#135: What It All Might Mean
What It All Might Mean
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 Bill Frisell biographer Philip Watson, freelance journalist Allison Harris, The National enthusiast Ryan Pinkard, and female punk expert Jen B. Larson. Plus! Reading recommendations, a documentary about Brazilian rock, and more! But first…
Even This Dad Wouldn’t…
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Reading List
- Joshua Rotter talks to Ben Fong-Torres about the new documentary on his life and work as a music journalist
- Harmony Holiday talks about voices across generations
- Aneesa Ahmed explains how Muslim DJs navigate Ramadan
- Daniel Dylan Wray celebrates 40 years of The Wire
- Anne Helen Petersen interviews Marissa Moss about her new country music book
- Miranda Reinert writes about objectivity in music journalism
- Madzadza Miya on how amapiano took over the world
- Fi O’Reilly goes long on how the Falkland-Malvinas War changed the sound of Latin rock (h/t Music REDEF)
- Thomas Hobbs chats with Lance Scott Walker about his new DJ Screw book
- Marvin Weisbord tells the tale of two best friends who make music together
Q&A: Philip Watson
Philip Watson is a prolific feature writer on a broad range of subjects for numerous UK and Irish newspapers and magazines, including GQ, where he was formerly deputy editor, and Esquire, where he was editor-at-large. As a music writer his work has appeared in the Sunday Times, Telegraph Magazine, Irish Times, Irish Examiner, and The Wire. His first book, the biography Bill Frisell, Beautiful Dreamer: The Guitarist Who Changed the Sound of American Music, comes out in the US this week. In this excerpt from our interview, Philip explains why he wanted to take on this subject for his first book.
Two ideas were humming in my head around the time I decided to approach Bill Frisell with the idea of writing his biography. The first is the notion that “writers don’t choose their subjects—their subjects choose them.” I had several ideas for a non-fiction book, most decidedly more commercial and practical (Frisell was living in Seattle at the time) than Beautiful Dreamer, but the idea of writing a life of Bill Frisell kept coming back to me. In fact, as I say in the biography, only half-jokingly, the germ of the book has actually been forming, somewhere in my head at least, for the past 35 years or more—ever since I first met Bill Frisell, and heard him play live, in the late 1980s.
The second idea was something I read in American music writer Stanley Booth’s revelatory insider’s account The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones: “You write about things that move your heart.” I had a great love of Bill Frisell’s music and was fascinated by its extraordinary depth and diversity. I also knew quite a lot about what he’d done with his life musically and creatively. I wanted to research, think and write, however, way beyond that. I wanted to know, for example, what kind of person had created such a panoramic and pluralistic body of work, how the individual and the art might be related. And I wanted to be stretched as a writer in the same way I thought Bill Frisell had consistently challenged himself as a musician. Overall, my guiding principle was, “This is what Bill Frisell has done—let me try to tell you how and why, and what it all might mean.”
Read the full interview with Philip here.
Causes Worth Supporting
From Philip Watson:
Three for the price of one: one local, one music-related, and one global.
Cork Penny Dinners in Cork, Ireland is one of the city’s oldest charitable organisations; it serves up to 2,000 invaluable, freshly-made meals per week at its open-door premises to “those who struggle or are in need.” Its motto says it all: “We never judge; we serve.”
New York’s jazz clubs have been ravaged by rising costs and the pandemic, and several have recently closed. Two tiny basement spaces in the West Village, however, Smalls and Mezzrow, both run by fine pianist and tireless campaigner Spike Wilner, have just about survived by forming in 2018 the not-for-profit SmallsLIVE Foundation. It provides “emergency funds for jazz musicians in need” and preserves one of the essential lifebloods of jazz in Manhattan: live music.
Over the past 20 years, more and more journalists have been censored, threatened, harassed, attacked, expelled, abducted, imprisoned and killed by such forces as rogue governments, terrorist groups and organised crime gangs, and in war zones and areas of armed conflict. In 2021 alone, 45 journalists were killed, 293 were imprisoned, and 65 are missing. The Committee to Protect Journalists is an independent, non-profit organisation that “promotes press freedom worldwide and defends the right of journalists to report the news safely and without fear of reprisal.” It needs your support more than ever.
Check out all of the causes highlighted by folks I’ve interviewed.
It’s True!
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Podcasts!
- Popcast takes a long look at how gossip has transformed hip-hop media
- The Black Girl Songbook sits down with radio legend Donnie Simpson
- Aaron Cohen talks about his book Move On Up: Chicago Soul Music and Black Cultural Power on New Books In Music
- Sound Opinions welcomes Lenny Kaye to talk about his book Lightning Striking: Ten Transformative Moments in Rock and Roll
- Kiana Mickles chats about her recent article on New York nightlife on The Exchange
Q&A: Allison Harris
Allison Harris is a social media producer for NPR member station KCUR, a columnist at Ringtone Mag, and a freelance music journalist. Allison’s column at Ringtone focuses on fashion aesthetics in the world of internet music, and they have written extensively on how fashion and music intertwine. In this excerpt from our interview, Allison explains how their approach has changed over the past few years.
Over the past few years, I’ve started learning to trust that other people are interested in what I have to say, maybe not because they’re super interested in the subject itself, but they’re interested in my enthusiasm for it.
What’s one tip that you’d give a music journalist starting out right now?
Corny, but stay the course, and believe in yourself and your abilities. Don’t compare yourself to other people with different styles, beats, or approaches to journalism.
If you had to point folks to one piece of yours, what would it be and why?
My most favorite thing I’ve written thus far in my time as a writer is this breakdown of hyperpop’s embrace of the song “L’amour Toujours” by Gigi D’Agostino, which had a resurgence in popularity due to the film Uncut Gems. It was so much fun to report on, and I felt like it was a recurring theme I kept seeing online but didn’t see any other writing about it—so I took it upon myself to get it done! Plus, it’s pretty silly, which I love to embrace in writing.
Read the full interview with Allison here.
Trivia Time
As of this moment, what artist has Pitchfork reviewed more than any other?
Stuff You Gotta Watch
Stuff You Gotta Watch celebrates music journalism in video form. This week’s column is by Ana Leorne.
Brasília is a curious city. It was founded in 1960 with the direct purpose of serving as the capital of Brazil, with concrete-oriented architectural style courtesy of Oscar Niemeyer. Not exactly the type of place where you’d think rock ‘n’ roll would flourish. In the early 1980s, however, that’s exactly what happened when bands like Legião Urbana, Capital Inicial, and Plebe Rude emerged.
This documentary celebrating their rise has the overall feel of a family operation: Parents, friends, and neighbors of the featured musicians share their stories of how they ended up in Brasília and the role the futuristic city played in their lifestyle and sense of community. “The rock from Brasília is as important as Tropicália,” Capital Inicial’s frontman Dinho Ouro Preto once told Showbizz magazine in 1998. Interviewees like legendary singer Caetano Veloso agree.
Although the untimely disappearance of Legião Urbana’s Renato Russo in 1996 resulted in all his testimonies being taken from previously recorded footage, the documentary’s superb editing often makes you think otherwise. So, in a way, Rock Brasília also rings as a heartfelt homage to Russo, one of the scene’s central players. It’s a great watch, though, because it never ceases to underline the three key principles behind it all: passion, revolution, and connection.
How Do You Do, Fellow TikTokers?
- @gradywsmith rounds up some of the best country star merch
- @why_wear_that looks at the history of nu metal fashion
- @danicabryantmusic asks, “Is Hyperpop dying?”
- @frankmichaelsmith tips his cap to Metro Boomin’s enormous influence on Atlanta rap
- @patrickhicks82 explains how Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren got a songwriting credit on Lizzo’s “About Damn Time”
Special thanks to Aliya Chaudhry for their help with this section this week!
Q&A: Ryan Pinkard
Ryan Pinkard is the author of a new 33 1/3 book on The National’s Boxer. The album turned 15 yesterday, so Ryan felt like it was an opportune time to reflect on its making. Ryan is a writer, editor, and record collector, with previous stints at TIDAL and TuneIn. He’s currently working on editing Bloomsbury’s new series on genres, which kicks off in October. In this excerpt from our interview, Ryan explains the research process for his new book.
The beating heart of my book is the original interviews with the band and others involved, which took a huge amount of time to arrange, conduct, transcribe, and then make sense of. What I didn’t foresee was the extensive detective work that I had to do outside of that. In order to tell this history of events that occurred 15 to 20 years ago, I had to scour deep into the archives of the web, uncovering old blog posts, reviews, and defunct websites that hadn’t been read in a decade. The Wayback Machine was a godsend for these purposes.
The band also granted me access to old demo recordings, which helped show how the album came together, as well as photos, some of which I was able to include in the book.
How did you go about writing the actual book?
It all started with the interviews. Once I had a good number of those, I began the tedious process of going through the transcripts and cherry picking the quotes and facts that I found potentially useful, which I then organized in a way that created a narrative arc. As my chapters started to come together, I was able to add my own narration, and identify holes that I needed to fill with follow-up interviews and research, constantly refining along the way. I would liken this process to putting together a 5,000 piece puzzle, except the pieces have been mixed with boxes of other puzzles.
Read the full interview with Ryan here.
A Cause Worth Supporting
From Ryan Pinkard:
While it’s not exactly a charity, I always like to remind people to support artists they love in ways that make an actual difference—because Spotify streams don’t. For those who are comfortable going to concerts again, go out and see your favorite bands on tour (and buy a T-shirt from the merch stand while you’re at it). Otherwise, you can purchase their records from an independent record store that also deserves your support. If the artists we write about can’t afford to make a living, we’re all screwed.
Check out all of the causes highlighted by folks I’ve interviewed.
Bits, Bobs
- The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress has shared the complete catalog of John A. Lomax’s recordings
- Here’s a bunch of Andy Warhol’s album covers [h/t Varyer]
- Jada Watson has won the Outstanding Early Career Award from The Canadian Society of Digital Humanities
- Black Boy Bulletin has changed its name to The Bulletin
- McSweeney’s is raising funds for The Believer
- Leor Galil won a Peter Lisagor Award
Q&A: Jen B. Larson
Jen B. Larson is a writer, musician, and teacher. She’s the author of the forthcoming book Hit Girls: Women of Punk in the USA, 1975-1983. Composed as a series of profiles, the book seeks to foreground women who have not received significant coverage of their contributions to punk music. It’s a much needed addition to a growing literature on this era of music. In this excerpt from our interview, Jen describes how she views the book.
The book is a celebration of women playing punk music in the US in the ‘70s and early ‘80s. I use “punk” loosely and as an umbrella term that refers to rock music that was not mainstream or work that was transgressive in some way. It also incorporates work that fits into adjacent genre categories. There were women playing music that veered toward pop, avant-garde, rock, metal, and music that was specifically no-wave, a genre that separated itself from the punk movement.
Women’s roles in punk are becoming far more known now, but the mainstream visual of punk music is that it was a boys’ club. In addition to confidence, boys have always had more access to instruments, stages, audiences, and capital. But, on the heels of the women’s liberation movement, at a time when women had gained more social independence, it just wasn’t the case that women were on the sidelines in music. They were playing, and not just a few of them. It’s impossible to describe the roles of women during punk in a few words because it would only marginalize them further; the truth is that their roles were so diverse. Women were artists with no boundaries. They were working in all sorts of mediums and inventing fashions. Their styles and innovations created the blueprint for countless genres to come.
Read the full interview with Jen here.
Probably Pays Better
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Academic Stuff
- New issues: American Music, Nineteenth-Century Music Review, The Journal of Undergraduate Research in Music, SMT-V, Ethnomusicology Forum, and Popular Music
- Danielle Shlomit Sofer reflects on how far scholarly music societies still have to go in addressing rape and sexual assault
- Call for Proposals: Music, Sound, & Climate Justice Conversations 2022 (Abstracts due June 1)
- Hannah Marie Robbins has some tips on applying for a PhD in the Arts and Humanities in the UK
- Registration is now open for Music and the University
- The New York Times is looking for more pitches from musicologists
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 here.
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Trivia Time Answer
Brian Eno is the most reviewed artist in the Pitchfork archives.
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…