Recommendations Smörgåsbord [SPECIAL EDITION]
Recommendations Smörgåsbord [SPECIAL EDITION]
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.
This week, I'm taking a break from the regular newsletter format to present a special edition of recommendations. Each week, I interview a variety of folks. The last request I make of them is a simple one: Recommend a great piece of music journalism. Ordinarily, these are presented in Insider Extra, the paid-subscribers-only edition of the newsletter. But today I thought I'd share with everyone a few recs from some of the incredible people I’ve interviewed over the past two years. Without further ado…
Ang Stefano
Oh gosh—I can think of so many, but I think Jonathan Bernstein's piece on the Black Country Music Association was so well done—and, relatedly, Andrea Williams' August piece on its co-founder, Frankie Staton. I learned so much from both pieces. If those stories interest you, keep going and check out Dr. Jada Watson's and Amanda Marie Martinez's research.
Robert Komaniecki
I always recommend that people read Philip A. Ewell's "Music Theory and the White Racial Frame." It is an important article that highlights the numerous ways that academic music theory is influenced by broader issues of white supremacy within classical music.
Amanda Cook
While it might seem like an odd choice, I loved this reception history of the New York Times Book Review by Parul Sehgal. As music journalists, this article offers an important lesson on why we not only need to diversify the canon, but also the voices contributing to it.
Lesley Chow
Anwen Crawford’s 2009 article on Nick Cave, “The Monarch of Middlebrow,” is really stunning. Coming from Australia, Cave is an absolute sacred cow in the arts community, and it was such a relief to have Crawford point out the conservative and conventional elements in his work.
Kevin Williams
The 2018 Pitchfork piece by Meghan Garvey on Chicago rapper Valee is still one of my absolute favorite pieces of music journalism. You come away from it understanding how he sounds, how he is and exactly why you should listen to him. It's beautifully written and you get a sense of the writer, even as she doesn't make herself part of the piece. Just wonderful. The top sets up a Q&A, but only after you get to know him. And the questions in that part aren't lazy questions.
Rhian Jones
Recently, I loved this article by musician Catherine Anne Davies who delves into the ‘tortured artist’ cliche and disputes it entirely (I totally agree with her and we’ve got a section about this in a book I co-authored called Sound Advice), this article by Laura Snapes on Gen Z songwriting sums up the current pop mood very succinctly, and Tim Ingham’s explanation of why Sony bought AWAL is, as ever, both informative and entertaining.
Andria Lisle
John Jeremiah Sullivan’s “The Ballad of Geeshie and Elvie,” published in the New York Times Sunday Magazine on April 13, 2014. Sullivan takes a topic hardly anyone knows or cares about (the subject of pre-war blues is largely relegated to 78 collectors) and spins a riveting detective yarn that keeps readers on the edge of their seats. Sullivan adroitly tells the complicated history of the Jim Crow South, nimbly breaks down the song structure of 16-bar blues, and deftly inserts himself into the story via a contemporary interview with musicologist Robert McCormick, who, 60-some-odd years ago, conducted an oral history with someone who may have known guitarist L.V. “Elvie” Thomas. It’s a breathtaking piece of work that takes the reader through the writing process itself. It also breathes life into the forgotten story of Thomas and in revealing her past, blows the dust off her music even as it touches on the fragility of music journalism, which is oftentimes fraught with missed connections, dead ends, and false leads.
Jake Austen
Almost everything in KICKS magazine was revelatory to me, and the way Billy Miller and Miriam Linna researched, interviewed, and shared their passion for obscure figures like Esquirita and Hasil Adkins and then actually IRL put out their records and changed their careers/place in history was the best thing I have ever encountered in music zine obsessiveness. It is my absolute favorite, but I don't think any of those are available to seek out.
Similarly, when Mike Stax turned the pages of his '60s garage rock magazine Ugly Things over to telling the story of the Misfits, tracking down early band members and getting stories out of them that no one knew, I was profoundly impressed by the content, but also with how he ignored the limitations of the genre his readers expected and did something important and compelling. I also do not think that is easily found.
So, the currently accessible piece of writing that made me genuinely loyal to a contemporary music writer is Amanda Petrusich's Do Not Sell At Any Price: The Wild, Obsessive Hunt for the World's Rarest 78rpm Records. This colorful, sympathetic portrait of eccentric record collectors who come to feel as important and creative and mysterious as the semi-unknown blues and country artists on pretty much-lost 1920s shellac was so good I now read anything she writes, even if I am wildly uninterested in the artist.
Kate Solomon
Chris Heath’s Pet Shop Boys, Literally is just my absolute favourite music-adjacent writing ever. We can but dream of that level of access, or another act like the Pet Shop Boys ever coming along. The ending is a chef’s kiss of a hit on Piers Morgan, too.
Stephanie Doktor
Wesley Morris’s article in the New York Times, published as a part of their 1619 project. It’s called “Why Is Everyone Always Stealing Black Music?” Morris is brilliant and adept at writing about music and race. His interpretation of the American music industry will fundamentally change the way you see (and hear) the relationship between music and race.
The Closing Credits
Thanks for reading! In case you’ve missed them, I’ve published a number of special features 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, including the latest one with Danyel Smith, here.
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A Final Note
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…