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Advice for writing about music.

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Harun:
pitchfork reviews


also, song-by-song reviews. It's okay to point out specific songs and it's characteristics in a review, but don't focus entirely on this.

Rez:
Thanks very much! I had forgotten how helpful the internet can be when you find the right forum with the right people.

Inlander:
Remember that a music review is not an excuse to show everyone how well-educated you are, or how many big words you know, or how creative you are with the way you choose to approach reviewing music. You are writing a music review because you want to tell somebody about the music; your reader is reading your music review because they want and expect to be told about the music. By all means colour your writing with occasional personal anecdotes, unobtrusive jokes, etc. if they have a point or if they make the review more enjoyable to read (because an enjoyable read is an easy read, and above all else critical writing needs to be easy to read and to comprehend), but always remember that your review is always about the music, NOT about you and how clever you are.

Oh, and if you don't know anything about the history of the music in question, or how it relates to other music in the same scene, or anything about the private lives of the musicians - that doesn't matter! Ultimately all that matters is that you can tell someone whether the music is good or not.

Rez:
I'm doing an English degree at Oxford, so it'll be fucking fantastic to escape from the intellectual wankery I have to encounter on a day to day basis. Would anybody recmmend trying to keep to a specific word limit when I'm writing? Is this a good discipline to stop me going into "write everything I know" mode, or should I start doing this when I've got a taste for it?

Nodaisho:

--- Quote from: Harun on 03 Mar 2009, 17:13 ---song-by-song reviews. It's okay to point out specific songs and it's characteristics in a review, but don't focus entirely on this.

--- End quote ---
But I like song by song reviews... I think I'm probably the only one. It would probably also depend on the kind of music. If it is an album full of 20-25 songs just a bit more than 2 minutes long, it might be better not to, but if it is made of a few 10 minute songs, there is probably plenty in each one to talk about. You know, unless the musician doesn't understand that to make the song longer, you have to add more substance to it.

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