Trials of the Rock Writer
Around this time of the year, rock publications begin to plough out forms of questions which all add up, eventually, to: Who do you wanna read about next year? There's no way of ignoring that. If Group X comes out top of the poll and none of the writers like Group X, then it'll be difficult to blame any circulation-loss in "75 purely on a general recession.
LETTER FROM BRITAIN
Ian Mac Donald
by
Trials of the Rock Writer
Around this time of the year, rock publications begin to plough out forms of questions which all add up, eventually, to: Who do you wanna read about next year?
There's no way of ignoring that. If Group X comes out top of the poll and none of the writers like Group X, then it'll be difficult to blame any circulation-loss in "75 purely on a general recession. Gotta write a good few articles on Group X, right?
And you can attack them in print only so often before it gets boring — for everybody — and then you have to get set for "objectivity," which means finding some way to be harmless about Group X without selling out. You can claim, in so doing, to be merely dispassionate — but how will that look when, on the opposite page, Singer-Songwriter Y is being busted in the mouth just like the good old days? It'll look like Group X is being accepted.