Writing About Music is Like… Talking About Movies

Editor’s note: As part of CMN’s music journalism program, we asked our team of music writers to answer this question by filling in the blanks: Writing about music is like ____ about ____.  You can see how all the participants answered the question here. 

Writing about music is like talking about movies. Even though movies have a different structure in terms of a visual perspective, it seems that every time I go about discussing film, I end up looking at it from a musician’s perspective.

Movies are also an artistic experience, so some similarities like the production style and artistic choices will come up. But what links these two mediums together at the hip is the fact that they are both subjective mediums. There can be a movie wrought with countless errors and shoddy camera work, but you can never really diminish the value of the work that was put into making it.

As much as I love reviewing music, it is a subjective art at its core.

There can be a song or an album that is not to my taste and grates on me to no end, but for as much as I can tear into it in a review, I can never validate my perspective if the music has its fans. I can give a song a negative review, but if you (the listener) is rocking out to it, I’ve already lost my argument.

Movies and music are both dazzling forms of artistic expression, but both can some of the most contentious art forms to discuss.

Film and music fans are always going to have their critical punching bags (Ex. Michael Bay for film, Nickelback for music). But when everyone puts down their critical pitchforks, writing about music and talking about movies are some of the best ways to celebrate the emoting of artists on the screen and in your playlists.