#065: A Story To Tell
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! The founder of The Alternative, Henderson Cole; the group behind a new book called Singing for Our Lives: Stories from the Street Choirs; voice scholar Katherine Meizel; and Conqueroo PR man Cary Baker. Plus: A really scary David Bowie cake, reading recommendations, and much more! But first…
Shouldn't Be An Either/Or
Reading List
Rolling Stone published their new list of the 500 greatest albums of all time
Critics from The Guardian talk about the times they’ve gotten it wrong
Sharine Taylor explains why soca is the sound of rebellion and imagination
This Twitter thread about Najeeb “Geeby” Dajani by Sama’an Ashrawi is great
Tomas Fraser profiles music writer Aniefiok Ekpoudom
Michelle Lhooq reports on music festivals attempting to reopen
Richard Villegas on the Puerto Rican rock underground
Alec Hanley Bemis with some advice for those thinking about starting a record label
Anne Helen Petersen on how taste gets made
Cat Zhang on the most hated producer on TikTok
A country music reading list from Aaron Gilbreath
Q&A: Henderson Cole
Henderson Cole is a music lawyer and the founder of The Alternative, a project that launched in 2014. The website offers reviews, features, and interviews of mostly punk, emo, and hardcore-inclined groups. (Although anything the staff is into is fair game.) Henderson is a staunch advocate for independent media, and spends his time as a lawyer helping artists navigate the music business. In this excerpt from our interview, Henderson talks about the mentors he’s had along the way in building The Alternative.
I haven’t had a lot of journalism mentors, that’s one downside of going your own way, but I took inspiration from journalism outside of music: my favorite WFAN sports talk radio hosts (the Schmooze!), Deadspin, Weird NJ, Jacobin. There were also less journalistic influences like Mystery Science Theater, The Chris Gethard Show, and other creators who both built something different and found ways to bring it to the largest possible audience without losing the purpose.
I also learn a ton from the other writers who make up The Alt, who often have way more journalism experience than me. Same goes for the people who run other independent music blogs like Grey Estates, Gold Flake Paint, and Post Trash, who are always showing me the potential of what independent sites can achieve.
Read the full interview with Henderson.
Podcasts!
Lost Notes, hosted this season by Hanif Abdurraqib, released its seven episodes this week
Former VIBE editor-in-chief Danyel Smith on her career in journalism
On How Long Gone, Sam Hockley-Smith remembers his time at The FADER
Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald discuss The Rolling Stone Best 500 Albums List on The Watch
The Current Rewind has begun its season on Minneapolis venue First Avenue
The latest episode of Vision of Sound features Katherine Green of Rendezvous Project, an organization that recently released the multi-faceted oral history project Sweet Harmony: Radio, Rave & Waltham Forest, 1989-1994
Who’s Ready To Start A Change.Org Petition?
Q&A: Campaign Choirs Writing Collective
Campaign Choirs Writing Collective are Kelvin Mason, Jenny Patient, and Lotte Reimer (with support from academic adviser and editor Gavin Brown). The group put together the recent book Singing for Our Lives: Stories from the Street Choirs, which pulls together more than 40 interviews of UK street choir members to paint a picture of their impact and legacy. In this excerpt from our interview, Kelvin and Lotte describe how they decided to write the book.
Kelvin Mason: I’ve been a member of an activist choir, a street choir, for almost 15 years. Joining the choir, which I view as a political affinity group as well as a musical collaboration, was as a direct result of other manifestations of my activism: During the Wales Social Forum in 2005 a fellow activist, Molly Scott-Cato, now a Green Party MEP, spotted that I could shout very loudly and so recruited me to the newly forming Côr Gobaith (Hope Choir), which sings and campaigns for peace, justice and environmental sustainability.
There were all these people singing in street choirs all over the UK—and indeed all over the world—and yet the phenomenon was not recognised: A Google search for ‘street choir’ did not reveal any of the many groups that even I alone knew of; there was no entry in Wikipedia… This was a story, a history and politics, that needed telling.
Lotte Reimer: I am a founding member of Côr Gobaith (described by Kelvin), which grew out of the 2005 Social Forum Cymru (Wales) in Aberystwyth. Through the annual Street Choirs Festival, a roving festival hosted by different street choirs across the UK, we met all these amazing political choirs, campaigning for similar causes and it felt like coming home. Getting to know members of the different choirs and hearing how they came to join their choir was fascinating. Each and every member of those choirs has a story to tell and it felt so important to record at least some of those stories.
Read the full interview with the Campaign Choirs Writing Collective.
A Cause Worth Supporting
This week’s cause worth supporting comes from Jeremy Gordon.
Given the state of the world there are… so… many causes worth supporting, but my mind defaulted to the Yellowhammer Fund, an excellent organization committed to providing accessible reproductive health care in Alabama.
Check out all of the causes highlighted by the folks I’ve interviewed.
The Great British Bake Off Is Back!
Q&A: Katherine Meizel
Katherine Meizel is Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology at Bowling Green State University, and author of the new book Multivocality: Singing on the Borders of Identity. Katherine has spent a great deal of time focusing her work on voice and disability studies, and this book is the first time that a music studies book has gone into depth on the experiences of d/Deaf singers (among many other topics). In this excerpt from our interview, Katherine discusses what made the topic so interesting to her.
You’ve probably heard the phrase “find your voice.” It comes from writing education, and it’s really a powerful idea for anyone. But it assumes that an individual has a singular, unique way of expressing themselves. I’m interested in how we make choices about our voices that are not singular, but instead to a surprising extent are adaptable and negotiable. I’ve always been fascinated by voice, and how people use it individually and socially to navigate the world and power structures around them. As a singer, and particularly as a disabled singer, I had my own experiences, and I had seen many singers I knew deal with their own challenges in different ways. I wanted to think about these experiences in depth, and learn how other singers think about them.
Read the full interview with Katherine.
Academic Stuff
The Now In Sound, a new online magazine and community platform from Norient, is now online
Perfect Beat, the Asia-Pacific Journal of Research into Contemporary Music and Popular Culture, has published a new issue
The latest edition of Metal Music Studies is devoted to “Metal, Jews and the Holocaust”
Music courses at Monash University are under threat
Call for Papers: Translation Studies is preparing a special issue devoted to Translation and Performance Cultures
A new issue of Early Music has been published
Goldsmiths will host a panel discussion on “decolonising music studies” on October 15
Call for Papers: Penn State’s New Music Festival and Symposium is looking for presentations for its March 2021 event
What Was It Like To Play With Steely Dan?
[Source: Steely Dan’s Aja (Classic Albums)]
Q&A: Cary Baker
Cary Baker is the PR guy behind Conqueroo, a firm that specializes in “rock, soul, blues, country and countless hybrids thereof.” In an earlier life, Cary spent a great deal of time at music publications, so I felt like he was well-placed to talk about music journalism from both sides. In this excerpt from our interview, Cary offers one tip for anyone looking to get into PR right now.
I’d tell someone just starting to learn to write. REALLY learn how to write. I see pitches from other publicists that make me cringe. We need to be masters in the art of presentation. If I’m cringing at pitch emails that are a little “off,” I can only imagine the lead pop music critic from The New York Times suffering that email. And keep your ears open for new music, whether it’s music you represent or not. It’s very important for me to know a bit about Billie Eilish and Phoebe Bridgers, even if ours isn’t exactly a millennial-dominated roster. I’m competing against Phoebe Bridgers for space when I pitch 86-year-old blues legend Bobby Rush. So how am I going to assert him in the quest for space?
Read the full interview with Cary.
Bits, Bobs
Penske Media and MRC have created a joint venture to run Rolling Stone, Billboard, and a few other magazines
I Care If You Listen has joined American Composers Forum
How many of these hip-hop music blogs do you remember?
Treble is hosting an online fundraiser
This interactive record deal simulator is eye-opening
Aquarium Drunkard editor Jason P. Woodbury has a new blog
A Twitter thread of 120 Minutes fits
Mat Dryhurst has a list of resources to help build an interdependent music scene
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The Closing Credits
Thanks for reading! Full disclosure: My day job is at uDiscover Music, a branded content online magazine owned by Universal Music. This newsletter is not affiliated or sponsored in any way by Universal, and any links that relate to the work of my department will be clearly marked. Feel free to reach out to me via email at music.journalism.insider@gmail.com. On Twitter, it’s @JournalismMusic. Until next time…