#098: Scowling, In My Dressing Gown
Scowling, In My Dressing Gown
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 culture journalist Aida Baghernejad; Ben Cardew, author of Daft Punk’s Discovery - The Future Unfurled; and emo expert Hugo Reyes. Plus! Queer country, TikToks, and much more! But first…
They Truly Hate This Newsletter
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Reading List
- Passion of the Weiss celebrates the recently departed Lucas Foster - Richard Villegas explains the influence of anime on Mexican underground music - Ammar Kalia reports on the UK jazz scene, post-COVID - Eryn Brothers thinks they may have found the first queer country song - Lanre Bakare on documenting the history of jungle and drum & bass - Veronica Coit reports on misogyny at Moog, the iconic synthesizer company - Juan José Relmucao explains why government-issued laptops have sparked a musical renaissance in Argentina [h/t MusicREDEF] - Marc Hogan reveals, one year after sexual misconduct allegations, a Burger Records founder still operates a record store in the same location - Alex Ross explores the mystery of the French composer Josquin - Chloé Meley highlights K-pop stans becoming active in Palestinian freedom efforts
Q&A: Aida Baghernejad
Aida Baghernejad is a culture and food journalist, largely based in Germany. Her work has appeared in various local and international publications, and she also co-hosts the English-language podcast 55 Voices for Democracy and the upcoming Pasta & Politik. In this excerpt from our interview, she traces her career so far.
I started out as a fan, as so many fellow music journalists have, I suppose. And I wanted to be a journalist—so writing about music came naturally. I must say, however, that I used to be far more ballsy in my very early twenties than I could imagine being today: I sent an email to one of my favourite German music journalists saying that I was young, female and BPoC and they’d need me as a writer. And he agreed. And that’s one of the core issues of traditional music journalism, isn’t it? Let’s be honest: it’s never been very diverse, neither in its gender makeup, nor when it comes to writers of colour. And particularly in Germany at the time—and maybe a little bit even today—it’s often male writers of a certain age who started out in the last century (literally!) and still stick around. And many of them are good friends of mine or people I look up to—but we need a diversity of perspectives in music journalism, just like for every other beat, too.
But back to my so-called “career”: I guess I just more or less stuck it out. I’ve been horrible at self-marketing for years and I also left Germany to study or later work in Spain and the UK several times, which led to my name not being particularly well-known in the close-knit circle of music journalists in Germany. Since I moved back for good a few years ago, however, I’ve been lucky to have been supported by colleagues, which has helped me to garner more attention for my work and my specific approach—and even be nominated for (and win) awards. They aren’t the most important thing, at all, but they help to establish you as a writer with a message. Which is particularly important if you’re a) affected by structural sexism or racism, and b) have an approach that’s not always necessarily easily sold.
Read the full interview with Aida here.
Podcasts!
- New podcasts: Pablo, The Don’s The Back Catalog; A Journey Through Stock Aitken Waterman; Marley Marl’s Legendize
- Ann Powers joins The Culture Journalist for a frank discussion about the state of music journalism
- Danyel Smith talks about her career on In Search of Sauce
- Current explains the unique set-up of the new project celebrating Harry Pace and Black Swan Records on Radio Diaries and Radiolab
- The Stack features DJ Mag in its latest episode
Everyone Is Definitely Gonna Stop Yelling “Free Bird,” Though, Right?
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Q&A: Ben Cardew
Ben Cardew works for Radio Primavera Sound in Barcelona; freelances for Pitchfork and DJ Mag, among others; and is the author of Daft Punk’s Discovery - The Future Unfurled, a new book on the French duo’s second album, coming in September. As Ben was finishing up the book, Daft Punk officially broke up… which made the writing process a bit more difficult. In this excerpt from our interview, Ben talks about the research process for the book.
It was lots of early morning and late nights, interviewing people and reading tons and tons and tons of interviews. Not that interesting, really. I had to fit writing around my usual work schedule and family life, so there was a lot of writing when I could. My kids would often get up for breakfast at 7.30am to find me frantically writing on the kitchen table, scowling, in my dressing gown and flip flops.
How did you go about writing the actual book?
Having nothing written makes me nervous. So when I start off with anything, I tend to write at a frantic pace, producing a very, very rough first draft of whatever I am doing.
This was certainly the case with the book. I had 5k words from the initial pitch: I then wrote a very rough outline of the rest in a couple of frantic weeks. And then I added to and subtracted from that with each interview / new piece of information etc, basically rewriting it. But with the safety net that I had something there.
Obviously, Daft Punk splitting up when I had already written a fairly complete draft of the book meant a lot more work. I had to go back in and essentially re-write it again.
Read the full interview with Ben here.
A Cause Worth Supporting
From Ben Cardew:
Maggie’s do really incredible work helping people who have been affected by cancer. They really deserve your money.
Check out all of the causes highlighted by folks I’ve interviewed.
Trivia Time
What was the original tagline for Revolver when it launched in the spring of 2000? Catch the answer at the bottom of the newsletter.
Stuff You Gotta Watch
Stuff You Gotta Watch celebrates music journalism in video form. This week’s column is by Jesse Locke.
In 1973, Nashville wasn’t ready for Lavender Country. While Patrick Haggerty managed to sell 1,000 copies of his band’s debut LP—likely the first openly gay album in country music history—he did so through personal ads in the back pages of queer magazines, miles away from the Grand Ole Opry. Thanks to a series of reissues, reunited performances, and a wonderfully unvarnished documentary short called These C—sucking Tears, fans and critics are only now catching up.
These C—sucking Tears follows Haggerty in 2016, where he now lives in a trailer surrounded by the towering trees of the Pacific Northwest. Playing his music for small but devoted crowds, he performs at old folks’ homes in the afternoon and punk clubs at night. Dressed to the nines in lavender as he puffs on a joint, Haggerty jokingly explains how he improves the experience of watching opening bands by taking his hearing aid out.
It hasn’t always been weed and wisecracks. In the film’s most emotional scenes, Haggerty shares the disagreements he had with his conservative father, who nonetheless taught his young queer son how to be himself. Remaining staunchly dedicated to the socialist politics that drove his runs for public office following the band’s break-up, Haggerty argues that “some of the things Karl Marx said are scientific f—ing facts.” Now that he’s resumed his focus on music, the country world might finally be ready to turn lavender.
How Do You Do, Fellow TikTokers?
- @mollycringewald rates Phoebe Bridgers’ woos
- @organicgranola gets on a boat to talk about yacht rock
- @magdalenabaymusic has a bunch of bad dreams involving Anthony Fantano
- @doggosounds on why pop singers often sound the same
- @xemosocialclubx shows what arguing with gatekeepers actually looks like
Good Morning My Sweet Vision Of Morbid Disorder
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Bits, Bobs
- The New Yorker Union has reached a deal with Condé Nast
- Jessica Hopper is going on a virtual book tour
- Canadian TV network MuchMusic is returning on TikTok
- The Zenith Cooperative is accepting applications for mentorships until July 2
- Tony Rettman has published a new book, collecting essays from his No Idols newsletter
- Students at the University of Chicago have launched a new music magazine, Firebird
- The Street Music Research Unit is a new initiative studying street music in all its forms
- The Clios awarded Third Bridge Creative a bronze medal in the Music Marketing category for their Sylvester documentary
- Marie-Claire Chappet provides a freelancer’s guide to freelancing [h/t Lance]
Q&A: Hugo Reyes
Hugo Reyes is a freelance writer, largely publishing on post-trash and his excellent Medium page. On the latter, he focuses almost exclusively on emo, “the genre of music [he’s] the most invested in.” In this excerpt from our interview, Hugo explains what he’d like to see more of in music journalism right now.
More localized music writing, please! I truly wish every city had its own alt-weekly still. No one is able to tell the story of an artist better than the music writer who is from the same city. You are just afforded so much more information and context than someone else. I use the example of Sincere Engineer a lot. I saw her back when she would play acoustic shows around Chicago and felt like the pop-punk scene’s little secret. The only proof of this version of the band now is through live footage on YouTube. The self-titled acoustic EP was scrubbed when Sincere Engineer signed to Red Scare for their debut record in 2017. Without that context, people would think the band came out of nowhere.
What’s your favorite part of all this?
Being an aid for music discovery. The reason I started writing about music was because I wanted people to listen to all of my favorite bands. That goal has never changed, whether I’m doing college radio or writing for a small blog. If I can get at least one person to check out something new, then my job is complete.
Read the full interview with Hugo here.
Academic Stuff
- New issues: Journal of the Royal Musical Association and Jazz & Culture
- Registration is now open for The Society for Ethnomusicology’s annual meeting (Atlanta, October 28-31)
- Regina N. Bradley, Ph.D. has a few pieces of advice for new doctorates
- Call for Proposals: Global Musicology – Global Music History (Submissions due July 1)
- Registration is now open for Transformations of Musical Creativity in the 21st Century (Online, June 24-27)
- Holly Scott-Gardner has outlined some of the ways in which lecturers at the University of Leeds have made her “experience as a blind student the best it’s ever been”
- Call for Articles: Intersections: Canadian Journal of Music (Submissions due July 1)
- Registration is now open for the International Conference on Digital Libraries for Musicology (Online, July 28-30)
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Trivia Time Answer
According to this interview with former editor Tom Beaujour, Revolver‘s original tagline was “The World’s Most Wanted Music Magazine.”
Do you have a question you’d like to see included in Trivia Time? Hit reply and let me know.
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…