6. How has music journalism changed since the 1970's? Discuss, with reference to at least three writers.
Robert Christgau is a great example to use when studying the changes in music journalism since the 1970's, who through the last 30 years occupied a position as someone who made a career against the backdrop of traditional music journalism, prior to the introduction of social media. Christgau 'began writing rock criticism for Esquire in 1967, was a columnist for The Village Voice from 1969 to 1972, and returned to the Voice in 1974 after two years as pop music critic at Newsday' (Christgau). Having worked at the Voice for 37 years and after which enjoying a brief spell at Rolling Stone magazine, he then moved onto Blender where he remained until 2009 when 'it went out of business' (Christgau, 2009). Irrespective of his well-documented attitude towards the internets continued influence on the face of traditional music journalism, he played a pivotal role in shaping what we recognize it as today. 'With Pauline Kael, Christgau is arguably one of the two most important American mass-culture critics of the second half of the 20th century' (Rosen, 2006).
Since the 1970's, music journalism has very much been a male-dominated field, and up until the turn of the 21st century, there was little in the way of change. 'By 1999, the number of female editors or senior writers at Rolling Stone hovered around a whopping 15%, [while] at Spin and Raygun, [it was] roughly 20%' (McLeod, 2002). We already know the rock as a genre has been traditionally perceived as being very masculine; conventional music journalism has done little to suggest otherwise. Indeed, 'music journalism can be understood to be informed by a culture of masculinity that is reroduced in a number of different ways. One influencing factor may be the male dominance of the field...nevertheless, the fact that man have tended to dominate music writing and the editing of the music press should not go unacknowledged' (Leonard, 2007). However, over the last ten years or so, there have been changes in this regard. In 2009, Krissi Murison, having previously worked at the NME for six years, became 'the first female editor of the IPC Media music magazine in its 57-years history.' (SWENEY, 2009). In addition to Murisons appointment, in August 2009, Nichola Browne was appointed editor of Kerrang! magazine, becoming the 'eighth editor of Kerrang! in its 28-year history, and [critically], only its second female editor' (Brook, 2009).
So in short, we've seen here two examples of how music journalism has changed from 30 years ago. Gender inequality in music journalism is still an issue but there has been significant progress over the course of the past few years. By contrast, the influence of the internet and social media still remains one of the biggest threats to traditional print journalism, a format Christgau has been so comfortable with since the 1970's; 'I like journalism as a fulltime career...preferably on paper' (Christgau, 2009).
BROOK, 2009. Nichola Browne to edit Kerrang! [online] [viewed 9 May 2011]. Available from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/aug/17/kerrang-new-editor-nichola-browne
CHRISTGAU, R. Biography [online] [viewed 9 May 2011]. Available from: http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/web/bio.php
CHRISTGAU, R., Poptastic Bye-Bye [online] [viewed 9 May 2011]. Available from: http://www.najp.org/articles/2009/03/under-the-axe.html
LEONARD, M., 2007. Gender in the music Industry: Rock, Discourse and Girl Power. England: Ashgate Publishing.
MCLEOD, K., 2002. Title Unknown.
ROSEN, J., 2006. X-ed Out [online] [viewed 9 May 2011]. Available from: http://www.slate.com/id/2148997/
SWENEY, M., 2009. Krissi Murison to edit NME [online] [viewed 9 May 2011]. Available from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/jul/29/krissi-murision-nme-editor
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