Music plays a big role in student life
What is one thing in the world that we can all agree we like some form of? Some would answer: ice cream. But lacto intolerants and myself would disagree and tell you that it is music. Everyone that can hear music can learn to appreciate some genre or at least have liked one song in their lifetime. I personally would consider myself a music junkie. Always looking for new eargasms to fill the air waves around me.
With that being said, it would also be obvious to admit that I try to keep up to date with music through the journalism media. Rolling Stone, Spin, and Pitchfork magazine are essential reads in my own library. They give me a general idea of what new albums I should give a spin or a look into my favorite artists lives and careers.
So at the age of 23, I realized I should finally try and go to college and do something I love which is music, unfortunately I’m terrible at playing music, but I haven’t practiced much in my life. In fact, have never owned an instrument but I can talk about music and how much I love it so I decided to pursue a career in radio and music journalism.
I put time into 91.1 KAOR and was even the music director for two years. This year I thought I would get into writing about music and try doing album reviews to get some experience and hopefully feed back as well as maybe even building a fan-base or at least meet people that share similar music tastes.
Unfortunately The Volante, yes the same paper you, the read, is currently holding in your hand has decided to take away album reviews from the art section “The Verve”. Instead will only feature columns, which trust me is also essential. They do cover local art events which is crucial part of media journalism; especially for music. It will give people the chance to get interviewing skills and also helps broaden ones horizon of all the talent in the world and will also help you meet new people and potentially make future connections that could help in a future career. That being said, beside open-mic nights, strollers, the occasional play, and getting terrible artists like Jerrod Niemann to perform here, there really isn’t many options to write about.
Viewing the Volante website and going under the Verve tab>Reviews, you will see 3-4 reviews. Two of which are movie reviews and one is a review of how the Grammy had too many performances. The two movie films didn’t even have a rating system? Once again, I think the Volante could easily crank out a large some of reviews on a weekly bases. There is always new material being produced and really 200-300 word reviews with a rating would easily suffice for most media.
Re-opening the option for the staff to express their views in a media outlet that they love could give possibilities for not only the staff of The Volante but its readers to branch out and discover new ideas. Art is a very opinionated media but the option to express those opinions, good or bad, allows staff to gain experience in writing about things that do not resonate with in their tastes. It’s easy to communicate a judgment but it is hard to do it without bias.
College is so much more than getting an education in a particular field but to be able to explore other passions that burn deep down inside all of us. For some it is playing sports, or volunteering to improve the college or town community, or in my case, writing reviews for the never-ending sea of music.
According to an article titled: Employment After College which was posted on scholarships.com, “Building a resume in college is even easier when you have a good idea of what you want to be doing after college and if you know you won’t be changing your mind any time soon on your intended filed of study. Befriend your college career counselors and other faculty and staff who may have tips to share on internships and volunteer experiences to apply for that would be a good fit for you and your future career.” No matter what, experience is the most crucial for anyone pursuing a career in almost any field. I know I am not the only person at this school who want to get into the music journalism business but are being denied a key element.
Sure, people that want to write that kind of medium could easily start a blog, heck even a podcast or just do a radio show here at the college radio station but people that try and start off as a music journalist aspire to be part of a large staff that come together to bring their audience the cream of the crop.
