Music

Writing About Music, Part 2

Greatest Hits and Biggest Misses

Part 1 of this article can be found here

It’s been a year of this now, and closing in on 200,000 words spread out of close to 200 articles, I have somehow managed to amass a pretty healthy total of followers. I am grateful to them all that they find me worthy of following.

I’m sure I’m not the first to realise that followers are great, but readers are better. My actual number of these is significantly smaller. Which is fair enough, I guess, since I don’t regularly read the vast majority of the 600 or so people that I follow.

Of these, it’s an even smaller handful who regularly read the articles that I write about music and its impact on me and its role in my life. To them, I say, “right on, read on, rock on.”

It would be easy to say that I don’t care, but it would also be a mistake. Of course, I do! I’d love to increase the traffic on these.

But I realise that even though I don’t want to write for a specific niche, writing about music has proven to be the one I return to time and again. And I also understand that it’s just not everyone’s cup of tea.

And even less so is the specific type of music that I focus on.

A quick thumb through of my series, “You Have to Listen to this Song Right Now” (now up to 32 entries), will show that things lean heavily towards what we might call rock and roll and, even more specifically, that which has been created by English speaking white men.

It’s an acknowledgment rather than an apology. That’s the kind of music that has spoken to me most over the years; what are you gonna do?

My goal in this series has been threefold: a) to dig a little deeper into the music that has meant something to me, b) to have someone read it and write back and say, “yeah, me too,” and c) to give someone who has never heard of that band or that song an entry into it and create intrigue into searching out more.

All 32 of these articles have been published in The Riff, the editors of which I also extend my gratitude. This series is featured in Part 1 of this particular article in terms of those pieces that have been roaring successes and those that have been relative flops.

I’ll be honest, though; I still don’t know much about the algorithmic rhyme or reason that pushes one article while burying another. Oh well.

Anyway. As the year ends, I am looking back on my output the same way that Spotify insists I do with my listening choices every December. The fact remains that I love writing about music, and I hope that comes across here.

What follows are the best-trafficked articles (from outside of the above-mentioned series) and then ones that have turned out to be more from the less-trodden path.

I have broken this up into six sections:

An Introduction. There’s only one article there, actually, and it’s one of my first about music and my relationship with it.

Important albums. Those key works of art that I consider complete masterpieces.

Specific Songs. Not part of the “You Need to Listen to this Song Right Now” Series, but rather one tune that is interwoven into a life narrative

Live Shows. When you see it in person, it really leaves a mark.

The Key Music of a Given Year. In this case, 1991 and 1997.

Music and Travel. The role that music played in a specific place, in this case, Prague.