Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Music news The art of storytelling and the death of (music) magazines
Posted by Rodney Carmichael @Rappin_Rodney on Wed, Jul 29, 2009 at 11:26 PM
Considering all the arguments heard in defense of the dying breed of traditional (music) journalism, here's one rarely mentioned: the art of storytelling.
Here's a pretty good story that appeared in a Kansas City-based publication, Ink, two weeks ago about a K.C. rapper I'd previously heard little about named Krizz Kaliko. His new album, Genius (Strange Music), is already a 2009 critics' pick. Peep the intro:
Krizz Kaliko planned to kill his future wife and himself.His tortured life had unmercifully reached a breaking point when Crystal Matthews, then 19, walked away from their three-year relationship.
The skin disease vitiligo had scarred his face, hands and upper body with blotches of pink skin since he was 2 years old and did even worse damage to his self-esteem. A criminal stepfather, neighborhood bullies and look-at-the-monster stares from confused adults and children inflicted physical and mental pain.
Cancer took his father when Krizz was 15. In the same year, his sister lay in a coma following a car accident.
His skin disease, the emotional trauma, his insecurity, his inexperience with love and lack of life purpose created a 25-year-old man ready to author a tragic ending.
Ten years ago in the pouring rain, he lightly tapped a window at Crystal’s home, hoping to trigger motion lights and bait her to lift the blinds. Dressed in all black and holding a 380 automatic in his right hand, Krizz steeled himself for a murder-suicide.
Read the rest.
Then check out Slate's recent piece, "Spinning in the Grave," in which Jonah Weiner (funny byline) gives three good reasons why music mags (Vibe, Blender) seem to be going the way of the dodo.
Which nicely dovetails with another recent Slate piece CL contributor Mark Gresham hipped me to titled, get this, "Who needs newspapers when you have Twitter?"
(That's what I'm sayin' — except, not out loud, since that would be counterproductive to my own bi-weekly efforts at making ends meet.) The Slate piece is actually an in-depth interview with Wired EIC Chris Anderson which starts off hysterically:
Mr. Anderson, let's talk about the future of journalism.This is going to be a very annoying interview. I don't use the word "journalism."
Come to find out, as the interview goes on, that Anderson has more attitude than answers. He raises great questions, however, about how to monetize a model (online content) that everyone is giving away for free.
Ok, last but not least, in honor of Vibe magazine's recent demise, Complex.com eulogized every deceased hip-hop rag known (and unknown) to man, in the online feature, "Life After Death: The complete history of dead rap magazines." Not only do they quickly summarize and rate each failed mag, they do so with snark and plenty of scanned photos of old covers. It's fun and comprehensive:
You know how today there's, like, a zillion blogs dedicated to rap and its various niches? Well, back in the '90s, that's what it was like at every newsstand.
After all that, I'm really not sure what everyone is whining about. All traditional journalism has to do to survive is cover its own death. That's a niche beat we could own for at least another decade or two.
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