Unit overview: Music Journalism
Music can get a bad rap, if you’ll pardon the pun.
It is not just background noise, music is one of the UK’s biggest exports and, despite falls in physical sales, is still a multi-billion-pound worldwide industry. It manages all this while fighting against the perception that participating in it, or writing about it, is not a ‘real’ job.
Music journalism online is a massive sector — while its traditionally young audience no longer spend their money on monthly magazines or weekly ‘inkies’, they spend an awful lot of time listening to music, reading about it and talking about it online. The jobs are still there.
This is why University of Portsmouth’s Journalism students who want to stretch their writing muscles a little further, can now pick Music Journalism as a second year option.
The unit is designed to introduce students to the key elements of music journalism — reviewing gigs, ‘albums’, and conducting interviews with sometimes contrary and not-altogether-sober musicians, DJs and other movers and shakers in the industry.
But it is not just about writing articles. Music is also used as a prism to study the world. Students look at violence, homophobia, racism, moral panics and the changing face of the industry in the digital age. These areas can form the basis for a third-year Dissertation or Special Investigation, giving the students a head start in the thought process towards picking a topic.
The second assessment sees the students plan for an article on a major issue that affects those in the industry, as well as an essay. This produced interesting debates on sexism and Miley Cyrus, the case of Kesha and led one student to wonder how to reference Nicki Minaj in his bibliography.
Lecturer Claire Perry was a part-time music writer at various newspapers and was a club promoter in Portsmouth, so has seen the industry from both sides. While drawing from her own extensive record collection and knowledge, she encourages students to bring their own tastes to class and share opinions — not least in the weekly ‘tweet review challenge’.
One student who took the unit was Lauren Adams. Not only did she enjoy the work, it lead to her being published in Guestlist Magazine. She said: ‘Music Journalism has been one of my favourite topics that I have studied during the second year. It has increased my knowledge of the music industry and the particular issues it faces such as sexism.
‘The unit has made me consider a career in music journalism which I wasn’t thinking of doing before. Everyone taking the unit has very different music tastes. You learn more about your peers and listen to songs you never would have come across otherwise. Another part that I found particularly useful was learning techniques on how to write a good review of live and recorded music.
‘One of the assignments includes a music portfolio where you have to go and interview someone in the music industry. I chose to interview an upcoming band called Only Sun. Not only did this increase my confidence massively, it was a great way to get some real-life experience and go and see live music being performed. This also led to my work being published in a music magazine which was very exciting!
‘Overall, the unit allows you to be creative, write about music that you love whilst also building on necessary journalistic skills.’
