#190: A Culture Of Responsiveness
A Culture Of Responsiveness
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 writer Ted Davis, music business expert Donald S. Passman, and scholar Denise Von Glahn. Plus! Lester Bangs, reading recommendations, and much more! But first…
Yep, Pt. 1
Source
Reading List
- Philip Sherburne asks, “Is Bandcamp as we know it over?”
- Shawn Reynaldo outlines his concerns about the Bandcamp sale
- Miranda Reinert offers her take on the Bandcamp news
- Wayne Robins chronicles a spin through Top 40 radio
- Alyssa Meyers says TikTok helped revive the marketing jingle
- Michael Faber writers movingly about tinnitus
- Andrew Unterberger helmed a massive Billboard list of the 500 best pop hits ever
- Don’t Rock The Inbox talks to Steacy Easton about their new book
- Amanda Henderson looks at sad girl music and its consequences
- Lynn Hallarman explains what happens when musicians get the yips
Lede Of The Week
“The morning after performing the concert of my life, I could no longer play the flute.” - Lynn Hallarman
Q&A: Ted Davis
Ted Davis is the music editor at Merry-Go-Round Magazine and ambient columnist at Bandcamp Daily, with bylines at Rolling Stone, NPR Music, Pitchfork, Stereogum, Resident Advisor, and elsewhere. In this excerpt from our interview, Ted explains where he thinks music journalism is headed.
I have no idea. But if I’m being totally candid, probably not anywhere good.
It seems like every magazine is folding or laying off at the moment, and so many of my older friends who once held staff positions have been let go in the last year-or-so. Somehow, publicists still seem to be making livable wages while the writers who do the actual legwork are forced to piece together measly paychecks. Unfortunately, I think that being a music writer in 2023 is more akin to being a struggling independent musician than a valued industry professional.
With that being said, I don’t know what the solution is. I’m grateful for every editor that has invested a chunk of their limited freelance budget in my work, and I know it can’t look any more uplifting on the inside at these publications. My assumption is that all-but-a-few places will downsize until they have, like, two wildly overworked editors on staff and a bunch of freelancers churning out content for very little money. It sucks, but I do think that’s where the signs are pointing.
On a more optimistic note, I hope this shift might open the door for writers to wear a myriad of creative hats. I think that a few years back, it would have been seen as a conflict of interest for a critic to do stuff like play in bands, DJ, and book shows. I’m hoping that an unraveling of the industry will loosen things up a touch, and enable journalists to explore more areas of interest without it spelling the end of their writing careers.
What would you like to see more of in music journalism right now?
I’d like to see more room for new voices, especially those that come from non-prestige media backgrounds. Many editors at the top seem to gravitate towards writers that have already contributed to places whose names include words like “New York,” “Review,” or “Times.” It makes sense why, and if some writer with massive bylines and 11 million Twitter followers wanted to write for my mid-tier music blog, I’d definitely jump at the opportunity to make it happen.
But most of my favorite journalists are the ones who actually play music, and pull from honest-to-god passion. Sam Sodomsky and Andy Cush at Pitchfork, prolific new freelancer Dash Lewis, and former Resident Advisor staff writer Matt McDermott are four journalists that immediately come to mind as examples of fantastic critics who also play music on a fairly serious level. You can sense a true connection to the artform in their writing. I’d love to read more pieces from writers with similarly intricate perspectives.
I’d also love to see more of a culture of responsiveness towards freelancers from editors. JJ Skolnik (formerly at Bandcamp) and Andrew Ryce at Resident Advisor are two people I know will always get back to me with a thoughtful verdict every time I pitch them. That’s the main reason I approach those publications the most consistently. Right now, rates are unsustainable and job openings are pretty much non-existent. Anyone slogging it out as a writer in 2023 clearly really wants this. It would be nice if more editors could adjust to a reality where this has come to resemble a hobby that occasionally pays $50 to $300. If it doesn’t cover the rent, I don’t think doing music journalism should have to feel like banging your head against a wall.
Yep, Pt. 2
Source
Podcasts!
- Fly Fidelity talks with Noah Callahan-Bever
- J’na Jefferson relives a controversy on Have You Heard This One?
- Twenty Thousand Hertz explores the sound of automobiles
- Here & Now chats with Jeremy Eichler about his new book Time’s Echo: The Second World War, the Holocaust and the Music of Remembrance
- Michael Azerrad joins ImmaLetYouFinish... to talk about his new book
Q&A: Donald S. Passman
Donald S. Passman practices law in Los Angeles, California, and has specialized in the music business for over 40 years. The Harvard Law grad is the author of All You Need to Know About the Music Business. The book’s latest edition (the 11th!) is out now. In the excerpt from our interview, Donald explains why he is still interested in the topic.
The music business is always changing. When I wrote the first edition, cassettes were all the rage and vinyl was still a force (which ironically it’s becoming again today). Streaming completely upended the whole music ecosystem, and the current edition of my book not only covers that but also AI, the sales of mega catalogs, and why artists have more power than they've ever had in history.
What did the research process look like?
The research process for every edition of the book consists of reading as many articles as I can find, plus calling people in the business who very kindly share their knowledge. I love the process because it forces me to stay current on issues that I don't deal with on a day-to-day basis.
A Cause Worth Supporting
From Donald S. Passman:
For decades, I've been involved with the music industry division of the City Of Hope, a world-class hospital treatment for cancer and catastrophic diseases. They do daily miracles by saving lives.
Check out all of the causes highlighted by folks I’ve interviewed.
Real Scenes
- Heather Augustyn on ska
- Thurston Moore on New York
- Daniella Tello-Garzon on Peruvian hip-hop
- Don Kaplan on medieval music
- Bernard O’Leary on Minsthorpe High School
Trivia Time
How many issues of dance magazine Muzik were published before its closure in 2003?
I’d Buy Albums By All Of Them
Source
Pivoting To Video
- Amplify looks at how two artists are preserving Black culture
- Polyphonic explains how the '60s changed the guitar
- The Punk Rock MBA offers his thoughts on black metal
- DW History and Culture explores how techno shapes the future
Bits, Bobs
- Jason King is the new dean of USC Thornton School of Music
- Washed Up Emo has started a publishing company
- Stephen Rubin has passed away
- Chris Thiessen has relaunched his newsletter as a “space for spiritual engagement with popular music”
- CREEM’s next issue will be a celebration of Lester Bangs
Five Things: Lester Bangs
The next issue of CREEM will celebrate one of its most famous writers, Lester Bangs. In honor of the issue, here are five great opening lines from Bangs' writing.
- When Black Oak Arkansas’s first album was released, I made the mistake of listening to it one time and writing a fulsomely imagistic review while under the influence of amphetamines, praising it to the skies. — Black Oak Arkansas, Keep the Faith review
- Today I am a pud. — James Taylor, One Man Dog review
- You may think it’s more kicks than pricks being a hotshot jivescamming rock magazine, but contrary to conventional wisdom it ain’t all glitz and gravy. — “My Night of Ecstasy with the J. Geils Band”
- Some skeezix from one of the local dailies was up here the other day to do a “human interest” story on the phenomenon you’re holding in your hands, and naturally our beneficent publisher hauled me into his office to answer this fish’s edition of the perennial: “Where is rock going?” “It’s being taken over by the Germans and the machines,” I unhesitatingly answered. — “Kraftwerkfeature”
- Last spring I was going out with a girl who road-managed a rock band. When she told them she was seeing me they said, “Aw, all Lester wants to do is suck Lou Reed’s c—k.” — “Untitled Notes on Lou Reed”
Food For Thought
Source
Q&A: Denise Von Glahn
Denise Von Glahn is the Curtis Mayes Orpheus Professor and Area Coordinator of Musicology, College of Music, Florida State University. Her scholarly interests include music and place, music and institutions, ecomusicology, gender studies, biography, and the works of Charles Ives. Her latest book is Circle of Winners: How the Guggenheim Foundation Composition Awards Shaped American Music Culture. In this excerpt from our interview, Denise explains the book.
Circle of Winners is the result of an off-hand question posed by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich in 2008. Zwilich visited a doctoral seminar on Music and Institutions that I was teaching at Florida State University, noted the institutions that students were studying that included Carnegie Hall, the MacDowell Colony, the Society for American Music among others, and asked why no one was studying the Guggenheim Foundation. I responded that there was no access to Guggenheim Foundation papers or files. Over the next few years Zwilich, who is a member of the Guggenheim board, worked to secure me limited access to relevant materials.
The Foundation was and remains interesting to me in part because of its inaccessibility, but also because of the status being named a Guggenheim bequeaths to recipients. I’m curious to understand how power coalesces and is distributed in the nation and especially in its “high art” music culture.
A Cause Worth Supporting
From Denise Von Glahn:
Second Harvest. It’s extraordinarily hard to do good work when hungry.
Check out all of the causes highlighted by folks I’ve interviewed.
Academic Stuff
- New issues: Journal of Popular Music Education and Organised Sound
- Call for Papers: Gendering Music Matter [Deadline November 24]
- Call for Papers: Feminist Theory and Music [Deadline November 30]
- Call for Papers: Music and Majesty: Chapels Royal, Cathedrals, and Colleges, c.1485-1688 [Deadline December 10]
- Call for Papers: Yale Journal of Music & Religion [Deadline March 15, 2024]
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
There were 99 issues of Muzik, culminating in the August 2003 edition.
Some Final Notes
Thanks for reading! And thanks to James Lamont for their Trivia Time question. I make playlists every single week. Check them here! 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 X, it’s @JournalismMusic. Until next time...