Jack Dorsett Level 3 Music Diploma
Industry Role - Music Journalist
What is a music journalist?
A music journalist is someone who writes about the music industry and/or music itself. Music journalists can work freelance as a blogger or a vlogger, or you could work on behalf of a comany. As a music journalist, you can land a job working for a magazine or website and write about things happening in the music world for people to read about. This could range from writing about a concert, an emerging artist, a shock break-up within the music industry, and, well, literally most things involving artists and music. You can also gain the opportunity to review songs and albums before they're released to the public. This would consist of listening to it a number of times, and then writing your thoughts about it for the public to read. Music journalists can also gain the opportunity to interview artists and other people within the music industry, either through a company they work for or you could even organise interviews yourself if you work for yourself and are fairly successful.
Health & safety concerns:
Music journalism is a job that doesn't really require any more health and safety precautions compared to most peoples normal lives. Of course you should not spend too long staring at a screen and shouldn't listen to music at a high volume for a long time, so it's advised that you take frequent breaks from each. Some people take a 10 minute break every hour or use the '90/20 rule' which is to take a 20 minute break every 90 minutes (1 hour and a half), but as long as you take frequent breaks from screens and high volume; you should be fine.
Qualifications needed:
You don't need a qualification to be a music journalist but working towards one, most likely a music journalism degree at a university, will prepare you well to step into the industry. Although there are no qualifications needed to become a music journalist, it definitely helps to be good at literature. Another thing which would help greatly would be to thoroughly study musical history, arrangements, instrumental timbres and sound engineering; knowing about these things are essential for speaking with confidence to artists and their fanbase.
A lot of music journalists, at some point in their career, will work freelance. It's vital that you build up an education of how to build your own personal brand. If you know how to run your own music journalism blog, business or anything like that, you shouldn't have many problems as a music journalist. A good way to become a music journalist on your own; would be to start your own blog, interview local bands and review local performances - doing this will build up experience and the skills you need to become successful.
Why I want to pursue this career:
Last year, while doing college work, I realised I quite like writing about music. We were tasked with writing about the origins of 2 genres and 1 sub-genre within each of them. I chose reggae and rock music as my genres, with dancehall music and psychedelic rock as the sub-genres. While I was doing this my brother suggested that, when I've finished my college course, I should study music journalism at university - that's been my plan up until now. I got a 7 in my English GCSE, and I believe in my literature skills, so I think that I could be a very good music journalist.