang Voigt, DJ Hell, Triple R, Cosmic Baby, and Tanith, the film also includes a very special treat in the shape of previously unseen footage from the very first edition of Berlin’s Love Parade.

I’m Todd L. Burns, and welcome to Music Journalism Insider, a newsletter about music journalism. Click here to subscribe!

Hannah Edgar is a Chicago-based culture journalist, researcher, and radio producer. They write music criticism for the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Reader, and regularly contribute to many more outlets, in addition to writing program book materials for various symphonies. In radio, Hannah has produced programs for Sound Opinions and Nerdette. In 2015, they served as the inaugural Andrew Patner Fellow at WFMT, Chicago’s classical station, for whom they still write as a freelancer.

How did you get to where you are today, professionally?

A ballsy email, a tragedy, and a whole lot of unearned kindness.

I’m Todd L. Burns, and welcome to Music Journalism Insider, a newsletter about music journalism. Click here to subscribe!

Cisco Bradley is associate professor of history at the Pratt Institute. He is the author of three books, the most recent of which is The Williamsburg Avant-Garde: Experimental Music and Sound on the Brooklyn Waterfront. He is also editor of jazzrightnow.com. He founded the Free Jazz Oral History Project in 2016 and is Chairperson of New Revolution Arts, Inc., a non-profit organization that supports experimental music in New York City.

How did you get to where you are today, professionally?

I was an inquisitive kid. From an early age I wanted to go to the library more than anywhere else and was fascinated with the past. By age 10 I knew I wanted to be a history professor and even though I considered a few other things along the way, I got my B.A. in history in 1999 and eventually my Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in 2010. But in a way, that was a starting point for me. I first lived in New York City in 2000 and had always wanted to move back, in 2011, I secured a professorship at the Pratt Institute where I continue to teach.

I’m Todd L. Burns, and welcome to Music Journalism Insider, a newsletter about music journalism. Click here to subscribe!

Philip Ciantar is associate professor of music at the University of Malta. His research subjects are largely Andalusian music, music and colonialism, the transmission of musical knowledge, and musical analysis in world music studies.

How did you get to where you are today, professionally?

My interest in ethnomusicology began when I was an undergraduate at the University of Malta. At that time, I was studying to become a teacher of Maltese but there was the opportunity to attend other modules from other departments. Since I was already active locally as a musician and in possession of a diploma in trombone playing I had no problem in getting accepted for these classes. I started attending the lectures of the Maltese composer Charles Camilleri (1931-2009) on Mediterranean music. In fact, it was Camilleri who encouraged me to study ethnomusicology and to focus on Mediterranean music. Eventually, following my first degree I went to England to study for an MA in ethnomusicology at the University of Durham under the supervision of Prof. Robert C. Provine and Prof. Jonathan P. J. Stock. Consequently, my relationship with Prof. Stock resumed when he acted as supervisor for my PhD in ethnomusicology at the University of Sheffield (UK). My PhD research focused on the Andalusian tradition of ma’lūf in Libya.

Insider Extra: March 17

I’m Todd L. Burns, and I put together Music Journalism Insider, a newsletter about music journalism. The newsletter collects some of the best stuff I hear, read, and watch every week; highlights news about the industry; and features interviews with writers, scholars, and editors about their work. My goal is to share knowledge, celebrate great work, and expand the idea of what music journalism is—and where it happens. Questions, comments, concerns? You can reach me anytime at music.journalism.insider@gmail.com.

In this edition of Insider Extra: Reading recommendations, job listings, and more!

Yuuuuuuuup

The Woes Of Waiting

I’m Todd L. Burns, and welcome to Music Journalism Insider, a newsletter about music journalism. I highlight some of the best stuff I hear, read, and watch every week; publish news about the industry; and interview writers, scholars, and editors about their work. My goal is to share knowledge, celebrate great work, and expand the idea of what music journalism is—and where it happens. Questions, comments, concerns? You can reach me anytime at music.journalism.insider@gmail.com. And if you’re not already subscribed to the newsletter, you can do so at musicjournalisminsider.com.

Today in the newsletter: Interviews with *Rolling Stone editor Angie Martoccio, music scholar Richie Unterberger, and managing editor of EDM Maniac Harry Levin. Plus! Reading recommendations and much more! But first…*

The Dream

The tale is as dizzying and fleeting as the venue itself: In the spring of 1977, college buddies Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager opened a discothèque in Midtown Manhattan, promptly cultivating a hedonistic, celebrity-laden extravaganza of sex, drugs, and disco. However, after numerous scandals that included cocaine busts, tax evasion, and more, Studio 54 would eventually close its doors in early 1980, precipitating the end of an era that was both overwhelmingly influential and shockingly short.

Matt Tyrnauer’s documentary explores what went on during those 33 months of excess by granting us a privileged look at the rise and fall of legendary New York club Studio 54. Through astonishing behind-the-scenes footage and a candid narrative led by Schrager, the film showcases how the club not only helped reinvent the jet set paradigm but also instigated the thorough and complete revival of a city that, in the late 70s, was considered broken, ungovernable, and decadent. Joining the party are the invaluable testimonies of those who witnessed the last days of disco, such as Nile Rodgers, promoter Carmen D’Alessio, makeup artist Sandy Linter, and journalist Bob Colacello.

Review by Ana Leorne. Check out the full archive of the Stuff You Gotta Watch column.

I’m Todd L. Burns, and welcome to Music Journalism Insider, a newsletter about music journalism. Click here to subscribe!

Angie Martoccio is associate managing editor at Rolling Stone. She’s been at the magazine for many years, working her way up from her start as Jann Wenner’s executive assistant. “I was legitimately awful at basic assistant tasks like microwaving salmon and scheduling doctor’s appointments,” she explains. “But I loved working for Jann, a total legend.”

How did you get to where you are today, professionally?

Since my pre-teens I had dreams of writing for Rolling Stone. I was incredibly narrow-minded and refused to work anywhere else (which is not something I recommend!). I’d spend most of my time pouring over archival issues, recreating the cover wall in my bedroom, and other incredibly embarrassing things like that. I studied journalism in college and landed an internship there in fall 2014, where I transcribed, learned how to write news posts, and interviewed Julian Lennon and Wavy Gravy. Following my internship, I was called in to interview for an editorial assistant position three different times over the next four years, but I never got the job.

I’m Todd L. Burns, and welcome to Music Journalism Insider, a newsletter about music journalism. Click here to subscribe!

Richie Unterberger is the author of numerous rock history books, including volumes on the Beatles, the Who, the Velvet Underground, and 1960s folk-rock. He teaches courses on rock and soul music history at several San Francisco Bay Area colleges. His most recent book, published by Taschen in 2022, is San Francisco: Portrait of a City.

How did you get to where you are today, professionally?

I started listening to rock music at the age of five in 1967, after I and the brother I shared a room with got a radio as a holiday gift. I’ve been a big fan of rock since then, starting like so many people did with the Beatles. From there I got into other groups like the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys, and by the time I was in high school, into great but somewhat lesser exposed vintage acts like the Kinks and the Yardbirds. In college I got into more cult acts like the Velvet Underground, and like so many future rock journalists, got a lot of experience listening to and playing records at my college radio station, WXPN in Philadelphia, which had a huge vinyl library.

I’m Todd L. Burns, and welcome to Music Journalism Insider, a newsletter about music journalism. Click here to subscribe!

Harry Levin is the managing editor of EDM Maniac and a freelance journalist with bylines in outlets like Billboard, Beatportal, and more. He also runs the newsletter Writer’s Brain.

How did you get to where you are today, professionally?

Well, when I tell this story, it always begins when I was 11 years old and my parents gave me a CD of Led Zeppelin’s untitled fourth album.

Insider Extra: Recommendations Smörgåsbord

I’m Todd L. Burns, and welcome to Music Journalism Insider, a newsletter about music journalism. I highlight some of the best stuff I hear, read, and watch every week; publish news about the industry; and interview writers, scholars, and editors about their work. My goal is to share knowledge, celebrate great work, and expand the idea of what music journalism is—and where it happens. Questions, comments, concerns? You can reach me anytime at music.journalism.insider@gmail.com.

Welcome to a special edition of Insider Extra! This week, we’re going deep on recommendations. Insider Extra will have the usual spread of offerings, including job listings, next week.

Jennifer Lucy Allan

Be Clear On Your Why

I’m Todd L. Burns, and welcome to Music Journalism Insider, a newsletter about music journalism. I highlight some of the best stuff I hear, read, and watch every week; publish news about the industry; and interview writers, scholars, and editors about their work. My goal is to share knowledge, celebrate great work, and expand the idea of what music journalism is—and where it happens. Questions, comments, concerns? You can reach me anytime at music.journalism.insider@gmail.com. And if you’re not already subscribed to the newsletter, you can do so at musicjournalisminsider.com.

Today in the newsletter: Interviews with Madvillain expert Will Hagle, UK Black music evangelist Dr. Monique Charles, and country music writer Will Groff. Plus! Reading recommendations and much more! But first…

A Don Caballero Song Title, Surely

Will Hagle is a freelance music writer. His new book is an entry in the 33 1/3 series on Madvillain’s Madvillainy. He’s also the co-host of the fascinating podcast Connecting the Classics, in which two classic albums are tied together “using tangential music references, Kevin Bacon style.”

*How did you get to where you are today, professionally?

I’m one of the many people on earth that “always wanted to be a writer” since I was a little kid. Back then, and also maybe now, I didn’t quite believe that writing could be an actual profession. But I was delusional enough to at least try to make it happen.

In 2009 I moved from Champaign, IL, where I grew up (& often read & wrote about music, just for fun) to attend college at USC in LA. I started writing for the lifestyle section of The Daily Trojan. My first profile was an interview with Art Alexakis, the singer of Everclear, on his tour bus parked outside The Roxy in West Hollywood. At some point I wrote an article about Coachella that caught the attention of Joey Flores, then the CEO of an online radio startup called Eartbits. He reached out to me on Facebook and asked me to run his company’s blog. It was a great time because I got paid what seemed like a fortune for a college student to write about whatever I wanted. And I learned a thing or two about the boring stuff: SEO, business, blah blah blah.

Dr Monique Charles is an assistant professor at Chapman University. She is the creator, curator, and editor of the forthcoming book Black Music in Britain in the 21st century. She’s also known as a “cultural sociologist, sound healer, and cardologer,” but her research focuses heavily on Black British music, “an area I am actively working to establish as a rightful discipline in its own right.”

How did you get to where you are today, professionally?

Singing. That was where it all started. As a child I wrote songs, and performed them, getting my cousins involved. I became aware from a young age that the music that I listen to with my family and the music at school and in the mainstream charts, were different. I was also aware whilst growing up that I was different to the mainstream. I was aware that my Blackness was not considered the norm. This sparked my interest in race in particular. I already developed my own version of intersectionality by age eight, having learned fractions at school; with ‘quarters’ I now had a way to articulate the social world around me. I could divide people into Black and white, male and female and discerned my position in this dynamic in relation to how society valued these groups. I am also a naturally intellectually curious person (which in some senses made me feel like an outsider).

The singing and songwriting continued to be a passion throughout my childhood and teenage years, albeit informally. I excelled at school. My first degree was in Psychology with race and cultural studies as a minor subject, I wanted to understand the world I lived in. I wanted to understand people. After completing my first degree I began vocal tuition, taking it more seriously. Being mindful of stereotypes at that time, I felt I had earned the right to be more creative.

Will Groff is a music and culture writer based in Brooklyn. He has written about country music for Pitchfork, PAPER, No Depression, and various other publications. He is currently completing a Fulbright grant in Mexico.

How did you get to where you are today, professionally?

First, I should mention that I didn’t go to journalism school. I studied film and thought I wanted to be a screenwriter, but I quickly realized that the only thing I really wanted to write about was country music. After college, I moved to New York, got a job on the marketing side at a media company, and was feeling pretty lost. I’m from New Mexico and had never met anyone who “made it,” so to me a career as a journalist was just not feasible.

Eventually, though, my desire to get my writing out there won out over my fear of not making it, and I reached out to a couple country blogs asking if I could write for them for free. My first real “break” came when Ang Stefano asked if I wanted to start writing for The Boot and Taste of Country and from there I started getting more legit (paid!) gigs and building up a portfolio.

Insider Extra: March 3

I’m Todd L. Burns, and I put together Music Journalism Insider, a newsletter about music journalism. The newsletter collects some of the best stuff I hear, read, and watch every week; highlights news about the industry; and features interviews with writers, scholars, and editors about their work. My goal is to share knowledge, celebrate great work, and expand the idea of what music journalism is—and where it happens. Questions, comments, concerns? You can reach me anytime at music.journalism.insider@gmail.com.

In this edition of Insider Extra: Reading recommendations, job listings, and more!

Been There

My Burning Concern

I’m Todd L. Burns, and welcome to Music Journalism Insider, a newsletter about music journalism. I highlight some of the best stuff I hear, read, and watch every week; publish news about the industry; and interview writers, scholars, and editors about their work. My goal is to share knowledge, celebrate great work, and expand the idea of what music journalism is—and where it happens. Questions, comments, concerns? You can reach me anytime at music.journalism.insider@gmail.com. And if you’re not already subscribed to the newsletter, you can do so at musicjournalisminsider.com.

Today in the newsletter: Interviews with podcast host Alana Casanova-Burgess, social media expert Spencer Dukoff, and criminology scholar Lambros Fatsis. Plus! Reading recommendations, a bit of funk, and much more! But first…

Dr. Sean Puff Daddy P. Diddy Diddy Combs, Esq.

Though the true magic of funk is better felt than understood, Nelson George’s 2013 documentary Finding the Funk does a remarkable job of tracing the principal roots, influences, and characters that shaped the genre as an indelible force, pushing the limits of pop music and triggering its reinvention.

Questlove serves as the master of ceremonies in this compelling journey through five decades of funk, from its earliest jazz and R&B roots to the impact the genre still exerts today. For nearly an hour and a half, Quest is joined by heavyweights such as Sly Stone, George Clinton, D’Angelo, Maceo Parker, Nile Rodgers, Sheila E., Nona Hendryx, and many others who reflect on the past, present, and future of funk, while we navigate through some of its main incubators, including Dayton, Detroit, and the Bay Area.

Myriad special moments tie the entire narrative together, from D’Angelo discussing how formative Jimi Hendrix’s live album Band of Gypsys was for funk, to Steve Arrington reflecting on Slave’s outrageous album covers, to the James Brown footage posthumously inserted amidst the other interviewees.

Alana Casanova-Burgess is the host and co-creator of La Brega, a podcast that “tells stories of an island and a people trying to cope with too many challenges, and who deserve and demand better.” That island, of course, is Puerto Rico. Their second season recently launched, just before I talked with Alana via email.

How did you get to where you are today, professionally?

I started as an intern at WNYC (New York Public Radio) when I was in graduate school like 12 or 13 years ago, and actually initially didn’t really want to be working in radio. But I was with The Brian Lehrer Show for a summer (that’s the live public affairs call-in show for NYC and surrounding areas), and I just loved the sense of community that that show fosters. Brian and his team “convene a conversation” and it really feels like the whole city is coming together to talk over an issue. I ended up getting hired and sticking around for four or five years, and then I pitched an episode about Latino/Spanish-language media to another WNYC program called On the Media, and that was a gateway into feeling how satisfying it can be to do produced interviews—you know, where you record a long conversation and then cut it down to the best parts with a beginning, a middle, and an end. On the Media definitely has a point of view. Brooke Gladstone and her team are always thinking harder and deeper about issues, really pushing beyond the obvious analysis. And I grew a lot there in terms of critical thinking but also learning from Brooke’s writing (she gets a lot of props in the industry for her editing, but I think it’s her writing that really makes the show shine).

I had already done some reporting from Puerto Rico when Hurricane Maria hit in 2017, so the station sent me to Puerto Rico to cover the aftermath for a few different shows. The thinking there was that there’s such a big Puerto Rican population in our listening area. The reporting that I did from there got me noticed, I guess, and also gave me more of an appetite for reporting pieces in my own voice, or even just pitching more ambitious field-reported pieces with Brooke. And then Futuro Studios and Marlon Bishop asked if I would be interested in doing a narrative podcast about Puerto Rico, and we figured out a way to make it work under the WNYC umbrella. The rest is history. A lot of it was about getting an inkling of something I wanted to try next and then leaning into that.

Spencer Dukoff is the director of audience development at Consequence, where he leads “acquisition and retention efforts across all platforms including social media, SEO, newsletter, video, podcasts, strategic partnerships, and other major content initiatives.” He also writes the music-themed newsletter Late Greats Music Club.

How did you get to where you are today, professionally?

I studied journalism in college, but didn’t write for the student newspaper or really have many journalism-focused extracurriculars (I did, however, spend a lot of time performing in an a cappella group). My first job post-grad was doing outreach for a financial literacy non-profit, which allowed me to travel the country and hang out in a bunch of college campuses. It was very easy and very fun as a first job until I got a vibe that maybe the funders of the non-profit were hoping the organization could get college kids to vote for Jeb(!) Bush in the 2016 presidential election? I was not down with that.

So I began writing for a new website called Slant that followed the HuffPost or BuzzFeed contributor model, but gave you a share of the revenue generated from web traffic to your article. That’s the first time I started writing about music, which allowed me to interview artists like Margaret Glaspy and Lucius, and cover events like CMJ. I was pretty eager to leave the non-profit, so when I met with Slant’s founder and she offered me a job as the site’s full-time social editor (and fifth employee), I said yes.

Lambros Fatsis is a senior lecturer in criminology at the University of Brighton. His research interests revolve around police racism and the criminalization of Black music (sub)culture(s), fusing cultural criminology with Black radical thought. His writing on the policing of UK drill music won the first-ever Blogger of the Year Award from the British Society of Criminology and an Outstanding Research & Enterprise Impact Award from the University of Brighton. Lambros is also a member of the Prosecuting Rap Expert Network made up of scholars and experts in rap and Black youth culture, who act as defense experts in court cases that involve the use of rap as evidence. In May 2022, he was appointed as a trustee at the Brighton-based youth music charity AudioActive.

How did you get to where you are today, professionally?

By accident! Or perhaps as a result of devious stratagems and a fairly circuitous route… My decision to study in and migrate to the UK (I was born in Greece), was the excuse I gave my parents, the universities and funders—so I could spend my time in reggae soundsystems (mostly), jazz gigs (very often) and records shops (way too often).

So, I came to the UK in 2002 to study sociology as an undergrad first and a postgrad and PhD student later, with a two-year break—where I interrupted my studies to DJ professionally as Boulevard Soundsystem, with my base in Athens (Greece) but travelling fairly often across Europe to play.

Insider Extra: February 24

I’m Todd L. Burns, and I put together Music Journalism Insider, a newsletter about music journalism. The newsletter collects some of the best stuff I hear, read, and watch every week; highlights news about the industry; and features interviews with writers, scholars, and editors about their work. My goal is to share knowledge, celebrate great work, and expand the idea of what music journalism is—and where it happens. Questions, comments, concerns? You can reach me anytime at music.journalism.insider@gmail.com.

In this edition of Insider Extra: Reading recommendations, job listings, and more!

Every Genre Ever

Omnivorous Tastes

I’m Todd L. Burns, and welcome to Music Journalism Insider, a newsletter about music journalism. I highlight some of the best stuff I hear, read, and watch every week; publish news about the industry; and interview writers, scholars, and editors about their work. My goal is to share knowledge, celebrate great work, and expand the idea of what music journalism is—and where it happens. Questions, comments, concerns? You can reach me anytime at music.journalism.insider@gmail.com. And if you’re not already subscribed to the newsletter, you can do so at musicjournalisminsider.com.

Today in the newsletter: Interviews with freelance culture writer Quinn Moreland, Sonny Rollins biographer Aidan Levy, and music copyright expert Richard Osborne. Plus! Reading recommendations, a bit of boogaloo, and much more! But first…

Damn Daniel

Warning: it’s quite possible that you won’t be able to sit still while watching Matthew Ramirez Warren’s We Like It Like That. The main culprit is its subject: the cultural melting pot that gave birth to Latin boogaloo.

The tale begins in 1960s New York City, when this vibrant and pivotal genre helped define an entire new generation of Latinos, weaving a tight and exciting fabric which would prove fundamental for the evolution of urban sounds. Fusion is at the center of boogaloo; the proximity to the African-American community not only offered an insight into fresh beats and bold chord progressions, but also validated a burning quest for identity affirmation, despite the economic exploitation many of these musicians would endure throughout their career.

Several legendary names linked to boogaloo, such as Joe Bataan, Johnny Colón, and Pete Rodriguez, feature in the doc, highlighting this coming-of-age in social, political, and cultural terms. The extraordinary result was the creation of a safe space for self-expression that combined tradition and innovation, the sacred and the profane, the past and the future.

Quinn Moreland is a freelance culture writer. She is a former staff writer at Pitchfork, where she worked from 2015 to 2022. Her writing has appeared in The Nation, Bookforum, and more.

How did you get to where you are today, professionally?

I studied art history at college and began blogging about music the summer before my junior year while interning at Dia Beacon. I can’t remember exactly how this happened, but I began writing for The Le Sigh, a website that highlighted female identifying, non-binary, and trans creatives. While doing that I was booking shows at my college and writing about DIY stuff for the website Impose, which apparently still exists? As a result of all of those activities, I was pretty entrenched in certain communities that were attracting increasing attention.

I moved to Brooklyn in the fall of 2015 after graduating. I had just started a full-time (I think?) gig at Impose but was laid off almost immediately for reasons that remain a mystery. I was living at a DIY venue called the Silent Barn and my roommate was a contributor at the late great Rookie. They connected me with Jessica Hopper who helped me land a fellowship at Pitchfork. I started a month or so after Pitchfork was acquired by Condé Nast, although we worked out of an office in Greenpoint for the next year or so.

Aidan Levy is a lecturer in English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. Aidan has a new book out called Saxophone Colossus: The Life and Music of Sonny Rollins. In a review, Ben Ratliff of The New York Times called it “a brimming and organized compendium, something to keep returning to like Rollins’s records.”

How did you get to where you are today, professionally?

My career as a music journalist has its roots more than 20 years ago at my high school paper. I’m a saxophonist, so I was often assigned the “Artist of the Month” feature whenever it was a musician. Also in high school, I hosted a jazz radio show at WRTC-Hartford, the Trinity College station, so part of my music education was on the air. In college at Brown University, the Pulitzer-winning critic Richard Eder taught a class in arts criticism as a visiting professor. It was in that class that something clicked and I realized maybe I could write about music professionally. When I graduated, I pitched the Village Voice a story on Search and Restore, a New York-based arts presenter that was putting on some of the best improvised music shows in the city. The music editor at the Voice then was Rob Harvilla, who taught me a lot. I worked with many other great editors, all of whom are great writers: Maura Johnston, Stacey Anderson, Nick Murray, Brittany Spanos, and Hilary Hughes at the Voice; Evan Haga and Mac Randall at JazzTimes; Sewell Chan and Andy Newman at The New York Times; Phil Freeman at Blue Note Records Spotlight; Matthew McKnight​ at The Nation, among others. In 2015, I published Dirty Blvd.: The Life and Music of Lou Reed and had the privilege of working with Yuval Taylor when he was still an editor at Chicago Review Press. Yuval is currently working on a book on Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham. I also edited Patti Smith on Patti Smith: Interviews and Encounters, part of Chicago Review Press’s Musicians in Their Own Words series.

While freelancing, I worked as a film and TV production assistant in New York, and eventually joined IATSE Local 52 as a union prop person. I worked on countless shows and movies: Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Gossip Girl, The Americans, and the Saturday Night Live Film Unit, to name a few. In 2014, I went back to grad school to get my PhD at Columbia University in the Department of English and Comparative Literature. I studied with faculty affiliated with Columbia’s Center for Jazz Studies: Robert G. O’Meally, Brent Hayes Edwards, Farah Jasmine Griffin, Krin Gabbard, and others. This past December, I defended my dissertation, which is on jazz and literature.

I’m Todd L. Burns, and welcome to Music Journalism Insider, a newsletter about music journalism. Click here to subscribe!

Richard Osborne is Associate Professor of Music and Creative Industries at Middlesex University. His new book is Owning the Masters: A History of Sound Recording Copyright. “It has long struck me as unjust that recording artists have not been copyright owners,” explains Richard. “I wanted to find out the reasons why this has been the case and what the consequences have been.”

How did you get to where you are today, professionally?

I didn’t become a university lecturer until having had a career elsewhere. My original ambition, I thought, was to have a successful music career. It took me a long time to realise that, not only was I not good enough for this but I didn’t really want to be a success. Music has always been my main interest, though, and so alongside being in bands I always had music-related jobs, first working in record shops and then working for CMOs (MCPS and PRS). At the same time I never stopped reading and analysing, and belatedly realised that I had an academic bent.

Insider Extra: February 17

I’m Todd L. Burns, and I put together Music Journalism Insider, a newsletter about music journalism. The newsletter collects some of the best stuff I hear, read, and watch every week; highlights news about the industry; and features interviews with writers, scholars, and editors about their work. My goal is to share knowledge, celebrate great work, and expand the idea of what music journalism is—and where it happens. Questions, comments, concerns? You can reach me anytime at music.journalism.insider@gmail.com.

In this edition of Insider Extra: Reading recommendations, job listings, and more!

It’s Never Too Late To Say I Love You

Unwavering Conclusions

I’m Todd L. Burns, and welcome to Music Journalism Insider, a newsletter about music journalism. I highlight some of the best stuff I hear, read, and watch every week; publish news about the industry; and interview writers, scholars, and editors about their work. My goal is to share knowledge, celebrate great work, and expand the idea of what music journalism is—and where it happens. Questions, comments, concerns? You can reach me anytime at music.journalism.insider@gmail.com. And if you’re not already subscribed to the newsletter, you can do so at musicjournalisminsider.com.

Today in the newsletter: Interviews with Dr. Allie Martin, freelance journalist Lily Moayeri, and Canadian music expert Jason Schneider. Plus! Reading recommendations, reggae, and much more! But first…

Hallelujah

After having done some recording in his home country of Jamaica in the 1960s, Lloyd Barnes, AKA Bullwackie, migrated to the Bronx. In 1976, he set up a studio to record both resident and visiting fellow Jamaicans. The result was Wackie’s, a label that quickly built an impressive catalog still much sought-after today. Christopher Coy’s 1981 documentary Bullwackie in New York not only showcases Barnes’ work and dedication, but also provides an invaluable glimpse into the reggae/soundsystem culture of New York—which went otherwise largely undocumented.

Clocking in at about one hour, Bullwackie in New York gathers first-person testimonies from Clive Hunt, Steve Grandison, and Barnes himself to offer a privileged insight into the scene, while also allowing us to take a peek at some studio action. All this is intertwined with stunning live performances from the likes of Ras Clifton, Milton Henry, Inner Harvest, and Itopia, as well as a handful of candid images from everyday life in the late ’70s Bronx, all soundtracked by Wackie’s roster.

Review by Ana Leorne. Check out the full archive of the Stuff You Gotta Watch column.

Dr. Allie Martin is Assistant Professor at Dartmouth College. Over the years, her work has been supported by the Ford Foundation, the Smithsonian Institution, the Society for American Music, and the American Musicological Society. She says some of her favorite work, however, is “teaching, especially hip-hop. Students are so excited and passionate to talk about the music that they’ve grown up with and it makes for a very rich classroom environment.”

How did you get to where you are today, professionally?

My path started largely in undergrad, where I was majoring in music (violin) and audio production. I was quite sure that I was going to be a violin teacher and session musician, but then I took an ethnomusicology class during junior year, and slowly but surely transitioned onto the path of getting a PhD in ethnomusicology. I went to Indiana University to study with people like Mellonee Burnim, Fernando Orejuela, and Alisha Jones, and shifted my study from how go-go music (DC’s local subgenre of funk) was handling gentrification to how gentrification sounds more broadly. I fell into digital humanities and sound studies along the way and now here I am at Dartmouth, teaching Black popular music courses inspired by my graduate school training and researching sound and Black life.

Did you have any mentors along the way? What did they teach you?

Lily Moayeri is a freelance music journalist. She’s had bylines in Variety, Billboard, SPIN, and more, and hosts the independent podcast Pictures of Lily—all on top of her full-time job as a teacher librarian.

How did you get to where you are today, professionally?

My journalism career started in 1992 at the Daily Trojan, USC’s school newspaper while I was in grad school—although I didn’t realize it at the time. In fact, I had no idea there was such a thing as music journalism–even though I read plenty of music magazines. As a music obsessive from the age of four, I went to a lot of gigs and all my socializing was music-based, but I didn’t see any coverage of the music I was listening to or experiencing at the DT. They posted an ad for writers. I applied. I told them I sucked at writing, but that I did a lot of music stuff that they didn’t cover. They told me not to worry about the writing part, they could teach me that and brought me on board.

My editor, Stacy Cousino (née Osbaum), whom I still message when I have a copy editing question, was my music journalism guide every step of the way. I couldn’t believe that she could get me tickets to any show, invites to meet-and-greets and interviews with my favorite bands. Stacy taught me words like “reverberation” and helped me formulate questions for my first interviews. She knew the phone number for every publicist by heart. When something I wrote ran too long, I can still hear her voice in my head saying, “Let’s H&J it” (hyphenate and justify), which is when you put it in the newspaper formatting software to see how many column inches it takes up.

Jason Schneider is a Canadian music historian and former assistant editor at Exclaim. He now runs the music PR company Jason Schneider Media. His latest music journalism project is The Longest Suicide: The Authorized Biography of Art Bergmann. Jason describes Art as “one of the foundational artists of the Vancouver punk scene, who went on to a critically acclaimed solo career in the ‘80s and ‘90s before dropping off the radar for many years due to various personal reasons… People often call him ‘Canada’s Lou Reed,’ although he hates that.”

How did you get to where you are today, professionally?

I grew up in a university town about an hour’s drive west of Toronto. There was a vibrant artistic scene there in the ‘80s and ‘90s, with campus radio, a rep cinema, many indie book and record stores, and several cool clubs that bands from Toronto and elsewhere played regularly. I think that’s why I connected with R.E.M. early on; it felt like my hometown had a lot in common with Athens, Georgia. There was music talk happening all the time, and the only way to keep on top of it was to read every magazine I could get. I loved Creem, and I remember getting an anniversary issue that reprinted some classic pieces by Lester Bangs and Greil Marcus. I knew from an early age that I had some writing ability, and that issue of Creem might have ultimately pushed me to try writing about music. I did a few record reviews for my high school paper, and after getting my journalism degree I started working at a local alt-weekly called id Magazine that was distributed to all the university towns in southwestern Ontario.

That was when things really kicked into gear. I was interviewing artists and writing reviews non-stop, and was encouraged by the great writers we had on staff, including Michael Barclay, who became a life-long friend. After id shut down in 1999, we both started writing more for Exclaim, Canada’s national music monthly, and completing the book we’d started with our colleague Ian Jack, Have Not Been The Same: the CanRock Renaissance 1985-1995. It was first published in 2001 by ECW Press, and was the culmination of four years of intense work that only people in their twenties can do. We wanted it to be a Canadian version of Jon Savage’s England’s Dreaming and Michael Azerrad’s Our Band Could Be Your Life, and I think we accomplished that.

Insider Extra: February 10

I’m Todd L. Burns, and I put together Music Journalism Insider, a newsletter about music journalism. The newsletter collects some of the best stuff I hear, read, and watch every week; highlights news about the industry; and features interviews with writers, scholars, and editors about their work. My goal is to share knowledge, celebrate great work, and expand the idea of what music journalism is—and where it happens. Questions, comments, concerns? You can reach me anytime at music.journalism.insider@gmail.com.

In this edition of Insider Extra: Reading recommendations, job listings, and more!

What Burns Never Returns

AI Is About To Rock The World Of Music Journalism!

I’m Todd L. Burns, and welcome to Music Journalism Insider, a newsletter about music journalism. I highlight some of the best stuff I hear, read, and watch every week; publish news about the industry; and interview writers, scholars, and editors about their work. My goal is to share knowledge, celebrate great work, and expand the idea of what music journalism is—and where it happens. Questions, comments, concerns? You can reach me anytime at music.journalism.insider@gmail.com. And if you’re not already subscribed to the newsletter, you can do so at musicjournalisminsider.com.

Today in the newsletter: I talk with Chat GPT. And Laurent Fintoni. Laurent gets a Chat GPT intro later in the newsletter, so I won’t spoil that here. That said, Laurent is an old friend who has helped me out enormously with this newsletter over the past few years. I honestly couldn’t do it without him. Thanks, Laurent! OK, let’s jump right into this special Chat GPT edition of the newsletter!

Intro Prompt: Please write an introduction to an interview with you about music journalism. You have been asked to generate the questions yourself. This interview will be published in a newsletter called Music Journalism Insider, which is edited by Todd L. Burns. Please include a compliment about Todd L. Burns. Please also say that Todd L. Burns has asked you to include a compliment about him in a funny way that makes the readers think more highly of him.

Insider Extra: February 3

I’m Todd L. Burns, and I put together Music Journalism Insider, a newsletter about music journalism. The newsletter collects some of the best stuff I hear, read, and watch every week; highlights news about the industry; and features interviews with writers, scholars, and editors about their work. My goal is to share knowledge, celebrate great work, and expand the idea of what music journalism is—and where it happens. Questions, comments, concerns? You can reach me anytime at music.journalism.insider@gmail.com.

In this edition of Insider Extra: Reading recommendations, job listings, and more!

If You Had That Platform, Wouldn’t You?

Best Album Notes Grammy Nominees [SPECIAL EDITION]

I’m Todd L. Burns, and welcome to Music Journalism Insider, a newsletter about music journalism. I highlight some of the best stuff I hear, read, and watch every week; publish news about the industry; and interview writers, scholars, and editors about their work. My goal is to share knowledge, celebrate great work, and expand the idea of what music journalism is—and where it happens. Questions, comments, concerns? You can reach me anytime at music.journalism.insider@gmail.com. And if you’re not already subscribed to the newsletter, you can do so at musicjournalisminsider.com.

Today in the newsletter: In this week’s special edition, I’m continuing my tradition of interviews with nominees for the Grammy Award for Best Album Notes. With the Awards coming up next weekend, I talked with four nominees. Up first is Gareth Murphy, who earned his nomination for the notes to the important Irish album Andy Irvine Paul Brady. In this excerpt from our interview, Gareth explains why he thinks liner notes are still important.

Gareth Murphy

I’m Todd L. Burns, and welcome to Music Journalism Insider, a newsletter about music journalism. Click here to subscribe!

Gareth Murphy is a 2023 Grammy Award nominee for Best Album Notes for the important Irish album Andy Irvine Paul Brady. I asked him just a few questions about the process of putting it together.

Can you please briefly describe the release for those that may not be familiar with it?

Andy Irvine Paul Brady is a one-off collaboration between two important Irish musicians, both singers and multi-instrumentalists. It was released in 1976 on Ireland’s most innovative ever label, Mulligan Records, an imprint that produced some of the most experimental traditional Irish music, hybrid Irish-American country, and even nascent punk debuts from the Boomtown Rats. Behind the two main artists on this album, are two other figures, Donal Lunny, who played bazouki, guitar and bodhran, and who produced the record. The fourth musician is Kevin Burke, the fiddler in Lunny’s main group at the time, the Bothy Band. This line-up, certainly in traditional Irish music, is what you’d call a supergroup. The other key detail is that Mulligan Records was the Bothy Band’s own label, making this and others like it, a milestone in DIY production. In Irish music, a genre much maligned by ‘paddy whackery’ and predator producers, this is where things jumped up a level, sonically and artistically. This is where the pioneer artists started to take control. In fact, this album was recorded in one of the very best studios in the British Isles at the time, Rockfield, a farmhouse in Wales, where Queen recorded “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

I’m Todd L. Burns, and welcome to Music Journalism Insider, a newsletter about music journalism. Click here to subscribe!

Fernando Gonzalez is a 2023 Grammy Award nominee for Best Album Notes for the tango masterpiece Astor Piazzolla: The American Clavé Recordings. I asked him just a few questions about the process of putting it together.

Can you please briefly describe the release for those that may not be familiar with it?

Astor Piazzolla The American Clavé Recordings, is a box set, vinyl and cds, collecting the three albums New Tango master Astor Piazzolla recorded in the United States for Kip Hanrahan’s American Clavé label. It includes Tango Zero Hour (1986), The Rough Dancer and the Cyclical Night (Tango Apasionado) (1987), and La Camorra (1988). Piazzolla recorded the first and last of these albums with his quintet. All but one piece in Tango Zero Hour were pieces that Piazzolla had already recorded, but the quintet had burnished to perfection in years of live playing. La Camorra was his late masterpiece and the last studio recording by the quintet. The Rough Dancer… is a different story. It’s Piazzolla’s “Teo Macero record,” in which Hanrahan, like his mentor had done with Miles Davis, used the studio as an instrument and built a whole album out of a few minutes of original music. It’s a one-of-a-kind piece in Piazzolla’s discography.

I’m Todd L. Burns, and welcome to Music Journalism Insider, a newsletter about music journalism. Click here to subscribe!

Bob Mehr is a 2023 Grammy Award nominee for Best Album Notes for the important Wilco album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. I asked him just a few questions about the process of putting it together.

Can you please briefly describe the release for those that may not be familiar with it?

The project is a 20th anniversary expanded edition/box set of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, the fourth and best known album from Chicago post-rock band Wilco. Originally made for Warner/Reprise, but ultimately released by Nonesuch Records in 2002, YHF was a watershed that saw the band change members, labels, and transform its music dramatically.

I’m Todd L. Burns, and welcome to Music Journalism Insider, a newsletter about music journalism. Click here to subscribe!

Ted Olson is a 2023 Grammy Award nominee for Best Album Notes for Doc’s World: Traditional Plus, a book that accompanies the compilation Doc Watson, Life’s Work: A Retrospective. (Full disclosure: As part of my day job at uDiscover Music, I published an excerpt of these liner notes.) I asked him just a few questions about the process of putting it together.

Can you please briefly describe the release for those that may not be familiar with it?

In November 2022 I learned that an album I co-produced and curated had been nominated for two GRAMMY Awards (Best Historical Album and Best Album Notes). That album, entitled Life’s Work, A Retrospective​ and released on the Los Angeles-based label Craft Recordings, compiles 101 recordings by Doc Watson originally issued on a dozen different record labels during the legendary folk musician’s decades-long career. I selected the recordings to include on that album and also contributed a biographical essay on Watson and track-by-track notes. It was the first retrospective collection of Doc Watson’s recordings, and the album was in essence a box set (4 CDs and an 88-page book featuring the aforementioned notes alongside many rare photographs of Watson).

Insider Extra: January 27

I’m Todd L. Burns, and I put together Music Journalism Insider, a newsletter about music journalism. The newsletter collects some of the best stuff I hear, read, and watch every week; highlights news about the industry; and features interviews with writers, scholars, and editors about their work. My goal is to share knowledge, celebrate great work, and expand the idea of what music journalism is—and where it happens. Questions, comments, concerns? You can reach me anytime at music.journalism.insider@gmail.com.

In this edition of Insider Extra: Reading recommendations, job listings, and more!

When Your Source Is A Ouija Board

Bucolic Folk Foundations

I’m Todd L. Burns, and welcome to Music Journalism Insider, a newsletter about music journalism. I highlight some of the best stuff I hear, read, and watch every week; publish news about the industry; and interview writers, scholars, and editors about their work. My goal is to share knowledge, celebrate great work, and expand the idea of what music journalism is—and where it happens. Questions, comments, concerns? You can reach me anytime at music.journalism.insider@gmail.com. And if you’re not already subscribed to the newsletter, you can do so at musicjournalisminsider.com.

Today in the newsletter: Interviews with Billboard stalwart Jason Lipshutz, Atlanta freelancer Jewel Wicker, and Canadian music expert Andrea Warner. Plus! Reading recommendations, prog rock, and much more! But first…

Been There (Both Sides!)

At the beginning of Timeshift, which looks back at the golden age of British prog rock, narrator Tommy Vance declares, “Progressive rock is the music that time forgot.” The film does a good job of explaining why. Featuring bands like Yes, King Crimson, Genesis, Pink Floyd, and Emerson Lake & Palmer, the documentary explains the genre’s emergence as a perfect storm. Styles and influences coalesced to reject “simple” pop music in favor of unbounded virtuosity, often girded by a bucolic folk foundation.

Several key musicians make appearances. So do John Peel, Bob Harris, and Charles Shaar Murray. Timeshift: Prog Rock also juxtaposes the genre with its supposed nemesis (punk), showcasing harsh critics denouncing prog’s pomposity and pretentiousness. In fact, it would be precisely this inaccessibility, both in technical and practical terms, that eventually dictated its downfall. “Prog musicians,” Tommy Vance concludes, “went from musical royalty to dinosaurs overnight.”

Review by Ana Leorne. Check out the full archive of the Stuff You Gotta Watch column.

Jason Lipshutz is executive director of music at Billboard, where he has worked since graduating from college in 2010 (with the exception of a one-year break in 2015). He’s had seven titles at the publication. As he puts it, “My favorite part of my job is that every day is totally different… I like being deployed in different areas at Billboard, and never get precious about any of my tasks.”

How did you get to where you are today, professionally?

I knew I wanted to do something with writing when I was growing up, but had no idea what, exactly, so I decided to enter college as an English major. During my freshman year at The College of New Jersey, I not only got really into indie music (as many college freshmen do), but got really into indie music criticism—as in, would memorize year-end critics list, try to guess what Pitchfork score the new Animal Collective album would get, become a dedicated fan of different bylines and columns (mostly at Pitchfork, and Cokemachineglow, and especially Stylus Magazine. Thank you Todd!). At some point during that freshman year, I realized that I wanted to try and join that world professionally, so I changed my minor from creative writing to journalism, started writing blog posts with titles like “Is Spoon Actually the Best Band in the World?,” and scouring for internships in New York City, which was an hour-long train ride away from my campus.

After bouncing around at a few different internships—I spent a spring semester at Seventeen, which was weird and hilarious and incredibly helpful, a story for a different day—I ended up as a web intern at Billboard, which was a very different animal back in 2008. Truthfully, I didn’t care much about the charts back then—I enjoyed pop music, but I enjoyed the new Frog Eyes album even more!—and didn’t think it would be a long-term fit for me, even as an aspiring music journalist. But I loved the staff, and became interested in chart machinations, and received opportunities to earn real bylines. I lingered around Billboard as an intern and freelancer for the next two years, and very fortunately received a call about an entry-level opening a few months after I graduated in 2010.

Jewel Wicker is a freelance entertainment and culture reporter from Atlanta, Georgia—a place central to what she does. Much of her writing focuses on the city and the many stories within it, with bylines in publications such as GQ, Billboard, NBC News, The New York Times, Teen Vogue, and more.

How did you get to where you are today, professionally?

I knew I wanted to work in music when I was a teenager. But, initially, I didn’t know what this would actually look like. Originally, I considered becoming a music manager but by the time I was a junior in high school I’d started a music blog to share my thoughts about the music and concerts I regularly attended. By college, I’d built up enough of a following to ask publicists for press tickets. I remember attending Solange’s show at Masquerade in Atlanta during her TRUE era and capturing photos of her dancing alongside surprise guest Janelle Monae.

I’d never considered music journalism prior to college, but I knew I wanted to hone the skills I was developing through writing online and having a webshow. Eventually, I switched my college major from music management to broadcast journalism and joined the student newspaper. After college, I worked as a staff reporter for a paper in central Pennsylvania before returning to my hometown to work for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. It was a frustration with the lack of resources and growth I felt I’d be able to accomplish as a young staff writer that encouraged me to eventually try my hand at freelancing. That was six and a half years ago.

Andrea Warner is a freelance writer and the author of Buffy Sainte-Marie: The Authorized Biography and We Oughta Know: How Four Women Ruled the ’90s and Changed Canadian Music. She’s the co-writer and associate producer of the 2022 documentary Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On, and co-hosts the weekly feminist pop culture podcast Pop This! Andrea is a settler who was born and raised in Vancouver on the unceded traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations.

How did you get to where you are today, professionally?

I started by writing poetry and then YA novels when I was a kid. My creative writing portfolio helped get me into university but I signed up for some professional writing classes by mistake. I was a huge fan of entertainment journalism (Soap Opera Weekly, Entertainment Weekly, Premiere Magazine, etc.) and due to family stuff, I had to think about a job where I could get paid. At the time, journalism seemed more practical than being a novelist or a poet.

I left university for a two-year journalism program and between first and second year, I actually interned at Soap Opera Weekly. I learned a tremendous amount about interviewing (mostly transcribing endlessly) and I published my first paid pieces with Soap Opera Weekly. I was even the horoscopes columnist for a few years. After graduating, I started my own feminist arts & culture magazine with some friends. We published five issues over two years and it went bust. I ended up working at a variety of office jobs but every single time I would start some kind of in-house magazine or create some kind of writing project. In 2007, I realized that I owed it to myself to at least try and make it as a freelancer.

Insider Extra: January 20

I’m Todd L. Burns, and I put together Music Journalism Insider, a newsletter about music journalism. The newsletter collects some of the best stuff I hear, read, and watch every week; highlights news about the industry; and features interviews with writers, scholars, and editors about their work. My goal is to share knowledge, celebrate great work, and expand the idea of what music journalism is—and where it happens. Questions, comments, concerns? You can reach me anytime at music.journalism.insider@gmail.com.

In this edition of Insider Extra: Reading recommendations, job listings, and more!

Can’t Wait For The Next Album