The state of music journalism

For all wannabe music journalists, their dreams play out a lot like scenes in “Almost Famous.” Mine did. To this day, I can remember specific reviews in Rolling Stone, Spin and Alternative Press, and I definitely remember the internship sections on their respective Web sites. But by the time I was old enough to actually be an intern, I had absolutely no desire to fill out those apps. That was partially because my interests migrated, partially because all those publications now suck. 

Music mags have struggled to stay afloat economically during the last decade, but for the most part, they’ve failed financially because they’ve failed to be relevant. 

Rolling Stone is three shells removed from its former self, rarely features an interesting music-related story and reviews music like it’s still 1993. Spin is doing OK as a main-streamed Pitchfork, but Alt Press is so awful and trend-lusting that I finally let my seven-year subscription run out this month. And Blender is just dead. 

So where are all amateur music journos going? Online – duh – to Blogger, Tumblr and WordPress. If you want to be a music journalist and don’t have a blog, you’re most likely a fool. 

The upside to all this is that more musicians are getting the publicity they deserve thanks to the increase in voices. The downside is that more pub for musicians isn’t equating to more pub for the bloggers breaking them. I’m sure the groundswell behind some artists starts before it reaches

Pitchfork, Stereogum or Culture Bully, but at that point, those more powerful outlets get the dap for the foresight. Worse, the recording industry has Google going after some blogs that are hosting new music, one of the blogger’s most powerful tools in the fight to be relevant. 

Thus, just as the industry itself is creating a greater schism between the same handful of popular artists and everyone else, it seems the same is happening to music journalism. We’re going to be told Rolling Stone and Spin matter, even when they don’t, and even online powerhouses like Pitchfork and Stereogum might get too much credit, leaving the aspiring journalist nowhere to turn. 

Sadly, Lester Bangs was right: it is all just becoming an industry of cool. And there’s no one to report on it.