Writing to Reach You

Analysis of journalism often focuses on the production of news across various platforms to understand the nature of politics and public debate in the contemporary era. But it is not possible, nor is it necessary, to analyse all forms of journalism in the same way for they usually serve quite different purposes. Writing to Reach You recognises this and explores the practice of music journalism - a subject that has until now rarely been the subject on any substantial academic investigation. This book explores the function of music journalism and the music press via case studies in the UK and Australia. It argues that this type of journalism offers consumer guidance based on the creation and maintenance of a relationship between reader and writer. Music journalism is produced within particular critical frameworks that speak to different readers of the music press in different ways. As the historical analysis in this book reveals, it is also ultimately a practice that is shaped by the continuing changes in the consumption of popular music.