Music journalism
Alex's latest book is out in Sept '09
Alex Ogg is a music journalist and author. His books include The Hip Hop Years, No More Heroes, Top Ten, The Men Behind Def Jam, Rap Lyrics and Independence Days. Alex has also written for numerous newspapers, magazines and websites, as well as composing more than a hundred CD sleevenotes. For more on Alex visit www.alexogg.com.
I guess I stumbled into music journalism as a record-obsessed teenager. I did the usual nerdy things like keeping scrapbooks of my favourite artists, pretty soon cascading down the slippery slope of running my own fanzine. The latter was exquisitely dreadful. To my utter horror one issue contained a poem roughly based on an Angelic Upstarts song. In my defence, I was only 14.
Most music journalists quickly follow that up with freelancing/stringing either for the then prevalent inkies, NME, Sounds, Melody Maker, or later the late 80s glossies like Q, Vox and so on. But I never really did that.
I got very involved instead in the DIY side of music; sending off for fanzines and cassettes - a lot of Swedish hardcore punk bands and merrymaking anarchists from Holland if I remember correctly.
I kind of odd-jobbed for a while until I took over the editorship of two music titles based there. This was good fun, and I got to interview Kirsty MacColl in a toilet cubicle.
Unfortunately the enterprise was founded by a notorious local bootlegger. He was indebted, seemingly, to half the country. The other half just wanted to kill him for personal reasons. I flounced off shortly before it all went phut. However, that led to me doing a bit of liner note work and a full-time position in London writing encyclopaedia entries about musicians.
I took a better paid job after a couple of years but kept my hand in freelancing. I was then invited to write The Hip Hop Years to accompany the C4 TV series thanks to my encyclopaedia work, and from then on combined working a day job with knocking out a book roughly once or twice a year.
Then my wife and I had children, and the mix of freelancing, full-time work and Daddy Day Care meant something had to go (and as hard as I tried to rid myself of the offspring, they always managed to struggle out of the bin liners and find their way home).
I ended up full-time freelance about four years ago. That’s meant a combination of books, articles for newspapers and magazines, liner notes and magazine editing. Oh, and a bit of project management - reissuing CDs by artists you’ve never heard of (although I’ll swear blind you should). I have relished and despaired of each of these activities equally. All of them are based around writing to a lesser or greater extent. But I would say I enjoy the variety.
As a freelancer you take what’s out there. And it’s incredibly tough at the moment. We’ve got the double whammy of a major recession plus the music industry falling to pieces around us. There are more people hunting but less work available, and the rates have either levelled off or editors are encouraging writers to write for ‘exposure’.
I’d be very wary of that, even though I’ve done it in the past. I ought to say here if you don’t value yourself, don’t expect anyone else to be foolish enough to do so, but I’m certainly not the world’s toughest negotiator. These are lessons you learn. Another big one is not to offer up your copyright if at all possible.
The old adage is that yesterday’s news is today’s chip wrappers, but there is residual value in a writer’s work. Check out the excellent rocksbackpages site (where I sometimes blog) for evidence of that.
Freelancing can be very lonely work, and it’s good to build up a network of like-minded souls or join one of the many specialist agencies the NUJ runs.
I’m a member of the NUJ Next Big Thing list as well as the Society of Authors. These places are invaluable should you need advice on remuneration, contracts and contacts. Or sometimes just to navel-gaze in the company of others of a similar disposition while you wait for the commission that’s going to see you to the end of the month.
What else can I tell you? Did I mention that it’s tough out there? You have to be extremely resilient because work very rarely comes to you.
Good pitching skills help, so know magazine and websites’ target audiences and always try to bring something fresh to them. Cultivating a harmonious relationship with a publisher is a plus if books are the way you want to go. I’m still working on that…
Build a good contacts list. Be interested in everything and try to find an angle. Music journalism tends to follow precepts around the industry’s release schedule, so try to plan in advance for releases, shows and events that you know will appeal to an editor.
Finally, find a forgiving life partner that will overlook your fiscal ineptitude and strange sleeping patterns - that last one’s very important.
