How to Write About Music: A Guide for Music Writers

Writing about music professionally is known as music journalism or music criticism. It can involve reporting music news, doing artist interviews, reviewing albums, and penning critical analysis of trends, events, and genres.

• History of music writing: In the early nineteenth century, formal music journals began using the written word to analyze classical music composers, such as Beethoven, Mozart, and Bach.
• Contemporary music writing: Music writing became more prominent in the 1960s with the rise of rock ‘n’ roll and pop acts such as The Beatles. While major publications continue to publish music journalism, the internet has democratized a great deal of music criticism. Through blogs and social media, anyone can create a platform to release their reviews, criticism, and report news.
  
• Engaging cultural criticism: Some of the best music writers and journalists—such as Lester Bangs, Ann Powers, Robert Christgau, Alex Ross, and Ally-Jane Grossan—are known for incorporating cultural criticism into music journalism. Musicians are often inspired by the world around them and incorporate beliefs and reactions to events into their work. Having knowledge of current events and trends is essential to informed music writing.
• Understanding music theory: Music theory involves understanding music notation and musicology—the scholarly analysis of music. Although not necessary for music writing, an understanding of music theory can help writers dissect complicated, avant-garde, and evolving genres, such as jazz.

You do not need a college degree to have a career writing about music. However, many music writers have a degree in journalism or literary arts. Many of these careers can be done while teaching music, music history, and academic writing.

• Musicologist: A musicologist studies music and its relationship with another subject as a kind of social science. For example, an ethnomusicologist studies music through the lens of cultural criticism. People interested in musicology often seek teaching positions at colleges and institutions.
• Music historian: Those who love to study may consider a career as a music historian or musicologist. A large branch within musicology, this role takes a scholarly approach, often working as university professors while conducting archival and biographical work. Music historians may focus on popular music or develop work on the history of a prolific artist, such as J Dilla or Bob Dylan.
• Music journalist: A more general term, music journalists broadly report on music news and create cultural criticism for print, online, and broadcast media. A journalist may write an artist profile of Taylor Swift, do an album review of Radiohead's latest record, or pen a feature on the importance of a particular New York music scene. Some music journalists develop beats, such as the music industry.
• Music critic: Someone who reviews and critiques new releases, events, or a particular piece of music. Critics are common in the technically complex worlds of jazz and classical music, which often require a deep understanding from writers.
• Music blogger: A career path for those who enjoy one or more of the aforementioned paths, music bloggers create their own platform instead of working for a larger publication. Bloggers have a wide range of writing styles, including personal essays.

Since 2008, newsrooms have continued to downsize staff due to economic hardships. In an attempt to keep costs low, the number of staff writing positions at music publications has continued to decline. Freelance work is now more commonplace.

The most important step when writing about music is to write, read, and listen to as much as possible. Writing hones your voice, while reading exposes you to various styles and information that will shape your writing. The wider the range of music you embrace and study, the better your perspective and critical ear.

1. 1. Read about music: Understand as much as possible about music, from instrumentation to how artists create their song lyrics. Reading also helps teach the technical vocabulary specific to certain genres. To help you gain a better command of music, use music writing reference books, such as A Short Guide to Writing About Music by Jonathan Bellman and How to Write About Music, edited by Marc Woodworth and Ally-Jane Grossan. Both of these works discuss how to research and write about music effectively, and are great resources for new music writers.
2. 2. Stay informed: Develop an understanding of news, events, and cultural conversations that inform songwriters. For example, understanding the politics behind Russian feminist collective/punk group Pussy Riot is necessary if you want to write an informed piece on their output.
3. 3. Learn music theory: The more informed your technical language, the better your music writing will be. Elements such as BPM, timbre, crescendos, adagio, and other music sounds will help you more deeply understand a particular piece of music and its relationship to other songs on an album.
4. 4. Listen to music: Don’t only listen to genres that you prefer, but expand your ear to different types of music. Artists are inspired by music across time and genre, and the best music critics recognize those references.
5. 5. Put work out: Whether you join your school’s paper, do creative writing, or start your own blog, getting eyes on your work is imperative to improving your music writing. There are also online resources that aggregate opportunities and writing prompts for writers of all experience levels, providing a great opportunity for new writers to get their foot in the door.
6. 6. Pitch to publications: Online and print publications are always looking for new pitches from writers. The more places you pitch, the more likely it is that you will sell a piece. Don’t be discouraged if you pitch one outlet and never hear back. Lean into your passion, keep writing, and pitch some more.

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