Spectrum Culture x Anhedonic Headphones present a review of Hodgy's "Fireplace"
From August 2014 until August 2016, I wrote stories/articles/etc for two newspapers in the area. I don't have a background in journalism, and until my first piece, I had never written an objective news story before. I was hired because I could write, and because I had lived in the area for nearly a decade, so I was relatively well connected within the community.
It took a while, but I eventually figured out how to remove myself completely from the pieces I wrote for the paper. You're telling somebody else's story. You're removing your opinions and thoughts and inserting theirs, or inserting facts, statistics, direct quotes, et. al. For as difficult as it was in the beginning, it became incredibly easy. And so I ended up saving "myself" for my columns in the Southern Minnesota Scene magazine, or for my writing for this blog.
Maybe a month ago, or so, the head of an entertainment website called Spectrum Culture contacted me on Twitter. He said he found this blog (not sure how) and called my writing strong. He asked if I'd be interested in contributing to their site. I said sure, and the next thing you know– they want results out of me.
I passed off that Tori Amos thinkpiece to them, thinking it would be good fodder for a nostalgia based section of their site. Turns out, I didn't do my homework on what Spectrum Culture actually wants from its stable of writers: it wants objective reviews, if that makes sense. Or, maybe a better description is "non-first person" pieces. You give your opinion, but you remove yourself as a device with which that opinion is stated.
The Amos thing ran on their site, completely cut in half, and the idea of this "new" way of writing reviews was kind of baffling to me. Mostly because I've spent almost four years shitting out music reviews in a certain way. But also, music is so personal, it's almost second nature to include myself in what I write.
After re-grouping, and with the site still wanting content from me, I volunteered to review this album from an Odd Future associate, Hodgy. It was a terrible album, and a difficult review to write. So hopefully this gets easier over time.
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