Hi guys,

Was just wondering if there is any music jounalists or anyone studying music journalism in here?

I'm looking for any advice/tips on how to get myself out there, everyone seems to be writing their own blogs now?!!

Cheers,

Chris

guy i went to university with wasn't studying music journalism, but was writing stuff for the melody maker while at university and went on from there. think he writes for the independent now.

i say this because i believe you get there through luck, talent, ambition and obsession, not qualification.

you're right about luck, talent and ambition, not qualifications. i know many people who studied journalism and can't get a gig but i know people who worked their ass off, taking shitty gigs and pushed doors open who are now writing and enjoying it.

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as if you need a degree to write articles in the shitty riotgrrl photocopied MaGaZiNez people read here.

"PJ HARVEY MAKES GOOD SONGS BUT HER LATEST CD WASNT AS GOOD AS HER LAST ONE BUT SLIGHTLY BETTER THAN THE ONE BEFORE IT. I RECOMMEND WEARING BADGES ON YOUR TARTAN SKIRT. I GIVE IT 3.75 OUT OF 8.945 GLITTER PUFFS

- GruNgEiSnTdEaDcHik"

I dabble in it, but i'be got a million random day jobs in between doing so.
Strongly agree with Kesh.
Only determination and a lot of banging on doors will get you there. Trust me.

I'm 16 and I have posted this a million times before but my ultimate dream/goal/obsession is to be a music journalist. I am so god damned determined, and even though I'm in high school I'm trying to work my ass off as much as I can. I started my own music zine for my town's local scene (Miami, a lot of ska, punk, hardcore) and I write all the music news for my school paper. I do as much journalism as I can in school.

For journalism I've noticed that just writing a SHIT LOAD of thoughts, reviews, news, it pays off. What other people said is true, you have to work your ass off to get noticed.

It's all in the writing, too. I think nowadays journalists, especially on topics like music or movies, need to have a certain style, or some wit, and a lot of passion.

I started my zine with my friend who likes photography, and it's one of the hardest things I've ever done. Ruth Price was right, a lot of "music journalists" out there who write one sentence reviews like "omg its soooo good! but it now" are getting nowhere. I read as much Spin, Rolling Stone, Mojo, all those magazines to get an idea.

I also got this book filled with Lester Bangs' writings, and it's one of my biggest inspirations.

Study music as well as journalism. Having technically perfect writing skills isn't half as important as knowing what you're writing about. For example, don't write, "Rihanna's 'Take a Bow' has a chorus that doesn't really feel like it's really finished." You want to be able to write, "The chorus in 'Take a Bow' never reaches a proper cadence. Read sports journalism (or any other journalism about something you're not a fan of) and take note of how much you don't understand, technical terms and such. It's written for serious fan. Anyone can buy a cd and start a blog, so music journalism has become so diluted. You'll want to know the difference between a mezzo and a soprano. You want to be respected by musicians, not by people who picked up a magazine in the check-out line.

EXACTLY EXACTLY.

Also important to sort of have an almost encyclopedic knowledge of music, knowing the best bands to compare a new band too can make all the difference for, say, a piece recommending a new artist.

Bestweekever is completely right, people buy a c.d. and write an article going "it's sooo great I love it even more than their last album." That is just fluff, a fan's opinion. When you write a thorough description of stand out songs, meaning behind the lyrics - that's a well rounded review.

I've always thought passion is so important too. Creem is my inspiration, the old rock n roll magazine, there was a quote that summed up what I aspire to be so perfectly - "Creem rocked as much as the band. The journalists and writers WERE the rock stars with their reviews and articles." That's what I think is an awesome music journalist.

David Fricke is a great music journalist who writes for Rolling Stone, he's one of my favorite writers. He said he got started by literally writing about every piece of music he heard and just sending it out to different places.

have to say I totally disagree. it's such a rabid cliche what I'm going to say but the most important thing is to write in your own voice. if you're consistent enough with the style, go ahead an use the word cadence in describing a pop song but if you want to use witty irreverance, or make some sort of topical dual point (such as simultaneously attacking the behaviour of the singer or writer) or even just tie it in with current unrelated events it's fine as long as you're not all over the place.

I'd say the most important thing is to know a lot about what you're writing about. if writing about a pop singer I'd say you should be up to date on the tabloid gossip, know what a lot of the songs in the charts sound like, know the history of the singer, aswell as having a decent grounding in at least major music artists from the past. you should be able to call upon a heck of a lot of information and be able to tie it in to what you're writing.

I post on the bbc websites on sport and there it's a lot more article writing. Whilst I'm still utter dogshit at it, I at least know what I'm writing about, I can use research to back up hunches I have if making a point but, for example, I recently wrote something about a tennis players past grand slam form, I wouldn't have even been able to write the article if I hadn't actually watched tennis for 14 years and followed that particular player pretty much from his first match.

obsession on your subject is pretty essential (i know a chick who goes to like 3 or 4 gigs a week, goes early to get up the front so she can take pictures, takes notes then goes home and writes about it. she's been published but she aint paid for it). being able to write in your own voice is essential, presumably you have people in the real world who do give a shit about what you say so say it like you'd say it there, taking advantage of the added time you have and research you can do to back points up. ambition is a given, you aint gonna get picked up doing what I do on a sports forum. Talent is unfortunatly something you'll have to foster. Another bloke I know who actually writes a hell of a lot and wants to be a muso, I doubt, will have any chance of "making it" because his opinions are confused he's still not good at forming effective points or consistently interesting writing).

post on kr, it's throwaway but it's still more practice. also, you can comeback to anything you've written. I keep a silly blog on weirdos that come into my work purely for my own pleasure (no one ever sees it) and I re-use things I say there when I think they're funny.

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Would you like a cigarette? They're quite exellent.

Yeah, I've got a 'blog' like that too. Well, it's kind of archaic (notebook). I kind of believe if you bury shit online you want it to be found eventually. I'm not saying I don't bury shit online but people are gonna look through my physical belongings before they search for virtual evidence.

I'd love to see your blog. WTF could you be talking about? Got anything of yours I can read? Anything?

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ignorance is no excuse for stupidity

Technical terms absolutely fit in with anyone's unique voice. Not using proper terms is like a sports journalist saying, "And then Michael Jordan ran and bounced the ball at the same time," instead of knowing what the word "dribble" means. People think music journalism should be as simple as owning some CDs and going to gigs because Rolling Stone and its ilk have really lowered the bar. Do you intend to actually work in journalism? Do you want to impress people and rise to the top of the heap quickly? Do you want to be respected? It's easy to be a lowest-common-denominator music journalist. Why not try to be better? Yeah, it's going to take a lot of work and training. Any argument against learning the craft you'll be writing about is nothing more than laziness.

Music journalism is a bit different though, isn't it? I should imagine that most people who read music reviews probably aren't aware of the technical terms used within the field by professionals. Talking about cadences and crescendos and things like that isn't really likely to get your point across to the average music fan. Describing it in common terms and explaining the emotions it invokes are much more likely to catch peoples interest.

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It really depends what you're going for.

Cadences and crescendos aren't really going to get people excited. I mean, it doesn't take a lot to learn what a cadence or a crescendo is, lets be honest, and not many music fans I know wouldn't know what that means.

In my mind "music journalist" can mean a lot of things. In that - are you simply comparing the merits of one CD based on another, musically, or are you following a band around writing about their rock'n'roll exploits in a way that will make 15 year olds so excited they pass out?
Both require very different skills and a real ability to get an edge, from what I can see.

I always wanted to be a music journalist as a kid. Then I took one module on it at Uni and that along with a realisation about what I'd been reading all my life really soured me to it.

i agree with and like rnjs post.

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Now honies play me close like butter played toast

But people learn, and it's not wise to insult your readers' intelligence. Sports fans don't understand the rules of the game the first time they tune in or read about it. You have to watch a few games and read a few articles before you understand it fully, and then you're better informed because you know the language of the athletes. People who like cars don't know the name of every part the first time they look at an engine.

I don't understand why anyone would argue against gaining qualification.

I'm interested, but I'm not going to bother until I have a band to promote, and then I'll write stuff for the free press using a clever alias.

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I escaped somehow. Let's go

actualy [sic] I have quite a blessed life if I'm honest. I have many people to love, hate few and have few money problem's [sic].... What more does a person need? Oh yeah and I have some kind of humbleness unlike you of course ^_^ ~ CarefulCarpenter

I think this is a really tough game to get involved with, at the end of the day journalists are just really big fans of what the things they write about, so if your passionate and dedicate you stand a CHANCE, but certainly doesn't mean you'll get anywhere.

I think the biggest development in this kind of thing in blogging and less published and publicized journalism. More and more people are looking to blogs and people's true thoughts rather than larger publications which are influenced so much - i know someone who used to be friend with a lot of the labels of the bands he wrote about, and he always used to publish good reviews regardless of what he thought. at least with blogs you can say what you want and its your OWN thing, you haven't got any external pressures from editors, clients, advertisers about what you write.

On top of that you CAN make money from blogs, google provide 'adshare' which you can easily embed in to blogs, like blogger.com etc. That way when people view your blog and it gets more popular, you get advertising revenue. It's not a lot... but its not nothing either.

Anyway, if your already in to blogging about music or want to start, Virgin Festivals are offering free tickets to their Virgin Baltimore festival and a global Vpass for entry to every v-fest all over the world.

worth checking out - virgin.com/music » Win the Global VPass!

you saw Almost Famous too?

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