Bucolic Folk Foundations

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

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

Been There (Both Sides!)

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Reading List

• Ed Morales takes stock of Latin jazz in 2023
• Rachel Cholst chats with Jiegang, a Chinese translator of queer country music lyrics
• Hua Hsu imbibes the spirit of Drink Champs
• Steve Waksman talks with Michaelangelo Matos about where DJing fits into the world of live music
• Dr. Jada Watson looks at the relationship between data and diversity in country music
• Jeremy Gordon goes into the New York Public Library wax cylinder archives
• Ashawnta Jackson shares vintage academic takes on “taste”
• Daisy Woodward explores Gen Z’s interest in classical music
• Tatiana Cirisano explains what ChatGPT could do for independent music
• Simon Reynolds ponders whether AI could take his job

Lede Of The Week

“When TIDAL asked me to write an essay about whether Artificial Intelligence could fulfill the role of the music critic, my first thought was ‘Can I get A.I. to do the piece for me?’” - Simon Reynolds

Q&A: Jason Lipshutz

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

From a practical standpoint, music magazines and sites will continue to lean into coverage of popular artists for web traffic purposes, while coverage of smaller and independent artists will continue to be harder to find. That sucks, but also makes sense, as the music media world has consolidated with mind-boggling speed [with] a lot of talented writers unnecessarily pushed out of jobs.

One silver lining is that there will always be compelling voices with new and interesting storytelling methods outside of the music journalism establishment—maybe they’re on Substack, or TikTok, or Mastodon, or something that doesn’t exist yet—and they’ll certainly influence the next iteration of that establishment (if they want to). The other silver lining is that popular music is being increasingly democratized, with years-old songs becoming radio hits, totally unknown artists becoming streaming sensations, and songs from all over the world gaining U.S. attention because enough people have demanded as much.

For instance, platforms like YouTube and TikTok have helped an incredible amount of non-English music, from Afrobeats to K-pop to Latin pop, break into the U.S. mainstream over the past six years. Consequently, a wider variety of voices—which frankly should have already been receiving editorial opportunities before this moment—have become crucial in covering those spaces. I’m hopeful that the future of music journalism not only allows more voices to thrive as more music from the perceived fringes pushes toward the mainstream, but that they are compensated fairly in doing so.

Read the full interview with Jason here.

When You Just Don’t Care Anymore…

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Podcasts!

• Brad Lapin of Damage chats about the punk zine’s history on Rock Writ
• La Brega returns for a new season this week
• Money 4 Nothing explains how basically all of reggaeton got sued
• Drowned in Sound will return as a podcast and record label
• Popcast discusses Ticketmaster

Q&A: Jewel Wicker

Jewel Wicker is a freelance entertainment and culture reporter from Atlanta, Georgia—a place central to what she does. Much of her writing focuses on the city and the many stories within it, with bylines in publications such as GQ, Billboard, NBC News, The New York Times, Teen Vogue, and more. In this excerpt from our interview, Jewel talks about how her approach to music journalism has changed in the past few years.

I’ve continued to broaden the way I think about being a music journalist. Reporting can take so many forms and I’m so lucky to have been able to write in both digital and print publications, curate live exhibits and co-host a podcast in recent years. It keeps my job interesting and allows me to meet people where they are with relevant information and news.

How do you organize your work?

I use Notion, Apple’s calendar app and a physical to do list to stay organized. Notion is the place where I track all of my assignments for the year, as well as my professional budget and goals. I use my digital calendar and physical to do list to map out my work days throughout each week. I am pretty strict about not working on the weekends unless I’m profiling an artist or working on a feature that necessitates it, but I do like to take a few minutes each Sunday to write out a daily to-do list for the week ahead. That gives me peace of mind and helps clamp down on some of the Monday blues.

Read the full interview with Jewel here.

Stuff You Gotta Watch

Stuff You Gotta Watch celebrates music journalism in video form. This week’s column is by Ana Leorne.

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

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

How Do You Do, Fellow TikTokers

• @mathiasmorte hates bad sound foley
• @gee_derrick wants to know what the sound of soul is
• @name3songs thinks trend cycles move too fast
• @sonnybabie weighs in on fake streams
• @why_wear_that celebrates Vivienne Westwood

Trivia Time

In 1982, Greil Marcus made a top 10 list of the worst rock critics ever. Who topped the list?

Bits, Bobs

• Ian Sickles and S.W. Lauden have launched newsletters
• Jane Suck has passed away
• 7 Days of Sound takes places this weekend
• Michael Shapiro discusses book proposals

Made Me Do A Second Take

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Q&A: Andrea Warner

Andrea Warner is a freelance writer and the author of Buffy Sainte-Marie: The Authorized Biography and We Oughta Know: How Four Women Ruled the ’90s and Changed Canadian Music. She’s the co-writer and associate producer of the 2022 documentary Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On, and co-hosts the weekly feminist pop culture podcast Pop This! Andrea is a settler who was born and raised in Vancouver on the unceded traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. In this excerpt from our interview, Andrea explains how her approach to music journalism has changed in the past few years.

I listen more and try to talk less. As a white settler and cis, straight woman, I’ve been thinking a lot about de-centering whiteness and decolonizing. I’m trying to confront my own complicity in upholding and benefitting from systemic barriers and institutional oppression. My own process is ongoing and accountability is crucial. That’s the work I’m trying to do on myself and it’s a work-in-progress. I have so much to learn and unlearn and then re-learn. There are often real power imbalances between interviewer and interviewee; it’s a vulnerable thing for someone to trust you with their story and I don’t take that for granted. It’s also not necessarily my job to tell other people’s stories. That can be a pretty colonial mindset, or at least often has its roots in a colonial way of thinking. Consent-based journalism is the way forward, especially for writers working with historically oppressed, marginalized, and under-represented folks and communities.

What’s one tip that you’d give a music journalist starting out right now?

Write with your whole heart, listen with your whole body, and don’t worry about what’s cool. Find writers whose work you admire and writers whose work challenges you to think in ways you never have before.

Read the full interview with Andrea here.

A Cause Worth Supporting

From Andrea Warner​​:

UNYA (Urban Native Youth Association) is a vibrant hub for Indigenous youth and lots of incredible young musicians, rappers, MCs, and songwriters have come up through UNYA. They’ve continued to provide programming throughout COVID and are an essential resource for many Indigenous youth.

Check out all of the causes highlighted by folks I’ve interviewed.

Academic Stuff

• New issues: Journal of Popular Music Education, Popular Music, Ethnomusicology Forum, Tempo, Journal of Singing, Asian Music, Analytical Approaches to World Musics, Ethnomusicology Review, SMT-V, and Yearbook Song and Popular Culture
• Ethan Hein explains a class he calls The Song Factory
• Call for Papers: Vintage Materialities in Music [Abstract due February 15]
• Registration is open for The String Band Summit
• Call for Articles: ViewFinder Issue 122: Digital Humanities [Abstracts due March 13]

The Closing Credits

Thanks for reading! In case you’ve missed any special features, I’ve published a number of them in the newsletter, including articles about music journalism history, what music journalism will be like in 2221, and much more. You can check out all of that here.

I also do a recurring column in the newsletter called Notes On Process. The premise is simple: I share a Google Doc with a music journalist where we go into depth on one of their pieces. It hopefully provides an insight into how music writers do their work. You can check out all editions of Notes On Process here.

How Can I Support The Newsletter?

Here are three easy ways you can support the newsletter:

• Forward it to a friend
• Buy me a coffee
• Become an ongoing supporter of the newsletter

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

A Friendly Reminder

If you can’t afford to subscribe for access to ongoing supporter extras, no matter the reason, please hit me up at music.journalism.insider@gmail.com. I’ll be happy to give you a free one-year subscription to the newsletter. This offer is extended especially for college students and recent grads, but is open to anyone.

Trivia Time Answer

Albert Goldman topped Greil Marcus’s 1982 list of the worst rock critics ever.

A Final Note

Thanks for reading! I make playlists from time to time. Check them out if you’re interested. And 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…