Rock Crit Thought Experiment

i'd take a drawing class, because it would force me to express myself in a non-verbal way, which might very well change the way i view my verbal expressions.

I agree w/ Maura - even getting involved with things outside of music are bound to enrich one's understanding / appreciation of music (and vice versa). If the editor wanted the writer to choose from the list, though, I'd select cultural studies.

Making a writer learn an instrument might allow for a more sympathetic ear to music, though - a lot of the writer/musicians out there are often more even-handed with their criticism & praise than straight-up writers. (Of course, it works the other way, too - lotsa catty rockers out there frothing at the mouth to rip poseurs & pretentious twats to shreds.)

I dunno if there is a 'typical' rock critic. I'd say that anyone serious about music writing should try to play an instrument at some point, to obtain a bit of appreciation for how freakin' hard it is and maybe open up some of the shades of subtlety in some recorded work. (F'r'example, the new Fugazi record sounds reasonably straight- forward...until you try playing some of it yourself. So maybe calling it straight-forward may seem reasonable on the surface, but isn't as accurate as it could be.) The problem with that (or the music theory course for that matter), is that you may start looking at the technical aspects of the music more than how it makes you feel. So the question then is, who are you writing for? If it's yr typical listener who doesn't care about the technique but more about how it makes them react, then maybe it's not so appropriate.

The problem with a journalism course is that much of what you learn may not be particularly relevant to music writing...and you may end up sounding like someone's staid grampaw. This is especially true if you have a bit of music theory in yez, at which point you will have to resist the temptation to be a no-fun overanalyzer (like Marcus can sometimes be). What most people could probably benefit from, rather than the full-on journalism course, is a basic grammar course, so that you can understand all of the rules of communication before you go out of your way to break them for stylistic effect. I can't count the number of reviews I've read that look oh-so-kewl but don't have the coherency necessary to allow the reader to recreate the thought processes that spawned them. I'd name a few names here, but Ned would probably call me a big meanie again (and no, it's not Ned).

I don't know about the cultural studies course; if you mean something that explains different cultures around the world, hey, I'm all for that, so that people don't get into these ethnocentric little bubbles that allow them to think that their cultural output is the most amazing stuff ever (or evah, as some here might say). It might prevent a lot of the us vs. them thing I see so often when it comes to music criticism.

Really, the most rock'n'roll thing to do would be to take the money, blow off the course, and spend the loot on drugs, booze and lots and lots of hookers (either male or female). Dontcha think?

Cultural studies, definitely. I don't think having increased journalistic skills necessarily translates into having better music journalistic skills. And becoming a musician or learning about music can introduce just as many prejudices as not.

No, Sean - not ROCK CRITIC (egad); MUSIC JOURNALIST. Music journalists would NEVER do drugs. It's so gauche to even consider such a thing.

As far as Mr. Ewing's attempts to talk smack - I'll name names when Tom ponies up one. (I'd offer up myself, but that's even more gauche. Ick. Poo.)

I can't count the number of reviews I've read that look oh-so-kewl but don't have the coherency necessary to allow the reader to recreate the thought processes that spawned them. I'd name a few names here, but Ned would probably call me a big meanie again (and no, it's not Ned).

Heh heh heh. The joys of private mail.

Speaking as one who has edited -- journalism class, please. Learn how to spell, dammit!

No, Sean - not ROCK CRITIC (egad); MUSIC JOURNALIST. Music journalists would NEVER do drugs. It's so gauche to even consider such a thing.
Well, since Tom put "Rock Crit" right in the name of the thread, I guess I equated the two, more or less, but you're right...there is a semantic difference. So, to avoid offending the sensibilities of the more sensitive, I withdraw the drugs from that equation. The booze and hookers still stand, naturally.

A course in how to play an instrument, definitely. (You get a little music theory with that anyway.) I learned how to play guitar a couple of years ago, and I don't think it's made me any more sensitive to the Tribulations of the Musician, but it's definitely given me MUCH more understanding of what's going on on pop records, just in the literal sense.

Journalism? Never. Poetry writing, maybe.

A course in how to play an instrument, definitely.

But Jad Fair says all you have to do is pick it up. And he releases three-album sets, ergo he is a Prog Rocker and Technically Skilled.

Well, of course, Ned, it depends on your definition of "proficiency".

Well, that was an obvious snarky comment to make. Gah. Apologies all around.

Ah, if only you listed "a course in ethics."

A course in massage therapy.

Well, that was an obvious snarky comment to make. Gah. Apologies all around.

Time to send back your DI disc, I'm afraid.

Doesn't it depend on the magazine one writes for? Some focus on the intellectual aspect, some on the technical aspects,... Personally I'd avoid the instruments like the plague. Let's keep the dichotomy between writers and players alive. hah! (Personally I'd go for an English dictionary, cheap and useful.)

Learning an instrument isn't totally necessary, but it could never hurt. And probably less in the way that it might reveal how hard it all is, but the way it would expose how easy so much of it is. I always find the most compelling music to be the kind I couldn't really conceive of creating myself, not for what it says about any technical virtuosity, but for what it suggests about the thought process of whoever's making it. There are extensions to be drawn, or at least considered, from the ways certain artists stray from the root of it all.

But cultural studies would have to come before that, since some sort of engagement with the non-music-obsessive's world is the prime way to help (force?) people to listen to records differently than they would otherwise.

All you mob saying 'Cultural Studies', have any of you actually ever READ any CultStud material? Most of it should be burnt. Now.

If you just mean studies of (non-music) culture, then yeah, no prob. If you mean Dick H*bdige then you are bonkers. Music journalists read FAR TOO MUCH of this stuff as it is.

Mark you're not still annoyed about that Wire letter surely?

Personally I think I'd take the instrument. Mind you I've tried learning piano and guitar and was apalling at both and learned nothing, so I'd go for one of those new-fangled instruments like the Powerbook.

Both journalism courses and cultural studies courses should be outlawed. No music journalist should be allowed to play a musical instrument. Therefore by default they should take a course in music theory.

NB Tom, I notice you presume the music journalist to be male...

Yes - I thought about using his or her but I decided this was one part of 'typical' that is (sadly) pretty unarguable.

Needless to say, the music journalist would take the money and go straight down the pub, thereafter placating the editor with quickly created details of special Lambeth Council four-courses-for-the-price- of-one deal and having sufficient front to convince editor that journalist knows what they're talking about.

Yes well the whole scenario is riddled with unlikeliness from the off.

(turned out That Letter was from an IT TECHNICIAN!!! My spies at middx said he was a nice man and always helpful, curse him)

Journalism, journalism, journalism!

If you've got a decent turn of phrase then fantastic. But music *journalism* (which isn't just reviews but features and artist profiles and news stories and boxes and funny riddiculous bits etc) is not all about making up pretty sentences. Research? Interview technique? News values? Article structure? Facts to back up opinions? Media law? = journalism course.

Cultural studies just lends itself to people who theorise too much and couldn't write a sentence in in plain, interesting, attention grabbing English to save their copy of Barthes.

[gets down off slightly hungover high horse]

Marcello is absolutely right.

As is Mark. Cultstuds TEXTS (warning: if they're calling it 'text', the subtext is THIS AIN'T NO BOOK) are pretty much unreadable as far as I can see because they DO NOT CONTAIN NARRATIVE. Which if I don't get, I really can't be progressing with (call this fictionwriteritis). This may be a fault, even though I'm fairly analytical. I just think that a lot of the language is obfuscatory hence does not actually aid communication.

I got into the best journalism courses in the US but eschewed them in favour of going to an even better college (Sarah Lawrence, which seems to offer BAs in lateral thinking) where alums were editors of the kinds of publications I wanted to work for (also my HS had KICK-ASS journalism/media department). Mind, this was back in the days when I didn't actually know to call it 'networking'.

Personally, I believe that most music journos should be sent to HYGIENE and DEPORTMENT lessons.

But should anyone who's taken a course in cultural studies be made to take a journalism course in the hope that they'd learn how to write? Should anyone who can play a musical instrument be sent on a cultural studies course in the hope that they never play the damn thing, there being far too many musicians in the world as it is (admittedly this is a devil / deep blue sea type equation)? Should all music journalists be forced to live in cages in Cuba?

Personally, Cultural Studies, because I've already had the others. For someone else, I think learning an instrument is a pretty neat experience (and by neat, I mean often physically and mentally humbling, but ultimately very rewarding).

Anything but music lessons. We don't want these people starting bands.

A course in how to hide money from people. We do want these people to manage bands instead of writing about them.

If you mean Dick H*bdige then you are bonkers.

I'll give him this much -- haven't read anything of his myself, but as a non-committee reader he did agree to review the thesis of my good friend Chelsea about riot grrl that she did for her doctorate. And that's a cool thing. :-)

While I can't speak for other courses other than my own, let me tell you it's quite broad. I do sociology, cultural studies, writing technique, journalism(basic study of the job itself), and media technology.

I chose the course based on me wanting to become a music journalist (at least for a while!). I'm not sure if it helps. ILM is more educational in that respect really.

He'll take the Yoga for Beginners Class, just you watch.

Anything but cultural studies. Christ.

I'd urge them to take a course in Quark or a course in plumbing or anything else that would help them to pay the rent with something besides writing. This would allow them to write the way they want to write about the music they're really passionate about without worrying about selling it. Better writing would result.

A class on literature and creative writing taught to prison inmates.