#056: Inebriated Persimmons
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 Quarantine Emo Night founder Tatiana Tenreyro and freelance writers Jenessa Williams, Larry Fitzmaurice, Sharon O’Connell, and Brittny Pierre. Plus: Reading recommendations, a documentary you gotta watch, and more! But first…
I Have A Joke, Pt. 1
Reading List
Taylor Crumpton on why misogynoir in hip-hop must end
Craig Jenkins deftly recaps the past few months and says we’re witnessing the total breakdown of discourse
Junkee Media has made an interesting decision re: writing about pop musicians who have fan armies
Kenny Ning runs the numbers on Spotify’s podcast play
The Village Voice re-published a 1993 oral history of disco from Vince Aletti [h/t Michael Gonzales]
Ellen Peirson-Hagger writes about the state of the music press in the wake of Q’s closure
Lauren Teixeira on the radical possibility of BTS
Stereogum has an excerpt from the new memoir of Talking Head Chris Frantz
Anomaly Industries has the tale of an incredible, unknown noise label
Jason Gross interviews former Chicago Tribune music critic Greg Kot
Nyshka Chandran reports on how the dance music industry has reacted to the pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests
Joe Coscarelli interviews Phoebe Bridgers and the team behind her song “Kyoto”
Tom Ellen draws a line between Wu-Tang Clan, William Blake, and The Fall
Q&A: Tatiana Tenreyro
Tatiana Tenreyro is a night editor at BuzzFeed, a freelance writer, and the founder of Home, Like NoPlace Is There: Quarantine Emo Night. She cut her music-writing teeth at Brooklyn Vegan, and wrote a master's thesis about bands and artists dealing with mental health issues. In this excerpt from our interview, Tatiana talks about Quarantine Emo Night and why it’s focused on non-male people in the industry.
Throughout my career writing about emo, I've often had to deal with men either not respecting my work, "educating" me on music, and getting opportunities that myself and many of my non-male peers couldn't. I wanted male attendees to take note of who the women working in emo and pop punk are, whether it's as writers, musicians, managers, photographers, or in any other capacity. I also wanted women, non-binary people, queer folks, and people of color in the scene to feel like they had a safe, non-toxic space where they could enjoy emo without feeling like outsiders. Of course, this doesn't mean that men aren't welcomed here. We highly encourage them to come and I'm glad that the ones who do actually respect what we're doing and look forward to seeing who's DJing each week.
Read the full interview with Tatiana here.
Podcasts!
The Music History Project interviews Monty Python’s music man André Jacquemin
Afropop Worldwide explains why the gumbe drum is such a powerful instrument
Today, Explained has some of the most incredible music and sound design; here’s all of its original song, available for listening [h/t Sara Weber]
The newest edition of Hit Parade is all about yacht rock
Music journalists Sylvie Simmons and Kate Hutchinson were the latest guests on Bigmouth
Steven Hyden and Ian Cohen’s Indiecast kicked off with a lengthy chat about Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs
Q&A: Jenessa Williams
Jenessa Williams is a music writer, PhD student, and zine editor. Her music writing has appeared in DIY, NME, and more, while her zine champions “creatives of colour in the north of England.” In this excerpt from our interview, Jenessa describes her academic work—and how it does (and doesn’t) intersect with her freelance music writing.
My academic research has always linked back to music, and in my own experiences as a fan, I’ve found myself interested in the sociopolitics of fandom, particularly with regards to cancel culture. At masters level, I looked at the function and value of performative feminism within Drake’s millennial fanbase, and now at PhD level, I’m considering how music fans self-regulate their emotional investments in artists who have been accused of sexual assault as a result of the #MeToo movement.
Sometimes this crosses over with my journalistic work, but on the whole, they’re pretty separate. I think having two parallel careers has definitely improved by writing style both academically and journalistically, in terms of my ability to construct an argument and to recognise that fans are always central to an artist’s story, for better or worse. I really hope that when my studies are finished, I can pursue a teaching career that blends both my academic and journalistic experience, hopefully on some kind of degree course.
Read the full interview with Jenessa here.
A Cause Worth Supporting
This week’s cause worth supporting comes from Jenessa Williams.
Based in Leeds, UK, Come Play With Me is a social enterprise that works hard to support emerging artists, particularly those of marginalised identity. They run a 7’’ singles club, a print magazine and put on various events and workshops that really help artists demystify the industry, putting them in contact with affordable producers, PR's and other resources that help get things going at the very beginnings of their journey. As a result, plenty of the Come Play With Me bands have gone on to do really great things. You can support them via Patreon here, or check out their releases here.
Stuff You Gotta Watch
Stuff You Gotta Watch celebrates music journalism in video form. This week’s column is by freelance writer Chal Ravens.
With no narrator, no frills, and some dodgy English subtitles, Yo No Soy Guapo is an undiluted blast of life-and-music in working class Mexico City. Joyce Garcia’s fly-on-the-wall documentary explores the tradition of the sonidero—the DJ-slash-announcer who commands the mic while the sound system blasts cumbia and salsa to an audience of all ages and proclivities.
There’s the shy, devoted El Duende, who would rather go hungry than miss out on a new record, and there’s Lupita La Cigarrita—a rare sonidera in a macho world, a feisty, fast-talking character who spends much of the film arguing with cops.
It’s a familiar antagonism for lovers of loud music: the nebulous connection, in the minds of the authorities, between a huge speaker stack and undesirable behaviour. Somehow, the music itself becomes the catalyst for chaos, a libidinal force that must be stamped out before the “thugs” invade. But, La Cigarrita points out, where else are they supposed to go? Poor people can’t afford to hire a venue—yet the city won’t give them a permit for a street party. Relentless and righteous, she channels a deeper anger at the marginalisation of the poor and the cruel technocracy of the modern city: “They’re our streets. They’re not theirs. They’re everybody’s.”
Five Salty Descriptions Of Classical Music
Nicolas Slonimsky’s Lexicon of Musical Invective is an entertaining compendium of “critical assaults on composers since Beethoven’s time.” Arranged by composer, it collects snippets of negative reviews. Here are five lines I found particularly brutal.
If this be art, then let the music of the future find her mission in sewer, pest-house, and brothel.
After hearing Varese’s Ionization, I am anxious that you should hear my composition scored for two stoves and a kitchen sink. I’ve named it Concussion Symphony, descriptive of the disintegration of an Irish potato under the influence of a powerful atomizer.
People who do not like harmonies suggestive of rampant lemons and inebriated persimmons will not enjoy this Symphony.
The third movement began with a dog howling at midnight, proceeded to imitate the regurgitations of the less-refined or lower-middle-class type of water-closer cistern, modulating thence into the mass snoring of a Naval dormitory around dawn.
It was a great relief when the choral part [of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony] was arrived at, of which I had great expectations. It opened with eight bars of a commonplace theme, very much like Yankee Doodle.
Bits, Bobs
The Skinny has launched a crowdfunding campaign
Entkunstung has published its 2019 yearbook, including interviews with Jeff Mills and coffee enthusiast Jerry Saltz
Fistful of Metal is a new print magazine all about heavy metal [h/t Insite Music]
Q&A: Larry Fitzmaurice
Larry Fitzmaurice is a freelance writer. He’s held numerous staff positions over the years at outlets like Pitchfork and The FADER. Larry just launched a paid-subscription-supported newsletter called Last Donut of the Night, where he’s interviewed Richard X, recommended Charlie Puth’s new Subway commercial, and much more. In this excerpt from our interview, Larry talks about what he’d like to see more and less of in music journalism right now.
Even though I’m on record as waxing existential on music writing at large (and I do think there’s a difference between “music writing” and “music journalism”), I don’t think it’s my place to be explicitly prescriptive about what happens next. There are a lot of young people trying to do this—either for a living, or for sport—as well as a lot of voices that were previously marginalized by bigoted hiring and commissioning practices (many of which still continue to this day). I think it’s more important than ever to listen to those voices as far as where this subset of media needs to go, and even though I continue to write about music as a general profession, it’s less important than ever to listen to voices like mine as far as what should happen going forward.
Read the full interview with Larry here.
I Have A Joke, Pt. 2
Did You Know?
There’s lots of great hip-hop in unusual time signatures
Ludcacris matches up surprisingly well with German composers
Rolling Stone used to ask about astrological signs in its job applications
A 2019 science fiction book predicted the pandemic’s effect on music
Hype Williams’s Instagram is great
Q&A: Sharon L O’Connell
Sharon L O’Connell is a longtime music journalist, who spent significant time in London as Melody Maker’s reviews editor, followed by a staff gig at Time Out. She’s been freelance for nearly a decade. Our interview is full of fascinating nuggets, but this excerpt focuses on what she’d like to see more of in music journalism right now.
I still see women too often being written about in a way that emphasises their personal experience over their artistry, as if all they have to offer in terms of self-expression is their emotional life. So many interviews (irrespective of the writer’s gender) rest on the assumption that this constitutes the sum of their creativity; the interviewer goes straight for the experiential jugular and the artist is barely asked about her process or motivation at all. So, I’d like to see that acknowledged at least equally, as a matter of course: probe women artists as much about the form of their work as its content.
Read the full interview with Sharon here.
I Have A Joke, Pt. 3
Q&A: Brittny Pierre
Brittny Pierre is a freelance writer with bylines in Complex, The Village Voice, Bustle, HelloGiggles, and more. (This LA Weekly article may (or may not) have been responsible for Janet Jackson’s eventual induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.) In this excerpt from our interview, Brittny discusses how her approach to her work has changed over the past few years.
We all have our dream publications we want to work for, but after a few years I decided that I wanted to find a more stable career and write more whenever I’m feeling inspired instead of relying solely on a freelance check. I took a few years away from journalism to work in education, but currently I’m in social media content and marketing.
I started a blog to get back into my creative space. And currently, I think we’re starting to realize, creating your own platform is important, especially when so many publications fold and the majority of your work is no longer online. But also, now that we’re seeing how big of a gap there is when it comes to equity, it’s hard to accept that a lot of publications are not paying Black writers the same amount as white writers. Now more than ever, I understand that negotiating rates are crucial. I still believe your own platform, with your ideas, where you have control of the access, is needed in this business. Personally, I have more of a peace of mind to write when I am inspired by music/culture and pitching to different publications rather than having to do it for survival.
Read the full interview with Brittny here.
Academic Stuff
In the wake of the Journal of Schenkerian Studies controversy, an “Open Letter On Antiracist Actions Within SMT” has been published
The Dena Epstein Award for Archival and Library Research in American Music is currently taking applications for 2021 grants; for more info email Laurie.Sampsel@Colorado.edu
Samantha Ege’s dissertation about Black composer Florence Price is now available
Call for Papers: Key Terms in Music Theory for Anti-Racist Scholars: Epistemic Disavowals, Reimagined Formalisms
Call for Papers: Musikalische Regionen und Regionalismen in den USA / Musical Regions and Regionalisms in the USA
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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…