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ShareAfter 12 months of combing through publications, zines and blogs, I finally finished my list of the best music journalism of 2005 for rockcritics.com. As always, I’m sure I missed some good pieces of work but I did my best to plow through as many good leads as I could find.
As depressing as I find the media-scape nowadays, I’m always inspired nevertheless to see so many good writers and articles out there regardless. Especially encouraging is that many of these come from the same mainstream media sources that are constantly under attack nowadays (sometimes from within itself).
Of course, these types of things are always subjective but in general, if I find that I enjoy an article enough that I’d want to forward it to friends and colleagues, then I figure that it should be on my list. It is interesting? Is it creative? Does it cover an interesting subject well? Then, it’s something I admire and want to tell the online world about.
As I say in my intro essay, it’s important not just to recognize writers in a list like that but also to let them know what you think of their work by contacting them directly and/or writing to their publication to let them know what a good job they’ve done (and maybe even compliment the editor for running the article and helping to shape it). So don’t keep your admiration to yourself- let them know!
I’m grateful for all of the fine writing I found if only because I honestly think that it’s enriched me in some way. That’s the best gift that a writer can give a reader. OK, that’s a little mushy but I really do believe that.
