Yesterday morning – much too early – I was part of a panel discussion about the future of music journalism that will air on IFC. Also on the panel were Pitchfork founder Ryan Schreiber, Maura Johnston from Idolator, and Bill Crandall, who heads up AOL Music/Spinner; everybody was really smart and really nice, it was a pleasure.
The moderator was kind of keen on good naturedly baiting me about the fact that now everybody is writing about music and allegedly stealing my thunder or cheapening what I do or something. But actually, I think it's great.
I may not look like it, but my heart is in punk rock, ca. 1977. I got my mind rearranged by the idea that anybody with some inspiration can make good rock music. And by extension, anybody with some inspiration can do a lot of things, like write about music. Not everything needs to be left to the professionals.
So I just love the fact that so many people are writing about music now, engaging it at the depth that writing requires. Sure, there's a whole lot of crap out there, but look in the right places and you can get some truly unique points of view expressed extremely well. It's deeply inspiring. I'd include some links but most of the good stuff I find, I just stumble across. I often carp about our illiterate nation, but it turns out a lot of people can write ridiculously well. I'm just grateful that most of them have chosen to do something else for their living, so I can keep my job.
Post a comment
Your Information
(Name and email address are required. Email address will not be displayed with the comment.)
Any word on when this panel discussion will air on IFC?
Posted by: Eric Grubbs | August 17, 2008 at 10:11 AM