Writing About Music

by Lisa Hiton

Sound is one of the most important phenomenons to the human senses. Unlike our connection to sight, touch, taste, and smell, hearing has a different biological response. When the body registers sound, the nervous system responds before the mind can intellectualize what is happening. So when you’re watching a horror film, for example, and suddenly, all of the sound cuts out, your body goes into fear mode before your mind can tell the body that you’ve fallen for an old Hollywood trick.

Similarly, the score of a movie can impact how you feel about it. When I was working in the film industry, a little indie film called Slumdog Millionaire was slated with Warner Brothers to go straight to DVD. When Fox Searchlight agreed to share the distribution, they decided to put the film on the editing table one more time and give it a new score. The film soared off the screen and ended up winning Best Picture at the Oscars that year.

Music is the physical manifestation of our nervous system: think of is as an elegant expression of consciousness as felt and made by notes. Notes, which are coincidentally, written on lines of a scale, not unlike our DNA.

From political revolutions of the civil rights movement, to “The Voice”, to riding in the car—music is the backdrop of our individual lives and of our collective human conscience.

And yet, articulating what happens in music can be quite hard. With language as our sole instrument to transfer how we feel and think about a song or an album to a reader, we must study music writing from the greats to hone our craft.

Music writing has become a genre that increasingly blends the skills of personal essay with music criticism. When you think of your favorite songs, you probably have specific encounters that attach to your sense memory.

My first memory of hearting “Can’t Get Next to You” by The Temptations was riding in the car with my father. Normally, a more stoic figure, my father delighted in singing all five vocal parts—high and low—in perfect pitch with the song. His long, curly hair bouncing to the beat. I saw in him a glimmer of that hippie who DJ-ed his way through college as we drove toward Lake Michigan. While I might not include this anecdote in a given review of music by The Temptations, my understanding of the spirit of that song and those voices comes from that memory.

Writing About Music isn't the Same as Writing Music

Music writing is a strange genre. Although lyrics and poetry are considered to be “like music” they aren’t the same as music.

So how is it we are supposed to use language to describe what is happening in a song, an album, or a concert, if it can never achieve the high music of instruments? It’s as though we’re set-up to fail.

In How to Write About Music, expert music writers and teachers of music writing give us a crash course in answering such questions. This book is a collection of essays about different genres of music writing—album reviews, interviews, music blogging, etc. The book was borne from Marc Woodworth’s course at Skidmore College, “Writing Rock”, and so, it’s also organized like a full-blown course.

The book shows its reader 13 different ways to write about popular music. Each chapter follows a specific order of components, beginning with an introduction to each kind of music writing, expert advice from music writers who specialize in that kind of piece, excerpts of music writing in that form, and writing prompts to encourage your own music writing practice. Not only are the pieces great models of music writing, but the book’s organization fosters the hopeful writer’s practice as though they, too were in Woodworth’s “Writing Rock” workshop.

In Woodworth’s introduction to the book, he describes the ways that the gaps between music and language can make for the most interesting new genre itself: music writing.

But even as you come into your own, even when you hit it right, your sentences don’t necessarily serve to replace or even parallel the music that is your subject. That’s not what writing about music does—or should do. The “writing about music is like dancing about architecture” canard may be witty enough to stick. It may even suggest something of the difficulty of the job. Still, I’d welcome rather than dismiss a priori a good dance about architecture, just as I’d welcome a masterful film made from a book, or an opera based on an international diplomacy. Unlike expressions cross-pollinate and bring unexpected forms into being. The idea that dancing about architecture is impossible or even pointless, isn’t a convincing dismissal of the project of writing about music. It’s precisely in that gap between arts that the possibility of making something worthwhile might best be realized. The most affecting and effective writing sometimes shares and exemplifies the heart of the subject it takes up in a more direct way—lifts into the light what’s central so we can see it again or perhaps see it differently. But even when it stays closest to the subject, the writing, obviously enough, doesn’t speak to music in its own language (even as the sound language makes is a music of its own that creates atmosphere and carries emphasis and meaning). The differences between music itself and language make for the difficulty and the pleasure of writing. Art leads to art but not necessarily to the art you expect. Despite all the distance between mediums—and all the allowances we might make for that distance—there’s an undeniable pleasure when language comes closest, on its own terms, to the music.

(Woodworth, 2-3)

How to Write About Music: Excerpts from the 33 1/3 Series, Magazines, Books and Blogs with Advice from Industry-leading Writers edited by Marc Woodworth and Ally-Jane Grossan: Perfect for any student, teacher, or writer interested in music writing!

Writing about Music: A Style Sheet by D. Kern Holoman: Style guides are important in any genre of writing. If there were a book to keep on your desk at all times as a music writer, D. Kern Holoman’s Writing about Music is such a resource. Like The Elements of Style, Holoman’s book gets into the nitty-gritty details of syntax, grammar, punctuation, and style when it comes to writing about music. From classical music, to contemporary impulses, from “premiere” to “premiére”, the details of music writing are accessible to all in this definitive style guide. If this kind of rigor is of interest, you can also read the first chapter online and begin to see the details of citing works from classical music, to pop music.

Inspiration from Music Reviews

“The Hamilton Mixtape, a Love Letter to a Love Story” by Spencer Kornhaber for The Atlantic: Since Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical came to town in 2015, it’s taken the world by storm—earning a record-setting 16 Tony nominations (of which, it won 11). And though Miranda himself is no longer in the cast, we can hear him and some of his heroes sing and rap our newly beloved favorites on The Hamilton Mixtape. From Kelly Clarkson, to Usher, to John Legend, Common, and more, Miranda’s intellectual/artistic mentors-turned-peers show up to give us radio ready versions of the musical’s best singles. And in remixing these numbers, Spencer Kornhaber of The Atlantic points out the arrival of different central themes—namely, that this version of Hamilton is, at its core, a tale of how love is the bridge of human connection.

• What is the writer’s attitude about the mixtape? How does he feel about individual tracks? The mixtape as a whole? Hamilton at large?
• What themes do we expect of a musical about Alexander Hamilton? How does Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical break those expectations? Why does he do this? What is achieved?
• Miranda’s influence comes from a long history of hip-hop and rap artists. How does he honor those influences in the musical? What about the mixtape?
• How does this echo-chamber of influence impact listeners? How does Kornhaber address this cultural influence in his review?
• Music and theater have a long history of becoming part of the cultural fabric in which they arrive. Why is that? How is Hamilton—the musical and the mixtape—a model of this?
• To Kornhaber’s ear, what themes of the musical are brought about in the mixtape?
• To what extent is Kornhaber’s focus the songs on the mixtape? To what extent does this review address the culture around the mixtape? Why? What can we make of this reflection?

“Sampha: Process” by Marcus J. Moore for pitchfork.com: Music writing, even about albums, can also incorporate personal narrative. In the case of this piece about Sampha Sisay’s debut album, Moore includes anecdotes from Sampha’s personal narrative to bring a full-vision of this emerging musician to readers and listeners. Though this piece incorporates the personal narrative of the musician, there are also many music writers who use their own relationship to a song, musician, or album as a focal point or narrative device to write about music. Moore’s review of Process begins with an anecdote: Sampha Sisay receiving a piano for his third birthday. This introduces readers and listeners to the deep meaning of the track, “(No One Knows Me) Like the Piano”, yes, but also to a larger theme: the piano as Sampha’s personal “giving tree”—the object that marks his growth, remains in his life as a constant, and serves to express his soul.

• What is the tone of Sampha’s debut album? How does Moore convey that to readers?
• This album addresses grief. How does the writer present this theme to readers? 
• How is writing music a response to grief? For Sampha? To Moore?
• If grief is the trigger for this album and making music is the response to such grief, what is the result of this practice? Where does Moore reflect on this larger idea?
• What is the role of self-discovery in this review?
• How is this album singular? Does Moore express this well?
• What is the sound of the album? Of the singer? How does Moore describe it to the reader?
• What larger claims does the writer make about the album? About the artist?

More Ideas For Music Lovers and Aficionados

If writing about and talking about music is becoming more than a hobby, there are many excellent resources out there to keep you engaged in an ongoing conversation about music culture. Some of our favorite resources are:

• All Songs Considered with Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton: This NPR podcast features new music and new musicians once a week. The podcast has expanded into a multimedia music platform, where fans can engage with music all day long. My favorite feature of All Songs Considered is “Tiny Desk”, where artists perform mini-concerts at the studio’s desk.
• Genius: The wikipedia for music lyrics, Genius (formerly, Rap Genius) is a media company that allows users to annotate the lyrics of songs. This growing resource shows readers the echoes being referred to in the lyrics they most love. Genius is also available on spotify now, showing the history of the lyrics you’re hearing in real-time!
• Pitchfork: Started in the mid-90s, this online magazine is a mainstay in the music world for its focus on independent music. As the magazine has expanded to include pop music as well, Pitchfork leads the charge in presenting music writing on new artists. From hosting Pitchfork Music Festival to their own award series, Pitchfork is at the helm, holding our ears to the new sounds of our time.
• Song Exploder with Hrishikesh Hirway: As in interviews with writers in The Paris Review, Song Exploder is a podcast for music lovers who want to hear artists discuss their work and their process. During each episode, Hirway has musicians break apart their own songs in order to reveal “the story of how they were made”.
• This Song with Elizabeth McQueen: What songs have changed your life? This is McQueen’s only question as she talks to fellow musicians about life-changing songs. What songs have changed your life? Saved your life? Changed how you experience the world?
• FACT Magazine: Music News, New Music: FACT is a UK and US blog and magazine focusing on music and youth culture. Aside from interviews with emerging talent and news, the site boasts weekly mixes by artists exclusively for download on the FACT remix series.

And if that’s not enough fodder for your music hankerings, Tom Hawking has curated a list of the best websites for music lovers over at Flavorwire and for podcast addicts, Eric Skelton’s “20 Essential Podcasts for Music Lovers” is at another great music site, Pigeons & Planes. Do you have other favorites that are missing? Add your resources to the list by using the tag, #MyMusicTaste on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

So dear writers, as you get listening to your favorite albums and tracks for review this month, think about how they work—the order of songs, the lyrics, the themes and the tone. And guide your readers on a journey through your beloved music collection.

About Lisa

Lisa Hiton is an editorial associate at Write the World. She writes two series on our blog: The Write Place where she comments on life as a writer, and Reading like a Writer where she recommends books about writing in different genres. She’s also the interviews editor of Cosmonauts Avenue and the poetry editor of the Adroit Journal.