Know Your Worth

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 journalist Kat Bein; Mixmag deputy editor Megan Townsend; and Kristin Robinson, the music publishing reporter for Billboard. Plus! Reading recommendations, an important music festival, and more! But first…

Let Me Suggest That You Take A Vacation From Yourself

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

I started working full-time at The Independent when I was still at university. I would do shifts helping out at pretty much every desk in the office—I’d be on uploading, picture editing, video, shopping, production, news… I even did a stint as a night editor, so I knew how to maneuver a newsroom. At the same time I was going to clubs a lot, I’ve always loved dance music and I kind of fell in with “scene” by accident. All my friends were going out/putting on nights etc, so it made sense to write about it. I started by writing features for The Independent and pitching to desks there, but on the side I’d write some freelance pieces for publications like CRACK, DUMMY and Mixmag. By the time I left and went to Mixmag I’d done a lot of work around a newsroom and it helped because it meant that I was familiar with the way online media works. I think my biggest advantage really has been since I started out is that I’ve not been afraid to just have a go at anything, I’m not precious—I’m happy to muck in and help keep things running. So now I have a decent knowledge of media law, of using adobe programmes etc.—alongside writing.

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

I think the majority of what I’ve learned has been on the job. I had mentors who I worked with at The Independent of course, a particular shout to Martin King, former Production Editor who gave me my start at the indy. Also former Voices Editor at the indy Hannah Fearn, who was endlessly encouraging—and Chloe Hubbard who gave me my first front page feature.

Kristin Robinson

Music Publishing Reporter, Billboard

She/her pronouns

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

Once You Have A Kid, It Gets Even Stranger

Source

Reading List

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

I’ve basically always been writing, since I learned how to do it. Both of my parents worked at home in various capacities and actually bought a copying machine when I was in 2nd or 3rd grade, and I started making little zines pretty soon thereafter, often with friends, sometimes just by myself, and pretty much never stopped. I got into listservs in high school in the mid-‘90s, which led to some digital and print zine writing for other people, which developed into a few regular paid gigs by my senior year of college. My first few years out of college, alongside music writing, I did a ton of very random-feeling freelance copywriting, often (but not exclusively) under the vague heading of “educational.” I wrote study guides, sample test questions, news summations for a digital newspaper geared to kids, even some short books. For most of that, I had to write to specific grade levels, as judged by Microsoft (I think?), which I mention because it all felt really valuable as a writer in a very mechanical way. It was also equally good training for blurb-writing and social media.

But specifically, as a young head, I wrote for the website jambands.com, which got bought in the late ‘90s dot-com boom while I was still in college and joined operations with the still-quite-active print magazine Relix, yielding both regular work for me and accidentally giving me a speciality/beat that ended up opening doors at bigger publications. A turning point was a half-goofed late-night pitch to interview Hunter S. Thompson about his new book in 2003, really not expecting anything to come of it but which turned into a Relix cover story, which in turn led to Rolling Stone contacting me that summer to cover a Phish festival.

I never had a staff job anywhere, but I feel like I subsequently at least got a last wee taste of the old New York media world during a few joyous years getting to write pretty regularly for the Village Voice (via multiple very supportive editors) in a way that allowed me to really continue developing new fandoms/beats/specialities. Writing books was always a goal, and I eventually was able to find a great agent who helped me translate some ideas about those beats into proposals, mostly just through sheer encouragement. Writing about the Grateful Dead’s extended universe led to both jobs writing liner notes for their ongoing archival releases, as well as my book Heads: A Biography of Psychedelic America.

Ambre Dromgoole (she/her), PhD Candidate Depts. African American studies and religious studies at Yale University and Senior Research Consultant for Sound Diplomacy

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

Wow, my mind just went to a million different places. I could really start from childhood with this answer, but to save you the time of sifting through a 200+ page tome, I will fast forward to my college years at Oberlin College and Conservatory where I majored in musical studies and religious studies.

I chose Oberlin because, at the time, I wanted to be an opera singer. You couldn’t tell me I wasn’t going to be the next Jessye Norman! But within the first few months, I realized that I didn’t necessarily want a career in classical performance. I told some mentors and advisors about my dilemma who asked me what else I was interested in. At that point I was dabbling in arts administration and had done some internships to that effect, so it seemed like the perfect route. But I also told them about my upbringing surrounded by gospel music and the gospel music industry. My advisor said “you know you can study that, right?” I DID NOT KNOW! That moment changed my trajectory.

Dave Rimmer is the author of Like Punk Never Happened: Culture Club and the New Pop, one of the finest chronicles of ’80s pop music ever written. Dave was a writer and editor for Smash Hits, The Face and an assortment of other publications in the early ’80s and had a front row seat to everything going on in UK pop music at the time. The book was recently re-released, with a new foreword by Neil Tennant.

Can you please briefly describe the book?

It’s a music journalist’s memoir, a pop biography and a description of a cultural ecosystem all rolled into a tight episodic narrative with a generous pinch of mischief.

How did you come to this subject for a book? What made the topic so interesting to you?

Insider Extra: November 18

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!

A Quick Note

The Illusion Of Artistry

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 Sly & the Family Stone expert Joel Selvin; Jazz Weeknights host Annie Parnell; and Ludwig Van Toronto digital content editor Anya Wassenberg. Plus! Reading recommendations, the definitive Bossa Nova documentary, and more! But first…

One Last “Whoo-Hoo!” For The Fetterman!!

Bossa Nova is one of those things that’s better felt than explained. For those looking for a thorough dissection of the genre’s hows, whos, wheres, whens, and whys, Paulo Thiago’s This Is Bossa Nova might be the best option.

Originally titled Coisa Mais Linda after a song by Vinicius de Moraes (and the opening line of Tom Jobim’s immortal “Garota de Ipanema”), this comprehensive documentary details the history of Bossa Nova from its Copacabana origins to international acclaim, discussing numerous influences that include samba, choro, and jazz, as well as disparate masters of the form like Gershwin or Pixinguinha. Narrating the film are composers Roberto Menescal and Carlos Lyra, two of the genre’s founding figures, who never hesitate to pick up a guitar mid-conversation and demonstrate how a particular chord sequence or arrangement magically unfolds into a superb tune.

This Is Bossa Nova is also loaded with insightful interviews and astonishing performances (a large portion of which were filmed specifically for the documentary), along with an impressive dose of archival material featuring some of the greats: Silvinha Telles, João and Astrud Gilberto, Elizete Cardoso, Tamba Trio, Nara Leão, and many more.

Joel Selvin is the author of Sly & the Family Stone: An Oral History. Originally published in 1998 as part of a series of oral histories commissioned by Dave Marsh, it’s been recently reissued. Composed of 40 interviews from the band and their close associates, the book is told entirely in their own words. “When I collected the interviews, nobody had been around asking and everybody unloaded on me,” explains Joel. “The scary story they told me in vivid images was more of a nightmare than anything.”

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

I went to work at the SF Chronicle as a copy boy in September 1967 after dropping out of Berkeley High School. One of the perks was free tickets to the Fillmore. I saw Jimi, Cream, Floyd, everybody on the guest list. That ruined me for life.

What happened next?

Annie Parnell is the host of Jazz Weeknights at VPM, Virginia’s home for public media. She only started freelancing in 2020, but her writing has already appeared in Paste Magazine, The Boot, and elsewhere.

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

While I was at UVA, I ran a student alt-weekly with a pop culture focus and co-lead a college radio station. Initially, I actually started with more film and TV coverage, but I realized I had a knack for music features and a really interesting scene in front of me, so I started chatting with artists and indie bands for interview pieces and reviewing local shows. I eventually started freelancing in 2020 after internship opportunities dried up in lockdown, and kept it going while I worked at WTJU in Charlottesville for a bit after graduation.

I do a lot of hopping around genre and form—I’ve done science fiction and horror criticism, covered music from folk to jazz to experimental metal, and I produced environmental and disability pieces for WTJU’s news podcasts.

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

Anya Wassenberg is a longtime freelance writer, writing instructor, and, more recently, a singer and songwriter. Currently, Anya is the digital content editor at Ludwig Van Toronto, one site in a classical music-focused digital news media network.

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

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a musician and a writer, but my parents wouldn’t support either (by that I mean, pay for university or anything else.) I studied French, and started working in an administrative office job (bilingual) but began writing on the side soon after.

Insider Extra: November 11

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!

That’s One Way To Put It…

The Title Says It All

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 jazz expert Willard Jenkins; Groovin Mood editor-in-chief Dani Pimenta; and associate editor of the Journal of The International Association of the Study of Popular Music, Abigail Gardner. Plus! Reading recommendations, three incredible documentaries, and more! But first…

Truly The Best

On three different occasions, Dutch documentary maker, presenter, and director Bram van Splunteren captured an important bit of music history on film. His body of work in the 1980s and 1990s for Dutch public TV station VPRO is vast, but I wanted to highlight three important documentaries that also made a significant international impact.

In 1986 van Splunteren and interviewer Marcel Vanthilt traveled to New York to shoot a documentary about hip-hop culture. In Big Fun in the Big Town, the two venture into Harlem and the Bronx to interview artists like Doug E Fresh, Schoolly D, Roxanne Shante, and a budding 18 year old rapper named LL Cool J. The film is a unique snapshot of a pivotal moment for the music; the beginning of a golden era of hip-hop, where rap turned from an extension of disco and electro into a harder, more outspoken, more engaged sound, as it simultaneously entered the American mainstream consciousness with Run-D.M.C.’s “Walk This Way.”

Over the years, van Splunteren maintained close relationships with several of his subjects, which led to him revisiting artists on film. A notable example was the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who van Splunteren followed on their very first European Tour in 1988, and many times after. For a feature in 1994, van Splunteren was the only filmmaker with access to guitarist John Frusciante, who at that time had left the band, and was at an extremely low point in his life, reclusive and heavily addicted to cocaine and heroin as well as suffering from severe depression. The heart-wrenching interview shows a fragile Frusciante playing songs from his first solo album and talking about the pressures of fame. The broadcast sent shockwaves through RHCP fandom and, to this day, is one of the most sincere and vulnerable pieces about addiction and mental health struggles in the music world I have seen.

Willard Jenkins is the artistic director of the DC Jazz Festival as well as an arts consultant, producer, educator, and print and broadcast journalist whose work has spanned decades in the jazz world. His new book is the anthology Ain’t But a Few of Us, a collection of “more than two dozen candid dialogues with Black jazz critics and journalists ranging from Greg Tate, Farah Jasmine Griffin, and Robin D. G. Kelley to Tammy Kernodle, Ron Welburn, and John Murph.”

How did you get to where you are today professionally?

As I detailed in the Introduction to Ain’t But a Few of Us, my original interest in music was fueled primarily by my father’s record collection and radio dabbling. I was born in Pittsburgh and we relocated to Cleveland when I was 11. My father was a newspaperman and when the Pittsburgh’s afternoon daily merged, his typographer’s union provided an opportunity for him at the Cleveland Plain Dealer in the Composing Room.

Once in Cleveland my father’s record collection grew and he eventually became an early adapter to stereophonic sound, buying a new stereo system for his records. So my interest began to grow courtesy of his record collection and the fact that at the time Cleveland had what is now a dinosaur: a 24-hour commercial jazz radio station, WCUY, which I began sampling and enjoying from his listening and my own exploration. With his records I paid attention to the notes and the personnel listings, so that next time I went to the record store maybe I’d look for something by that sideman/woman who really impressed me on the leader’s date. That became a never-ending cycle of research.

Dani Pimenta is a journalist, music researcher, cultural producer and DJ, focused on Jamaican and Brazilian music relations. She is the founder and editor in chief of Groovin Mood, a website founded in 2008 dedicated to the reggae and sound system scene, as well as the creator of the Mapa Sound System Brasil project, which has mapped sound systems dedicated to reggae/dub in the country. It became a book in 2019 and an online platform in 2021.

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

Well, I started diving into this world around 2006, collaborating with some local websites, doing interviews with Brazilian independent rap artists, doing weekly schedules and tips of shows and cultural events, and stuff like that. Music and music journalism always interested me in some way. Around the same time I had my first contact with sound system culture and a deeper layer of reggae music, and I fell in love. So I decided to create my own blog, Groovin Mood—has been online since 2008. Creating this blog opened many doors for me over the years, and allowed me to test, make mistakes, learn and also create other projects that gave me countless fruits.

Besides music journalism, I worked for many years as a copywriter and also as a press agent—this last function I still work with, attending startups and technology companies, besides music projects, of course. I’ve also been doing independent cultural and events production for many years, and I’m very interested in musical research, which is also another side of my work. This interest has made me a DJ since 2012, so in my life music connects at many points.

Abigail Gardner is Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Gloucestershire. Among other pursuits, she’s the associate editor of the Journal of The International Association of the Study of Popular Music. Her key interests are music, gender, and ageing.

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

I have had what might be termed a wayward route into academia. I started my undergraduate degree in Japanese at Cambridge University and switched to London’s SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies), after which I worked for the magazine Marxism Today, did some translating and lived in Japan. Coming back to the UK I played keyboards in bands and then did my Masters at the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies in the late 90s and continued there onto a PhD about PJ Harvey. I turned this into a book in 2015, PJ Harvey and Music Video Performance (Routledge).

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

Insider Extra: November 4

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!

Hope You Like Franks & Beans!

Chal Ravens: Notes on Process [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: A new Notes On Process with Chal Ravens.

Chal Ravens: Notes on Process

Insider Extra: October 28

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!

Yes!

Conceiving Babies To The Song

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 editor Andrew Unterberger; anthems expert Steve Baltin; and TikToker Annabelle Kline-Zilles. Plus! Reading recommendations, a doc about Black American music, and more! But first…

Very Curious What A 7.7 Means

Black Music in America: From Then Until Now is a documentary that doubles as a time capsule. The 30-minute film examines over 400 years of African American history from an early ’70s perspective, allowing for a glimpse of an era when the contributions of Black music to American culture were only beginning to be more thoroughly acknowledged—and just before the explosion of hip-hop.

Commissioned by the Learning Corporation of America in 1970 and subsequently archived at the Library of Congress, it was filmed and broadcast at a time when music documentaries weren’t as easily accessible, before the proliferation of a more serious historicization of popular music.

Though progressive restoration and digitization of similar resources has made more material available in the decades that followed, in 1971, Black Music in America provided what was—for many—the first essential look at a rich cultural heritage. The documentary features the likes of Mahalia Jackson, Count Basie, Nina Simone, Louis Armstrong (shown during his 1957 visit to Ghana), a very young Irene Cara as a cast member of 1970 musical The Me Nobody Knows, and what is believed to be the only filmed footage of Bessie Smith.

Andrew Unterberger is a deputy editor at Billboard. He got his music writing start at Stylus, an online magazine I co-founded in 2002. Since then, he’s worked at SPIN and done a good deal of writing about the Philadephia 76ers. (Anyone that follows him on Twitter will know his abiding fandom.)

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

Well of course it starts with you and Stylus Magazine! My friend Kareem Estefan and I applied to write for Stylus at the same time in 2003 I think, when we were in high school—he got in and I didn’t, but after a little while, he recommended me and you gave me a shot. I ended up writing for Stylus until college, developing a voice of some sort, and discovering I was a little more interested in writing about pop music and pop culture than I was writing indie/underground record reviews. I started my first blog (Intensities in Ten Suburbs) as an offshoot off my Stylus writing, and also organized (along with you) my first staff-wide projects—staff lists of things like the best music videos of all-time, and also a web-only version of VH1’s I Love the [Decade] series for the ’90s (before VH1 started their own version—halfway through ours, annoyingly), which actually doubled as my high school senior project.

During my junior year of college, I also was part of the winning team on VH1’s pop culture trivia show The World Series of Pop Culture, the money from which helped me considerably in taking the time to figure out what I was going to do after school—Stylus and all my other writing gigs had been for free, and I wasn’t terribly optimistic about actually ever being paid to write. My first job out of college was a truly surreal part-time position writing trivia questions about TV shows for a market research company that was designed to test viewers’ awareness of product placement within those shows. In the meantime, I also started blogging about Philadelphia sports for a blog I read regularly called The 700 Level—I noticed they were sorta lacking in Sixers coverage at the time, and I had just gotten heavily back into that team and Philly sports in general, so I wrote the founder and asked if he’d let me write for them. He did, and I got lucky when that blog was bought by Comcast, leading to my first regular paycheck as a monthly freelancer for them.

Steve Baltin is an author and journalist with bylines in Rolling Stone, The L.A. Times, and many more. He’s also the host of the podcast My Turning Point. His new book is Anthems We Love: 29 Iconic Artists on the Songs that Shaped Our Lives.

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

I would say there have been three key steps in my career. The first was when I transferred from CSU Northridge to NYU. At NYU I started writing for the school paper and interned for the Village Voice. With the foolish bravado of youth called the Voice and said I wanted to intern there. They said, “Who cares? Who are you?” But I still somehow got the internship and was editing the great Nat Hentoff column. Then moved back to L.A., where I was working in music publicity and started telling editors I was pitching that I also wrote. Got a few free national gigs. That led eventually to the second big step.

Moved to Philadelphia to be an editor at CDNow, where many of the biggest and best writers—including Greg Kot, Tom Moon, and more wrote for me. After two years CDNow merged with another company, N2K. Let’s just say the personalities did not fit. So one day I was assigned a Sinead O’Connor interview for Request magazine. The new boss from N2K said we should film it. I pointed out we couldn’t since it was Request‘s interview. He said, “If CDNow isn’t your priority, we have a problem.” I agreed and quit on the phone call. That led to step three. I started freelancing for many of the people who had written for me. I was doing columns for both the L.A. Times and Rolling Stone, and the rest is history.

Annabelle Kline-Zilles is an independent music curator and content creator, as well as the founder and owner of That Good Sh-t Music. She gained renown through her excellent TikTok, which currently has more than 100k followers.

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

I grew up loving music and in a family who always was going to concerts and playing music around the house. As I got older I became increasingly infatuated with the world of music, constantly going to music festivals and staying involved in underground music. In 2020, I made a Tik Tok with the subject “What his favorite rapper says about him,” and it took off! I used that momentum and kept posting music content.

Then, in January of 2021, I started my company That Good Sht. I would curate custom playlists for people, and then started expanding into merch and in October of 2021, started putting together live shows. As my Tik Tok career grew, I began working directly with artists and their teams to help market their music. I eventually was asked to come on tour with Earthgang at the start of 2022!! Then, I recently started working with Noisey to create content for them. That Good Sht has continued to expand as well, recently accomplishing an interview with JID and our largest show ever with midwxst and Skaiwater in NYC. It all came with consistent hard work and always dreaming big.

Insider Extra: October 21

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!

Hit Me

The Sense Of Wonderment

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 electronic music expert Zoë Beery; freelance writer Melisa Yuriar; and Grateful Dead enthusiast Mark A. Rodriguez. Plus! Reading recommendations, a doc about Latin American rock, and more! But first…

Been There, Pt. 1

Every once in a while, a music documentary is so captivating and informative you find yourself constantly hitting pause so that you can take notes and make a playlist later. That’s the case with the six-part series Break It All (Rompan Todo in the original Spanish), which details the fascinating history of Latin American rock from the 1950s to the 2010s through first-person testimonies of musicians, producers, and DJs.

The journey begins with Ritchie Valens’ 1958 hit “La Bamba” and traces a comprehensive and immersive trajectory that highlights groundbreaking artists like Los Jaivas, Almendra, Tanguito, Manal, Los Saicos, Aterciopelados, Café Tacvba, and many more. Needless to say, social and political contextualization play a key part in this narrative: “In many ways, we’re not telling the story of rock in Latin America but we’re telling the story of Latin America, through the point of view of rock,” series creator Nicolás Entel told NPR in 2020. As such, Break It All not only discloses the immense role Latin American rock played in terms of a broader cultural revolution, but also offers a singular perspective of world history through the eyes of those who helped soundtrack it.

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

Zoë Beery writes about electronic music for Resident Advisor, Bandcamp, and the New York Times, and works with the safer spaces teams at venues and events such as Nowadays, Horst Arts & Music, and Sustain-Release. In addition, she does “copywriting and editing, branded content, and editorial consulting with startups, companies, nonprofits, and the like.” As she explains in our interview, this is essential to her work as a music journalist.

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

I’d wanted to be a writer since I was young. When I was 12 and studying ballet, I read a New Yorker piece about controversial pointe shoes and realized I could write about things that mattered to me personally. When I was 14 a friend gave me a ziploc bag full of burned CDs, which included Hail to the Thief, Turn On the Bright Lights, Ziggy Stardust and some other classics, which I would dutifully listen to on my Walkman and then write a review on a yellow legal pad borrowed from my dad (I wish I still had these!). When I was 17 I applied to write for Tiny Mix Tapes, my favorite music website, and was shocked when I got the email from Marvin offering me the (unpaid) gig. I was walking into my AP US History class when it landed, and none of my classmates understood what I was freaking out about and why this was the biggest deal I could possibly imagine.

After a detour into sound engineering in college, I decided to move to NYC in 2014. This coincided with the flourishing of Facebook groups inspired by Mitt Romney’s “binders full of women” comment, which had inspired tens of thousands of women to start mentoring each other in defiance of workplace misogyny. One of the groups was dedicated to music writing, and it eventually got me a job editing concert listings at the Village Voice (Jessica Hopper, Hilary Hughes and Kathryn Turner all helped me along the way). A few months in, the Voice brought on a new editor who fired almost everyone, but because I was part-time and running something that the marketing team relied on for selling ads, I was spared. The new senior associate editor Raillan Brooks gave me my first editing assignment, and after that really advocated for me to be brought on staff. I ended up helping edit the culture section under Jane Kim, focusing on music, and later ran front-of-book as well.

Melisa Yuriar is a music journalist with bylines in Dancing Astronaut, Saint Audio, Festival Insider, and Gray Area Magazine. Her favorite part of being a music journalist? “Writing about the music, and the creatives who dream it all up… There’s nothing else I’d rather do in this life. I’m a lucky gal to have had the writing opportunities I’ve had in my career thus far. I never take any of it for granted.”

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

I’ve always been a voracious reader and avid-music listener. As a kid my parents had to force me to go outside because all I wanted to do was stay inside and read. Picked up my first New Yorker when I was 13 (for reference, I’m in my late twenties now), my dream, still, is to write for the magazine someday.

I owe everything I know about music to my older siblings, and their varied music taste that ran the gamut: The Killers, Jimmy Eat World, Bloc Party, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Dandy Warhols, Lenny Kravitz, Daft Punk, No Doubt, and Björk were a few of my favorites growing up.

Mark A. Rodriguez is the author of After All is Said and Done: Taping the Grateful Dead, 1965–1995. The publisher, Anthology Editions, describes it as a book “featuring dozens of interviews with tape enthusiasts and members of the Grateful Dead organization as well as hundreds of cassette covers… [it’s a] saga of homegrown psychedelia, anarchic graphic styles, and black market fandom as written in magnetic tape.”

Can you please briefly describe the book?

The book is called After All is Said and Done: Taping the Grateful Dead 1965 - 1995, published by Anthology Editions, and is a book about a few things: the art project I have been involved with for 12 years, a book showcasing the folk art of deadheads via colorful and uniquely designed tape covers, as well as a history through interviews and archived documents of the conversations and decision-making process that led to the officiating of a tapers section within the architecture of the Grateful Dead’s live concert environment.

The art project I mentioned is where I am trying to collect every Grateful Dead live performance that was recorded on audiocassette and was distributed by deadheads through their tape trading network from 1965 to 1995. This particular collecting effort was—and is—the basis for a series of sculptures of which 9 have been completed.

Insider Extra: October 14

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!

The Pandemic Is Over!

Stress Is High, Pay Is Low

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 New Yorker staff writer Hua Hsu; Toronto music expert Jonny Dovercourt; and ludomusicologist Tim Summers. Plus! Reading recommendations, listening recommendations, and more! But first…

The Mighty Jam Band Lobby Finally Comes Through

Hua Hsu is a staff writer at The New Yorker and a professor of literature at Bard College. Hua serves on the executive board of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop. He was formerly a fellow at the New America Foundation and the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center at the New York Public Library. He is the author of Stay True, “a gripping memoir on friendship, grief, the search for self, and the solace that can be found through art.”

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

I started off in high school writing for the school paper and making zines. Actually, making zines began as a hedge in case I didn’t make the paper, which was slightly more competitive than you would think. The zine, initially, was just a way to figure out who I was and scam some free records. I believe the first issue had screeds against 90210 and chemical bioweapons (the result of my third high school passion, policy debate) and articles about Pavement, the Jesus and Mary Chain and Royal Trux. I’m not sure I actually liked Royal Trux at the time, despite the passionate kudos I gave them, mimicking the NME/Melody Makers I would buy at my local bookstore.

I had no real dreams of becoming a “professional journalist.” In high school, a writer from Rolling Stone came for career day and made the job sound incredible and also incredibly hard to get. In college, I did not make the school paper and that was fine, I was more immersed in the world of zines, and the campus Asian American magazines, my dream was to one day publish a single piece of writing for the San Francisco Bay Guardian (the Bay equivalent of the Village Voice) on my way to some conventional career as a researcher or lawyer. I’m not being falsely modest when I don’t think I exhibited any real “voice” or insight in my writing back then. Even now I think my “style” is pretty derivative of a few people I grew up reading, though, now that I’m older, I’ve ranged out to want to mimic effect rather than rhythm.

Jonny Dovercourt is the co-founder and artistic director of the Toronto non-profit organization and concert series Wavelength Music. Jonny has also worked for arts institutions including long-running new music space The Music Gallery, small press Coach House Books, and the Images Festival of experimental film and video. Jonny is also the author of Any Night of the Week: A D.I.Y. History of Toronto Music, 1957-2001.

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

I got into independent/alternative music mostly through watching music videos as a kid growing up in the ’80s in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough—also home of Barenaked Ladies, Mike Myers, and The Weeknd. Canada’s answer to MTV, MuchMusic, actually played DIY indie videos by local bands, with two shows dedicated to under-the-radar stuff: CityLimits and Indie Street. In my mid-teens, I started a basement band with my best friend. We were inspired by punk at first, as many people were, but within a few years got more into post-punk, art rock and what came to be called shoegaze. We put out some home-released cassettes but weren’t ready to go much beyond the basement.

By the time I attended the University of Toronto in the early ’90s, grunge and lo-fi had taken over and I started a new band that had a bit more success and played around Toronto locally—a noise-pop band called A Tuesday Weld. I got really excited by the local music scene, which was starting to pop—though the rest of the world didn’t know it yet. Around the same time, I started writing about local bands for my university newspaper, and then after graduation, I got an internship at the local alt-weekly, Eye Weekly. I started out doing the club and concert listings—which was the perfect job for someone obsessed with the local music scene—and also writing some reviews and features, mostly music but also some film and other arts writing.

Tim Summers is a lecturer in music at Royal Holloway University of London. Tim focuses on the music of video games, film, and television. But he’s perhaps best known for his work on video games, as he is the co-founder of the Ludomusicology Research Group.

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

As I am sure is the case for pretty much everyone who ends up with a career in music, I’ve always been drawn to performing, listening, making and trying to understand music. Music for film, TV and games has been a particular fascination for me as long as I can remember being able to engage with music. I can remember being around 7 years old with a handheld tape recorder trying (unsuccessfully) to record TV themes from the television!

I come from a town in the Valleys of South Wales, called Blaenavon. It was (and still is) a small town with a lot of music. Choirs, bands, carnivals, churches, concerts, and so on; music was woven into the fabric of the place. And music was for and by the community.

Insider Extra: October 7

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!

Not In This House

A Shoutout To Craft

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 musician, writer, and educator Jennifer Gersten; critic/essayist Mark Reynolds; and NYLON editor Steffanee Wang. Plus! Reading recommendations, a doc about Carlos Paredes, and more! But first…

Point / Counterpoint

The Portuguese guitar is a curious instrument. Usually associated with fado, its origins actually go all the way back to the medieval troubadours and noble circles—though a need for bringing the instrument closer to the masses eventually allowed for its association with tavern music.

Carlos Paredes comes from a long lineage of virtuosity and passion. Both his grandfather and father were Portuguese guitar masters. By the time Paredes composed the legendary soundtrack to 1963 film Os Verdes Anos, he enjoyed a reputation in his home country and abroad—despite his numerous brushes with the law.

Edgar Pêra’s Perpetual Movements pays tribute to Carlos Paredes’s legacy in a singular way. Put together as a poetic dialog between the Portuguese guitar and a Super 8 camera, the film is a mix of documentary and visual essay that relies on bits of archival footage and loose testimonies to tell the story of the musician’s life and artistry. Employing a touch of mysticism and the untranslatable feeling of “saudade,” Perpetual Movements is a fitting homage to Paredes while also standing as a work of art in and of itself.

Jennifer Gersten is a musician, writer, and educator. At the moment, she’s in the final stages of a doctorate in violin at Stony Brook and living in Oslo on a Fulbright. In 2018, Jennifer won the Rubin Institute Prize in Music Criticism. Her work has been published in The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Which Sinfonia, and more.

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

Since the age of six, I have been trying and failing to interest myself in anything other than writing and playing the violin. The question became how I was going to force those interests to work together, as they frequently conflict. I joined the daily newspaper as soon as I got to college at Yale and thought I had figured out my life as a newspaper journalist, but an internship in my sophomore year proved to me otherwise. My writing projects started to err on the essayistic, and I realized that I was much more keen on a style that allowed for greater voice and freedom. Which is to say that I appreciate any excuse, much like this one, to write about myself, or about situations where I have some personal stake.

After college, I spent a wonderful summer interning at NPR Music’s editorial department, then was promptly rejected from a journalism fellowship, and so threw myself into a master’s in violin, as it was always going to be one or the other. Galvanized by my NPR experience, I started writing concert reviews in exchange for free tickets and was lucky enough to work as an editor at the magazine Guernica. In 2018 I snatched up a free trip to San Francisco and ended up winning that year’s Rubin Institute Prize in Music Criticism, which came with a substantial cash prize and connected me to a number of incredible colleagues and mentors.

Mark Reynolds is a critic/essayist at the intersection of history, race, and culture. Mark began writing in the ’80s and had a long tenure at PopMatters, where he published the long-running “Negritude 2.0” column.

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

I actually didn’t set out to do print work. My first love was radio, and a few years after graduating college, I did an unpaid stint at the NPR station in Cleveland as a reporter and talk show host, just to get some current experience. Part of that work was writing scripts, and I enjoyed flexing my writing muscles for the first serious time.

After a few years of that, I wrote a letter to the editor of the local alt-weekly, Cleveland Edition, responding to some piece about a local Black journalist. The editor got in touch with me, and that dialogue resulted in me freelancing for the paper (my first professional byline was a cover story!) I wrote mostly about local racial issues and a few book reviews, and also picked up gigs at other local Black and Brown publications (one of which was where I met my wife).

Steffanee Wang works as the associate music editor at NYLON, where she covers “established, emerging, and new artists you haven’t even heard of yet.” Previously, she had a long stint at The FADER, where she moved from editorial assistant to assistant editor. Along the way, she’s also freelanced for places like The FACE and NPR Music.

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

Honestly, with a lot of help from people along the way. I really only started writing about music in college for a Features Writing class. For the entire quarter, we had to report out and write one long-form feature, and I decided to do a profile on a local Chicago musician, Akenya. (She’s now toured with Noname!!).

I was really moved by the camaraderie and community that I encountered while reporting in their underground music scene, and really liked how writing about music also meant getting to touch tangentially on topics like politics, social justice, ethics, and more. Around the same time, I read Duncan Cooper’s so-great Zayn profile, and applied to be an intern at The FADER. I got selected, and eventually was hired as a weekend writer, and then as their editorial assistant when I graduated. A few hops later and now I’m the associate music editor at NYLON!

Insider Extra: September 30

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!

Mine Is “You’ll Never Guess Who I BCC’D On This Email!”

Elizabeth Nelson: Notes on Process [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: A new Notes On Process with Elizabeth Nelson.

Elizabeth Nelson: Notes on Process

Insider Extra: September 23

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!

Eating Snacks (Really Quickly) Is My Passion