By the way, JGlass, your MokNok review sounds really interesting, but I can't get it anywhere, upload maybe?

I'll do a vinyl rip ASAP and put it on Oink.

If anyone else is interested then I'll just throw it on megaupload.. but I need to become a pu+ on ink again because my gf is on my ass about inviting her.

Becoming a critic is essentially about writing something that you want to read. And to stand out from the crowd you either have to be funny, informative, or inventive. I suggest trying to come up with a different platform to talk about music, talk about something that's not already found 40 pages deep on a Google search.

So, I submitted an application to DoA about two days ago and I just found an email from them welcoming me to the team.

I'm kinda psyched. They're not a huge site, but this is the next step from blogging (which I will still maintain of course).

Good for you! Seriously. I won't tell you to now seriously reimagine most of your "negative" reviews...

Ha!

That's really cool J-man. I look forward to reading you "stuff".

I always am tempted to apply for a job working as a music review for our campus newspaper. Most recently they reviewed "Iron & Wine". They gave it a 4.5/5 stars, and the first line of it read "Iron & Wine sucks."

You should do it! Its a lot of fun.

How's the blogging going?

I probably would suggest making your blog an mp3 blog. Then adding your blog to places like the hype machine and elbo.ws.

With increased traffic and exposure you can get artists submitting work to you and allowing you to conduct e-mail interviews.

I've had a band member from Siberian send me their album and I just asked a few questions like a mini-interview.

Writing generally isn't my thing but asking a few questions here is good practice and you can brag that you did an "interview" with a band.

Everything is going well, I get contacted by bands, promotional companies, and labels occasionally asking if I'd be interested in checking out their band and receiving a CD or two. I really enjoy the blogging.

I have also started writing for Delusions of Adequacy like I mentioned earlier.

And I like to keep my blog simple so that its not a pain in the ass, unsightly, or anything else that you frequently find with blogs.. but I have been posting tracks occasionally.

I like the stuff on your blog, especially because you go beyond mere analysis and criticism of the songs and often make explicit the fact that these are your opinions and preferences and you often take into account how certain albums have a certain effect on you.

I mean of course you can't exactly be too 'personal' with your professional work, but some elitist magazines out there go to the extreme and like to style themselves as THE opinion leader in music and make you feel like you're some sort of weirdo if you disagree with their opinion, disregarding the sentiment that theirs is, afterall, just an opinion. That to me is a total turn-off.

So kudos on the good work! And congrats on all the free CDs!

I haven't really read your work on DoA because I don't frequent that site, but I like that essay on the post-punk movement you posted recently. Nice.

Thank you very much!

I try to make it clear that all these reviews come from my bg, y'know? That's why we have favorite places where we go for reviews... because we feel their taste matches ours. So, even if someone doesn't agree with why I like an album, if I try to account for the personal touches, well then they can never refute my opinion!

It works out well haha.

i'd love to start my own blog but school takes up quite a bit of time so i'd probably fall behind on the latest releases. defanitely don't have the vernacular to blow people away with artsy language.. the life of a science student !

You don't have to have artsy language to blow people away with music writing. Just do you. If you're passionate, you'll come through.


JGlass,

(I apologize in advance if I come off like a dick in this, but I say what I mean and mean what I say. Again, I'm not trying to hurt your feelings.)

You obviously have the makings of someone who could be a good music writer, but if I were you I'd have additional eyes look over your work before you turn something in or publish something non-blog. It never hurts. Also, make sure you're extremely well-versed in what you're writing about, don't be afraid to source strongly and research.

DoA's a good start (I don't read them), but if you ever feel like you need to move on, I'd be remiss if I didn't remind you that there's greener pastures out there.

Don't worry, I don't take offense... actually, this is exactly what I'm looking for. I need people to reinforce that I have ability, but I still have a lot of technical aspects that I need to work on-- grammatically and musically.

Another issue I need to figure out how to take care of is my varying genre interests. It's pretty hard to feel like the review your writing is insightful when you don't specialize in a certain genre. I feel that I alienate myself by not focusing on a certain aspect of music. My lack of focus seems like it'd cause a reader to not be interested in a majority of what I write about, and eventually just completely lose interest.

And I don't intend to stick with DoA forever, but they send me good CDs and are pretty relaxed which is what I want right now. When I'm ready to get really serious I'll probably shop around to newspapers or something; see where that gets me.

Well, you should have as few blind spots as possible, but you should definitely know what strikes a chord with you. For me, its riffy Southern rock, free jazz that grooves, Cure/U2/Eno/Verlaine guitar washes, prog metal with big diving riffs and snap/crunk beats, among others, that really light my fire.

It helps to know what musical devices (handclaps, song breaks where there's only vocals over percussion) make your hair stand on end as opposed to be a genre devotee, although you might inevitably find yourself coming back to certain genres. In all instances, be honest with yourself and what you're biased toward.

Also, it can't hurt to be ethnically and culturally diverse in what you listen to (after all, according to Sasha Frere-Jones and... me, indie rock is pretty white), but that's advice, or at least opinion, for later.

To be a music critic you need two things.

An opinion and a mouth.

If you plan on being in radio, I suppose.

But most music criticism takes place on the written page (or screen).

kthanxbai

quote:

Originally posted by JustSomeIdiot:
To be a music critic you need two things.
An opinion and a mouth.

Practice, a computer, and some knowledge about the field sure helps.

Just goes to show you:

Don't make it a point to listen to anyone who is impressed by long palindromes... So much so they put one in their signature.