Music Reporting and Devil-Horns

Okay, so I told you it was going to happen, but I completely forgot to tell you how it went. The day finally came to go to my "Covering the Music Scene" seminar. Yipee! Oh, man. It was so much fun! I met Chuck! I love Chuck (even though he reminds me of my ex-boyfriend... in so many ways, but we'll forgive him for that because he's so damn funny). And there were other reporters there too like Jim Farber, Lola Ogunnaike, Elysa Gardner and Alan Light, but let's face it: my deciding factor was Chuck Klosterman. Because... well because if you get down to the bare bones of it, I have an addictive personality, and thus I love being the groupie.

ANYWAY, so I learned alot from those 5 folks. How do you end up in the music reporting industry? You have to work for it. Sometimes you just "end up" there, but you have to go out on a limb and believe in yourself as a writer (though this kinda applies to all kinds of reporters). What's the difference between magazines and newspapers? Elysa said: With magazines you have more freedom and more space, and can therefore be more self-indulgent (that's my kind of writing! hehe). But you have to rememeber that the subject is going to be the interest of the reader, not the writer. Chuck said: With newspapers you can't swear and there are certain parameters that you have to follow. But, if you follow these rules you can basically write about anything you want. With a magazine you have more freedom, but you also get edited a lot more. Plus you always have to be conscious of the "voice" of the magazine.

Also, you have to suck up in magazines. You can't tear celebrities new ones. Damn, that would be fun. They also talked about the internet and blogs and such. That was really interesting. They were talking about how now that everyone envisions themselves reporters (haha, as i type my blog...) the value of writing really goes down. The expectations of writing also goes down. These online types also lose perspective with respect to what's good. Just because it's new, doesn't mean it's good. And that's what online people are obessed with: getting it first.

So, what I basically learned from these 5 great people, is that you have to talk about what music means, not what it sounds like (except in a general sense, says Chuck). You're not there to tell people what's good or bad; you're there to tell them what it means in the scheme of things, how it affects you, what it means personally. Because even thought people don't know you, they respond to first person accounts... because it makes them thing "oh yeah... wow.... i feel the same way about this album by this person."

I am so stoked. I love first person writing! Oh and before I forget:
I talked to Grizzly Adams... I mean Chuck... after the seminar :D. He was a super cool guy. I'm in love... haha not really... but he's a cool dude. And we have similar glasses.

Also, as I was heading back to the subway, I spotted this gem. It was too cool not to take a picture.