Information about Music Journalism

Music journalism is a specialized branch of entertainment journalism — especially criticism and reportage about music. Ranging from lengthy profiles of singers and bands to brief album reviews, music journalism is at least several decades old. Magazines such as Rolling Stone, Urb, New Musical Express, and The Source are well known for their musical journalism.

Music criticism is the study, discussion, evaluation, and interpretation of music. Modern music criticism is often informed by music theory investigation of the many diverse elements of a music, including the development and methodology for analyzing, hearing, understanding, and composing music. See also music critic.

History of music journalism

The English composer Charles Avison (1709-1770) has the distinction of writing the first work on musical criticism in the English language. It was an Essay on Musical Expression published in 1752. In it Avison criticized the music of one of his contemporaries, George Frideric Handel (whose reputation seems to have survived Avison's attack).

Before about the 1840s, reporting on music was either done by musical journals, such as (in the areas that later became Germany) Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung (published by Breitkopf & Hartel and then by Rieter-Biederman, from 1798–1882) or the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (founded by Robert Schumann); in London such journals as the Musical Times as of 1844 (Musical Times and singing-class circular until 1906), and so on; which was its major competitor in Germany*, and which gradually supplanted it, or else by reporters at newspapers whose main interest was in politics, and which gave only slight attention to music. Several changes — possibly education, the Romantic movement generally and in music, popularization (including what some referred to as Lisztomania), among others, led to an increasing interest in music among the general papers, and an increase in the number of critics by profession (and of varying degrees of competence and integrity, of course. The situation here was distinguished from that before the 1840s, in that the critics now — on the whole — were not also musicians; and so this could be considered a turning‐point of a kind.)

The main source for the claim that music criticism underwent a fundamental change in the 1840s–50s, is a letter by Liszt, and admittedly, given the time and the context— the beginnings of the War of the Romantics, the contrast he describes may be produced by nostalgia for a time when artists critiqued artists (his own ideal, as his writings are interpreted by Alan Walker; of course, such a situation runs a risk of creating a guild mentality, though in that same context this might have seemed less true). However, the contemporary situation he describes can be independently confirmed.

Modern music journalism

Music journalists can be either staff writers or more frequently, freelance writers. The work includes single, album, DVD or concert reviews, interviews/profiles, equipment reviews (e.g. guitars, amplifiers, microphones) and features. A record label or musician’s promoters will often send free recordings, DVDs and press releases to a magazine or freelance writer seeking to arrange reviews or interviews with the artist. Announcements of future expected recordings might be made available by some recording companies along with PR releases. The job of music journalist is typically low-paying, and for this reason many music journalists hold other part or full time jobs.

References

• La Mara (Lipsius, Marie), ed. Franz Liszts Briefe. 8 vols. (Volume 1, Von Paris bis Rom, quoted.) Leipzig, 1893–1905. Translation by Constance Bache published by New York: Greenwood Press, 1969 (again 1995). ISBN 0-8371-1104-8.
• Walker, Alan. Franz Liszt: The Weimar Years, 1848–1861. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1989, paperback (c) 1993. Pages 395–7. ISBN 0-8014-9721-3.

External links

• The Music Press Report - news, articles and resources for music journalists and photographers
• Rock's Backpages - an online library of music journalism from '50s to the present
• Rockcritics.com- Interviews and feature stories on some of the most prominent music journalists in the world
• Firesideometer - Music journalism site focusing on independent and emergent talents, featuring writers from all over the world.
• CLUAS webzine- Comprehensive essay on Rock Journalism
• Jazz Journalists Association- Information and contributions by prominent Jazz writers