One of the biggest names in music journalism history, for me, is Lester bangs. With a career as notorious as the bands he’s wrote about, Bangs is in his own right a bit of a star himself. Starting his career in 1969 with Rolling stone Bangs soon became a name within his field, yet in 1979 after being fired for a negative review within the publication he moved onto to Detroit’s Creem with whom he gained national recognition (C.H. Sterling, 2009, pg 378)
Lester bangs opinion has always been what makes him so influential within the music press, and his views on music journalism are apparent “I think a lot of music out there and a lot of the writers who are out right now, they both deserve each other, because they both have no personality and no style of their own and no soul.”(DeRogatis quoted in M, Berube, 2005, pg 129)
The life of Lester Bangs is what makes him so compelling, the attitude and ideals that he exudes make him one of the only music journalists that are and have been able to become as renowned as the people they write about “Lester bangs- the gonzo journalist, gutter poet, and romantic visionary of rock criticism.” (J. DeRogatis, 2000 pgs 331) As a champion of rock journalism, a musician himself and with a career spanning from 1969 to 1980s he is truly a music press legend.
Another influential and quite remarkable music journalist is Nick Kent, with a career starting at the tender age of 19 and continuing into the 1980s, the back catalogue of Kent is pretty impressive:
“Kent started writing for the underground magazine frendz as a 19 year old student, and was then recruited by NME late in 1972...he did not disappear from the papers line up of contributors until the mid- 1980s but in practise he was working as a freelance in 1975. In the 1980s in did some work for The face and moved to France; he went onto do television work and write for magazines and dailies such as Mojo and
The Guardian and publish a book called zonked. “ (U. Lindberg, 2005, pg 205)
It is clear that his career is filled with different types of publications, from monthly publications to dailies and newspapers, giving him a wide knowledge of the music press and the different platforms within it. Not only this, similarly to Lester Bangs, Kent was able to input his personal experiences to his work “Kent took his musician’s career further, having a brief fling with the Sex Pistols and even recording a song with a group called the Subterraneans... On the whole he didn’t just write about rock stars he shadowed them.” (U. Lindberg, 2005, pg 205) Nick Kent is so influential due to his widespread involvement in so many different publications and types of publications, from working as a freelance and to working for individual magazines.Therefore giving him wide and varied experiences of the music press.
Bibliography:
M. Berube, The aesthetics of cultural studies, Wiley-Blackwell, 2005, pg 129
J.DeRogatis, Let it Blurt – the life and times of Lester Bangs, America’s greatest rock critic, Broadway books, 2000, pgs 331
U. Lindberg, Rock criticism from the beginning: amusers, bruisers and cool headed cruisers, Peter Lang, 2005, pg 205
C.H. Sterling, Encyclopaedia of journalism, SAGE, 2009, pg 378
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