Music Business

Penises, Butts and Gossip: Why Modern Music Journalism Sucks

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By Lueda Alia on Alueda.net

My social media feeds are full of rants (and often snarky comments) from frustrated people in the entertainment industry. What worked so well for many years suddenly doesn’t seem to work anymore. Distribution of music has never been easier (Soundcloud, BandCamp, Spotify, Rdio, Pandora, etc.) and there are more publications, magazines, and blogs than ever before. Why, then, is it so difficult to secure artists and brands the exposure they deserve?

Well. The past two weeks, publications have been busy publishing articles on Kim Kardashian’s butt and Lorde’s “feud” with Diplo regarding his “tiny penis”:

The Guardian
Taylor swift ‘booty’ diss by Diplo inspires Lorde’s wrath

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Spin
Diplo Disses Taylor Swift’s Butt, Lorde Follows Up With the Perfect Comeback

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The Huffington Post Entertainment
Lorde Totally Owns Diplo After He Disses Taylor Swift on Twitter

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Rolling Stone
The Everything Index: Kim Kardashian’s Pavlovian Posterior Experiment

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Fact Magazine
Diplo Prompts Gross Taylor Swift Kickstarter; Gets Shamed By Lorde For His ‘Tiny Penis’

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CNN Entertainment
Make fun of Taylor Swift? Not on Lorde’s watch

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Billboard 
Lorde Perfectly Disses Diplo After He Insults Taylor Swift

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NME
Lord explains her Diplo ‘tiny penis’ comment

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NY Daily News
Lorde defends Taylor Swift, disses Diplo’s “tiny penis” on Twitter

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Fox News Entertainment
Katy Perry’s boyfriend Diplo disses Taylor Swift’s butt; Lorde disses Diplo’s manhood

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Grantland
Asses of Fire: Why Kim Kardashian’s Magazine Shoot Failed to ‘Break the Internet’

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Stereogum
Lorde Clarifies Comment About Kim Kardashian’s Butt

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NME
Lorde says Kim Kardashian cover of Paper magazine is ‘pure heaven’

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VICE
Getting to the Bottom of Kim Kardashian’s Alien Appeal

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Time Magazine
Kim Kardashian’s Butt Is an Empty Promise

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I could go on for hours with similar examples, but you get the point. Instead of using these platforms, which reach millions of people, to promote and reward deserving individuals for their skills and talents, the relentless pursuit of advertising revenue has pushed us to cover gossip about butts and penises.

We get it. Kim Kardashian has a huge ass, and Lorde made fun of Diplo in a hilarious way! And that’s a great way to get people to click on your website! Great, now writers and journalists are using wasting their skills writing about ludicrous and irrelevant stories, and all is well!

It’s easy to poke fun at these publications for struggling to adapt to technology and the internet. In order to remain relevant and make money, they have opted to become TMZ-esque because it’s easy and it works. But I can’t see this being a long-term solution, because all of these publications are becoming mirror images of each other and nothing more.

One of these days, we will start to care about journalistic integrity once more. We will begin to write stories that deserve to be shared with the rest of the world, and we’ll reward people who have earned the exposure through hard work and creativity and not through their fame. But that day is not today. And thus, everyone (artists and publicists included) needs to adapt the way they work in order to succeed. Stay tuned for my next article, which offers suggestions and advice for navigating the current landscape.

 

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8 Comments

  1. A big issue is that no one has any integrity any more and they’re willing to sink to any length because they’re just that hard up for money. At some point the scales flipped and cold, hard cash became more important than pride and integrity. :/
    http://www.chancius.com

  2. “all of these publications are becoming mirror images of each other and nothing more” – finally someone has the gall to come out and say it!
    This is the problem. Editors today see what other publications are doing. In fact we are hyper-aware of what all of our competitors are doing, and so when we see stories trend, we all try to get on the bandwagon to capture as many clicks as possible.
    Media used to create trends, now it’s responding to them, that’s why these publications are all becoming mirror images of each other.

  3. I write for a popular DJ blog and I refuse to cover crap like that. It’s been our policy since day one and you know what? We’re seeing incredible growth. The idea that you have to sell sex and gossip to be popular is a joke. Most sites just follow the leads of others and that’s why there’s so much unoriginal journalism going on.

  4. You can always “unlike” and “unfollow”. Otherwise you’re at the mercy of the content personalization algorithm of your favorite social network.
    Media will keep producing thin content cause it’s not their responsibility anymore if it appears in your stream.

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