ENOUGH, or, My Experiences With The Middle-Aged White Men Who Dominate Events Concerning British Music Journalism

Enough with retrospective panels about music journalism (I could stop right there) led by middle-aged white men (and again) who crusade against online music writing (in the form of a sole scape-goated young writer) despite clearly not having read any.

“Where are all the professional music journalists going to come from now?” There’s no such qualification (and never was, other than misplaced ego), to the form’s great benefit.

Enough with the falsehood that in the good ol’ days, opportunity to get read and paid and forge relationships with editors was open to all as opposed to today’s so-called unpaid, untethered digital wasteland. Literally a few dozen people had the privilege of passing through those storied music magazine newsrooms, and they were 95% the same kind of person, to the form’s great detriment.

If you still use “Buzzfeed” as a pejorative, you’re betraying both your prejudices, fear and ignorance. See also: “where are all the political bands?”

Enough with conferences that focus on music journalism’s past, and how much better it was. Enough with giving the old British rock writer hegemony the platforms to dominate these events. If the future doesn’t fit your programme – and in a way that’s not doomsdaying – scrap it.

Realise that the next wave of great music writers a) probably won’t just write about music, b) probably couldn’t care less about becoming part of the legacy you’ve appointed yourselves, because they have their own smarter, more inclusive, more astute, more representative things going on.

Enough with the idea that online music writing is confusing and lacks consensus. What is it that you’re looking for? Hand-holding? Some kind of consumer guide? Did you used to buy all the music papers? No? Exactly. Curate your own damn experience. Read challenges to your existence. Death to the idea of there being a few totemic gatekeepers dictating the dialogue.

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Saying all that, tbh I’m delighted that these old men fear the internet as it more swiftly determines their impending obsolescence.

All of this underlines just how badly we need an EMP equivalent here. Who’s in?