#051: Pre-Bearded Trajectories Of Expectation
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.
Today in the newsletter: Interviews with Pitchfork Editorial Fellow Mankaprr Conteh; music theory scholar Megan Kaes Long; dance music journalist Sheryl Garratt; metal music scholar Amanda Digioia; and Guided By Voices mega-fan Jeff Gomez. Plus! A celebration of Dave Tompkins’ idiosyncratic mind, podcast recommendations, and more! But first…
Profile Writing Tip
Reading List
George E. Lewis “highlights some of the ways African American composers have explored what it means — and could mean — to be American”
Tom Breihan writes about Toto’s “Africa”
Julia Toppin has a short history of women in drum & bass
Zachary Lipez on memoirs by Mark Lanegan and Joan Didion
Noah Yoo on Seo Taiji and Boys, a band that would eventually become “the prototype for all the K-pop groups to come”
Matthew Ingram on the intersections between Eastern philosophy and cosmic music
Reshma B breaks down the many meanings of “Babylon” in reggae music
Abe Beame examines the impact of Lil Wayne’s mixtapes
Q&A: Mankaprr Conteh
Mankaprr Conteh is an Editorial Fellow at Pitchfork, and a freelance journalist and multimedia producer interested in “social issues and pop culture with an eye to gender and race.” She does all of this, somehow, while finishing up her Master’s Degree in Journalism. In this excerpt from our interview, I asked Mankaprr about her usual day-to-day right now.
I’m currently an Editorial Fellow at Pitchfork, which was and is my absolute dream publication. As a Fellow, I get to catch up with my co-workers and their projects at our daily morning meeting, then am responsible for building most of the album review shells on the site. I listen to a ton of music while I do that. I also fact-check album reviews and articles, which is a valuable opportunity to study Pitchfork’s singular writing. Those tasks take up a lot of time, but there are points in my week I can dedicate to my own writing, interviews, and meetings with co-workers.
I’m finishing up my Master’s in journalism at CUNY’s J-School, so I spent a lot of evenings working on my data journalism class or the independent study I designed for covering African music. Now that I’m almost done, I spend a lot of my evening on Twitter catching up on what’s happening in the world of music journalism and the world at large.
Read the full interview with Mankaprr here.
A Cause Worth Supporting
This week’s cause worth supporting comes from Mankaprr Conteh.
I was the communications manager at a Brooklyn non-profit called Girls for Gender Equity (GGE) for some time. Since 2000, the organization has continuously evolved to serve over 9,000 girls, boys, and non-binary youth through programming and policy advocacy for and with them, focused on eradicating gender-based violence. GGE trains young people up in the tradition of radical black feminist organizing and fights for better conditions for them, like getting police out of schools and dismantling oppressive dress codes.
Bits, Bobs
Billboard published an article about PWR BTTM last week, and Evan Minsker sums up (some of) the problems with it: “A writer broad-brushing allegations as ‘unusual,’ ‘frustrating,’ and somehow less-than-legitimate because they were made anonymously is bizarre and fucked up!”
In collaboration with the Goethe-Institut, Laura Aha and Kristoffer Cornelis of German electronic magazine GROOVE will host an international workshop program for aspiring music journalists; the deadline for applications is August 3
Freelance writer Larry Fitzmaurice is launching a newsletter
The Trans Journalists Association launched this past week
Applications for the Google Podcasts creator program are now open
Just Like Michael Jordan’s Hall Of Fame Speech
Q&A: Megan Kaes Long
Megan Kaes Long is Associate Professor of Music Theory at Oberlin College, with a new book out entitled Hearing Homophony: Tonal Expectation at the Turn of the Seventeenth Century. The book is, frankly, over my head, BUT the guiding thesis that Megan lays out is still incredibly fascinating. In this excerpt from our interview, here’s what she had to say about the book.
[Hearing Homophony] brings a new perspective to an old question—how did we get from sixteenth-century modality to eighteenth-century tonality? Normally we talk about the way modal scales (like Ionian, Dorian, Mixolydian, etc.) transform into the major and minor scales. I argue that this is not actually the right question—instead, I claim that tonality involves the way composers create expectations in musical works.
In the book, I don't look at the high-prestige church and chamber music that musicologists and theorists like to write about. Instead, I study popular songs—many of which aren't particularly great pieces of music on their own. What I noticed was how popular songs of the Renaissance are a lot like popular songs of today—they are highly repetitive, they rely a lot on rhyme, regular rhythmic patterns based on the poetic meter, and modular forms. I argue that, in these popular songs, composers created "trajectories of expectation": basically, they design phrases that lead you away from tonic and then help you predict a return to tonic. If we focus on tonality as a way of interacting with a musical work rather than a particular set of pitches that are deployed in a particular order, a lot of the messy questions about whether individual works are modal or tonal melt away.
Read the full interview with Megan here.
Biz Round-Up
Resident Advisor has started a subscription service
Stereogum has launched a crowd-funding campaign
Pitchfork is launching a new podcast
FACT Mag got a rebrand
Mixmag’s print magazine has gone on hiatus, and the entire print team has been laid off
Stuff You Gotta Watch
Stuff You Gotta Watch celebrates music journalism in video form. This week’s column is by freelance writer Jesse Locke.
One of the most baffling pieces of classic rock trivia is how early incarnations of the Velvet Underground, Grateful Dead, and ZZ Top were all named The Warlocks. That’s where Banger Films’ ZZ Top: That Little Ol’ Band From Texas begins, alongside Billy Gibbons’ first band The Moving Sidewalks, whose name and sound were direct responses to the 13th Floor Elevators. This pre-ZZ Top era, long celebrated by garage-rock freaks, is discussed in great detail via archival photos and Hendrix tour tales.
From there, the film follows the band’s pre-bearded trajectory, revealing their embrace of gimmicks from day one. ZZ Top’s 1976 Worldwide Texas Tour included live buzzards, buffalo, and longhorn steer on a stage in the shape of their home state. Yet the rise of MTV became the trio’s ticket to international stardom thanks to their fuzzy guitar spinning videos for “Legs” and “Gimme All Your Lovin’” (directed by Randy Newman’s brother Tim).
If criticisms can be lobbed at That Little Ol’ Band From Texas, the film clearly suffers from a case of hagiography. The band members’ stories are the stuff of tour bus lore, yet feel like they’ve been rehearsed and retold countless times. Drummer Frank Beard’s drug addiction struggles could have provided an emotional centrepiece, but almost everything that could be deemed controversial is delved into with the depth of a two-inch puddle. For true music nerds, meanwhile, there’s not even a mention of the mysterious period when members of ZZ Top toured as The Zombies, or a moment devoted to their true masterpiece, “Burger Man.”
Q&A: Sheryl Garratt
As a music journalism fan AND an electronic music fan, I have long been curious to talk to Sheryl Garratt. She was one of the first journalists to document Chicago house, back in 1986 for The Face. Just recently, her book about the acid house / rave explosion in the UK, Adventures in Wonderland, was re-released. (Grab it here if you’re in the UK; here if you’re in the US.) These days, Sheryl is editing books (like this re-published collection of the writings of her friend Gavin Hills) and serving as a coach for creatives at The Creative Life. Given her current work, this excerpt from our interview focuses on tips.
What’s one tip that you’d give a music journalist starting out right now?
Ask really good questions. Listen deeply to the answers. Then ask more questions, based on what you’ve heard. Follow what you’re passionate about, and accept that might lead outside music and into art and fashion, film or dance. Most artists are far less tribal now, far more open to being creative in different ways. And keep your copyright as much as you can. Everything you produce now might be valuable later, and open up all sorts of opportunities.
What’s your favorite part of the job?
Talking to really interesting people about what they’re making, what their lives are like, how they do what they do. This is never, ever boring. Two pairs of questions that have taken me to the most amazing adventures: “Where are you going now? Can I come?” And “Where are the best clubs? Will you take me?”
Read the full interview with Sheryl here.
Podcasts!
The latest edition of Popcast is all about super fans getting politically active; the guest is the writer behind the (excellent) Stan newsletter, Denisha Kuhlor
Former Grantland and New Yorker staffer Jay Caspian King was the guest on the second edition of Diversity Hire
Open Mike Eagle has started a podcast network, debuting things with a Prince Paul-centric podcast called What Had Happened Was
Reggie Ugwu discusses the legacy of Jackie Shane on KEXP’s Sound & Vision
The More You Know
Ten Things I Wasn’t Expecting To Find In The Index of “How To Wreck A Nice Beach” (But Maybe Should Have?)
Dave Tompkins is one of the most gifted music writers around. He’s also one of the most reference-heavy. When reading one of his record reviews, you shouldn’t be surprised if the magisterial 1970s mustache of an obscure Oakland A’s pitcher becomes a major plot point. In that spirit, here are ten entries I wasn’t expecting to find in the index of his 2011 book How to Wreck a Nice Beach: The Vocoder from World War II to Hip-Hop, The Machine Speaks.
Couric, Katie
Dom Pedro, Emperor (Brazil)
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von
MacArthur, Gen. Douglas
O.C (rapper)
O.C., The (television show)
Pryor, Richard
Rehnquist, Chief Justice William
Solzhenitsyn, Alexander
Wahlberg, Donnie
Q&A: Amanda Digioia
Amanda Digioia is a PhD student at University College London. She’s just published an article in Metal Music Studies entitled “Nameless, but not blameless: Motherhood in Finnish heavy metal music.” I knew nothing about the subject, so wanted to get in touch to find out more. You can read about her article in the full interview, but in this excerpt Amanda talks about how she got into metal music studies in the first place.
I was doing my MA in Women’s Studies while working full time. To decompress after a long day, I would watch documentaries (mostly depressing ones). To change things up, I decided to watch a documentary called Promised Land of Heavy Metal. I knew I wanted to do a PhD after my MA, but I originally had planned to do it on something horror (specifically Clive Barker) related. However, that documentary piqued my interest. I soon learned that you could study heavy metal music academically. I knew I had to learn more. My MA thesis and first monograph were about childbirth and parenting in horror texts. This article is an attempt to improve upon my former scholarship while combining it with my current work in the subfield of metal music studies.
There are personal reasons for me entering this field, too. I’m the child of parents who love metal music. When I was gestating, my Mom played Metallica and AC/DC to me in the womb. As an adult, I still love Ride the Lightning (1984) and metal music. That being said, metal music lyrics or scenes are still worthy of critique. I am not going to argue that ‘metal is inclusive’ when I know metal is not inclusive: one bigot at a show is one bigot too many. There’s still lots of issues that bands, fans, and scholars need to unpack and fix in order to truly make the scene inclusive.
Read the full interview with Amanda here.
Academic Stuff
The 2020 American Folklife Center Fellowships and Awards have been announced
A new issue of Ethnomusicology is out
Rock Music Studies is looking for submissions for a special issue called “Jazz Diasporas”
A new issue of Acta Musicologica—the official peer-reviewed journal of the International Musicological Society—has been published
The folks behind an edited collection entitled The Best Side of Capitalism? The Life, Death, and Afterlife of the Record Store are requesting chapter proposals
Q&A: Jeff Gomez
Jeff Gomez is the author of Zeppelin Over Dayton: Guided By Voices Album By Album. The book started life as a podcast that exhaustively analyzes every single long-player by the cult Ohio rock band. I once listened to the entire Merzbox and wrote about the experience, so I guess I’m a similar sort of crazy… which is why I was so interested to talk to Jeff about the project. In this excerpt from our interview, I asked Jeff to explain how he secured the book deal.
I’ve found that, when it comes to publishing a book, writing is the easy part. What’s really difficult is getting someone to publish the manuscript. One time I wrote a book in six weeks and then spent more than a year getting a publisher. Why is it so difficult? Well, it’s because publishers are inundated with pitches, proposals, and manuscripts. This is why every writer needs to have not only a superb proposal or polished manuscript, but also needs to give a lot of thought to marketing and how to reach the intended audience. Picking a super arcane subject matter may be interesting for you, and a hundred or so people around the globe might also be interested, but a project too narrow/niche will have a hard time finding a publisher.
In my most recent case (Zeppelin Over Dayton is my eighth book), the project began as a podcast. Doing this allowed me to reach my core audience slowly and over time. I then took my download numbers, and the good reviews I’d received on iTunes and elsewhere, to a publisher; this proved there was an audience for the material. I also showed in the proposal that I knew where I could find the audience for the book online, and I pledged to do my part to build and generate buzz before and after the book came out.
Read the full interview with Jeff here.
A Writing Trick
Megan Kaes Long shared a helpful technique in her interview this week that I wanted to specially highlight.
I really like to think through ideas out loud or in writing, so I would set up a google chat between my two email addresses and argue with myself as I tried to develop my thinking. It was so helpful to engage with my own ideas like they were the work of a colleague or student—it made me more objective, and it allowed me to take more risks.
Hey, Thanks For This Newsletter! How Can I Support This Thing?
Here are three easy ways you can support the newsletter:
Forward it to a friend
Become an ongoing supporter of the newsletter (what Substack calls a “paid subscriber”)
What sort of perks are there for ongoing supporters?
Insider Extra - An additional e-mail from me each week, usually featuring job listings, freelance calls, and more
How To Pitch Database - Access to a database with contact information and pitching info for hundreds of publications
Reading Recommendations - Access to a resource page collecting great pieces of music journalism, sourced from great music journalists
Advice - Access to a resource page devoted to collecting advice from journalists and editors on how to excel at music journalism
Interviews - Access to the hundreds of interviews that have appeared in the newsletter, with writers and editors from Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, the Guardian, and more
The Closing Credits
Thanks for reading! Feel free to reach out to me via email at music.journalism.insider@gmail.com. On Twitter, it’s @JournalismMusic. Until next time…