#146: I'd Better Start
I’d Better Start
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 music journalism historian Paul Gorman; classical music polymath Anna Helflin; and social media expert Abe James. Plus! Reading recommendations, a short tribute to The Singles Jukebox, and more! But first…
Just Circling Back On That Invoice
Source
Reading List
- Joe Coscarelli reveals his internet
- Chal Ravens talks about her approach to music journalism
- Drew Millard reports on MAGA rap
- Emma Garland reminisces about her days as a teenage Napster obsessive
- Callum Abbott chats about his work as a designer for Pitchfork
- Thomas Hobbs opines on standom and music journalism
- Alphonse Pierre explores the state of club rap
- Annabel Ross exposes the toxic work environment at Beatport
- Ted Gioia published the first chapter of his new book
- Katie Notopoulos explains who makes money when kids yell “play the poop song” at Alexa
Lede Of The Week
“There are many topics that my 5-year-old and I don’t see eye to eye on: how many popsicles per day is reasonable or the virtues of sleeping past 7:30 a.m. on a Sunday. But there is one area where we are in philosophical lockstep: ‘Poop’ is a funny word.” - Katie Notopoulos
Q&A: Paul Gorman
Paul Gorman is an Irish writer based in London. He’s been a professional writer for more than four decades, focusing his work on art, clubbing, design, fashion, media, photography and visual culture. His first book on music journalism was the oral history In Their Own Write. His latest, Totally Wired: The Rise & Fall of the Music Press, expands the scope considerably. It’s a welcome addition to the history of music journalism. In this excerpt from our interview, Paul explains why he wanted to put together a second book on music journalism.
I was dissatisfied with In Their Own Write, and have sought to make amends by broadening the focus away from the usual suspects—Creem, MM, NME, Rolling Stone, etc.—to include those people and publications which have previously been marginalised in this story, whether they be Carl Gayle at Black Music in the ’70s, Details in the ’80s or the diverse, feminist crowd at Ben Is Dead and the power of XXL, The Source and Vibe in the ’90s.
How did you go about writing the actual book?
To paraphrase Anthony Burgess: “I sighed and opened a Word document. ‘I’d better start,’ I said.”
There is no great mystery here. You have to apply yourself and crack on. Burgess also wrote that a true depiction of a writer’s life would be pretty dull, since it consists of viewing a solitary person tapping at a keyboard and occasionally breaking away to make a cup of tea or in my case take the dog for a walk. Unlike Burgess, however, I do not take time out to smoke a foul cheroot or indulge in ‘Audenesque analeptic swigs.’ “Professional writers are not remarkable people,” he wrote. “The career of a taxi-driver or window-cleaner is far fuller of incident.” I subscribe to this.
Read the full interview with Paul here.
A Cause Worth Supporting
From Paul Gorman:
The Trussell Trust is a UK organisation dedicated to alleviating hunger and poverty. Before the pandemic and the current cost of living crisis our country was already suffering from the depredations of a decade of Conservative Party misrule, during which time they have sought (and often achieved in their ambitions) to gut our public bodies such as the National Health service to line their own pockets and those of their chums. One of the most clear manifestations of this is the alarming increase in homelessness. We now have rough sleepers in our parks and doorways of buildings since these poor souls have dropped through the bottom of the safety net.
Check out all of the causes highlighted by folks I’ve interviewed.
Thank You For The Music (Criticism)
Read some tributes here
The Singles Jukebox
The Singles Jukebox has ceased publishing. As the former editor-in-chief of Stylus Magazine, where The Singles Jukebox began, it might be expected that I’d have something to say… but I don’t really. The extremely talented folks that ran the section at Stylus had a vision for a global music review site, and continued it for many, many years after Stylus was no longer publishing. All I can say is something very simple and heartfelt: Congratulations! To everyone involved in making it such a special place for global music criticism and a remarkable incubator for music writing talent, you did an amazing job. I’m so happy to have had an enormously small part in its creation.
Podcasts!
- Marissa R. Moss chats about Her Country on New Books in Music
- Rock Writ spends some time with Gail O’Hara of Chickfactor
- Afropop Worldwide reports on the African music club scene in San Francisco
- Pop Pantheon welcomed Jason King to talk about disco, past and present
- The JJA Podcast focuses on writing about jazz in print and online
Q&A: Anna Heflin
Anna Heflin is a composer/writer. While her main focus is composing, she launched Which Sinfonia in 2021 “as a place to explore experimentalism in music and writing and a place to foster a community of writers who have an active musical practice. I’ve worked with my co-editor Emery Kerekes and contributor Jennifer Gersten since the launch, and this energy of friendship and collaboration is integral to the site as we’ve expanded to include more contributors.” If you’re into classical music, it’s a must read. In this excerpt from our interview, Anna offers some tips for music journalists.
Get obsessed with the research portion of a piece without a predetermined end goal in mind. Read and listen to everything you can. Google the titles of musical works. Find every past interview. Go to a lot of in-person shows/concerts/exhibitions. Journal.
Avoid labeling yourself as an “x” or “y” writer who writes about “z” art form. Write features, reviews, interviews, poetry and fiction. You don’t have to publish it all. The right thing will stick in time. By the time it sticks it’ll hopefully shift once again.
What artist or trend are you most interested in right now?
I think this is less of a trend and more of an evolution, but I’m consistently drawn to multidisciplinary work as a writer, which makes sense as that’s in line with what I create as an artist as well. Music that inextricably incorporates text, language, visuals, theatrical components, tech, movement, performance art or some combination thereof. Communicating a message that surpasses a single medium or curating an experience and using (or inventing) whatever tools necessary to do so. Often this requires the artist to embrace a certain level of vulnerability and treading in unfamiliar territory to arrive at the “product.” And that’s interesting to me, there’s a leap there.
Extra-musical elements also add an accessibility element to works that could otherwise be considered austere or less approachable. They provide generous access points into a world without simplifying the artistic material.
Read the full interview with Anna here.
A Cause Worth Supporting
From Anna Heflin:
East Coast Maine Coon Rescue is a 501c3 non-profit headquartered in New Jersey that saves Maine Coon and Maine Coon mixed cats and kittens from kill shelters and other bad situations. They are fundraising to open a cat café in Monmouth County, NJ.
Check out all of the causes highlighted by folks I’ve interviewed.
Stuff You Gotta Watch
Stuff You Gotta Watch celebrates music journalism in video form. This week’s column is by Ana Leorne.
“Welcome to a time when machines ruled the world,” director and narrator Ben Wholley says at the beginning of Synth Britannia, introducing the fascinating story of the rise and rise of the electronic synthesizer in British music.
The tale, of course, begins with (the American) Wendy Carlos and her revolutionary soundtrack for (the British classic film) A Clockwork Orange, which helped bridge the gap between futuristic charm and contemporary relevance. As artists like Kraftwerk and Giorgio Moroder added to a rejection of prog’s trademark virtuosity in favor of a warmer immediacy, the synthesizer soon embarked on a journey to mainstream pop. And, by the early ’80s, it dominated the British charts.
Conceived under the extensive “Britannia” umbrella of documentaries, this film focuses on that threshold moment in the late ’70s when the synthesizer managed to crossover from a somewhat nerdy exclusivity to virtually universal access. The dizzying voyage is juxtaposed with a series of social and political changes in the U.K., while key musicians such as Gary Numan, Philip Oakey, Neil Tennant, Cosey Fanni Tutti, and many others explain how it felt to be at the center of a sonic hurricane.
Trivia Time
How many artists have been awarded SPIN’s album of the year more than once?
Imagine If Rolling Stone And The Source Just Disappeared From The Internet
Source
Bits, Bobs
- German publications Spex, Juice, and Rap.de have ceased publishing
- Mick Moloney has passed away
- The 33 1/3 book series is now open for proposals
- Velocity Press is looking for electronic music book proposals
- A GoFundMe has been organized for Jan Ramsey, who has been diagnosed with a rare form of lung cancer
- Wax Poetics collects advice from a number of journalists on how to write about music
- Shannon Shreibak has launched a support group for music industry workers: Info + Application form
- Kristina London has a thread of resources for women in the music industry
Q&A: Abe James
Abe James is a multi-platform creative who does music journalism across TikTok, YouTube, and Twitch. He’s just starting out, relatively speaking, but he’s already amassed more than 150k followers on TikTok and 18k subscribers on YouTube. In this excerpt from our interview, I asked Abe how he got his start in music journalism.
In November of 2020, I was really bored because of the Covid lockdown, so I decided to make a list of my top 100 hip-hop songs of all time. I then decided to make the list into a series of TikToks, because I had seen a couple other creators doing similar things. My music taste has changed a lot since making that list, and my followers will often make fun of some of the opinions I used to have, but it was one of the most important things I’ve done in my life, because it eventually led to me creating a community full of hip-hop fans like myself.
Read the full interview with Abe here.
A Cause Worth Supporting
From Abe James:
A charity I think is important to support is DrawChange. They help bring art into the lives of children in Atlanta who can’t afford it, and every kid should be able to express themself.
Check out all of the causes highlighted by folks I’ve interviewed.
Academic Stuff
- Call for Papers: Global Digital Music Studies Conference (Deadline: October 1)
- New issues: Organised Sound, Popular Music, Cambridge Opera Journal, Music Analysis, American Music, Journal of the Society for American Music, American Music, Journal of Singing, and Music Education Research
- Call for Presentations: North American Conference on Video Game Music (Deadline: October 15)
- Pallas Catenella Riedler discusses teaching music history
- Call for Papers: XXII Biennial IASPM International Conference (Deadline: November 18)
The Closing Credits
Thanks for reading! And thanks to Miranda Reinert for her help with this edition of the newsletter. 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.
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Trivia Time Answer
Four: Kanye West (3), Kendrick Lamar (2), TV on the Radio (2), and The White Stripes (2).
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…