Examples of music blog writing across the Internet

• I Care If You Listen, a blog/digital magazine with several contributing authors
• Jenn Jolley (composer), Why Compose When You Can Blog?
• Marc Myers (music journalist), JazzWax
• Will Robin (musicologist), Seated Ovation
• Alex Ross (music critic), The Rest Is Noise

Examples of professional think-piece essays

These are good examples of ways that authors connect music and musical analysis to broader issues in society, just like you’ll be doing in your SBP.

• Kyle Chaykya, “The Oppressive Gospel of Minimalism,” in The New York Times (July 26, 2016): Chaykya – The Oppressive Gospel of ‘Minimalism’ – The New York Times
• Brad Evans and Henry Giroux, “The Violence of Forgetting,” in The New York Times (June 20, 2016): Evans and Giroux – The Violence of Forgetting – The New York Times
• Eve Ewing, “A Tale of Two Recluses: Remembering Harper Lee While Waiting for Frank Ocean’s Follow-Up to ‘Channel Orange’,” in The Atlantic (August 6, 2016): Ewing – A Tale of Two Recluses – The Atlantic
• Langston Hughes, “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain” (1926): https://www.poetryfoundation.org/resources/learning/essays/detail/69395 
• Jordan Kisner, “Can a Woman’s Voice Ever Be Right?” in New York Magazine (July 2016): Kisner – Can a Woman’s Voice Ever Be Right — The Cut
• Stephen Metcalf, “Donald Trump, Baby Boomer” in Slate (May 1, 2016): http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/cover_story/2016/05/donald_trump_baby_boomer_how_the_candidate_was_shaped_by_his_generation.html
• Alex Ross, “When Music is Violence,” in The New Yorker (July 4, 2016): Ross – When Music Is Violence – The New Yorker
• Scott Timberg, “The Revenge of Monoculture: The Internet gave us more choices but the mainstream won anyway,” in Salon (July 30, 2016): http://www.salon.com/2016/07/30/the_revenge_of_monoculture_the_internet_gave_us_more_choices_but_the_mainstream_won_anyway/

Examples of past Student Blog Posts

Students from previous semesters have submitted some really great blog posts — informative, well-written, entertaining, thoughtful, and personable. Don’t take these examples as an exact template for your own blog post because 1) the assignment is slightly different every semester, so the requirements they wrote for aren’t the same as the ones you’ll be graded on; and 2) blogs are highly personal!

Think of these examples as just that — examples. Your blog post can go in any direction and be about any piece of music that interests you. As you read these, think about what each author does well, how their personality comes through in the post, and various aspects of blog presentation: what makes for a catchy title, layout, headings, inclusion of images or videos throughout the post, etc.

• Andean Legacy
• Are you Stoned right now?
• ¿Bailamos Bachata? (May we dance Bachata?)
• Bollywood’s Color of Love; Hollywood’s Standards
• Can singing just four words mean freedom for a nation?
• Dang!!!
• Der Deutschergeist (The German Spirit)
• Drunk or High? Do or Die? Both!
• Exes-change
• For the Lost Ones
• From 8-bit to Retrowave
• Go home, Vince Neil, you’re drunk
• Introduce yourself
• Let’s Rock ‘n’ Roll
• The Man Who Can’t Be Moved
• ‘Murica
• Music Moves Us Differently
• Music Sampling: Is it Okay if the Music is Not 100% Original?
• THE ROOTS
• See with your ears; Listen with your imagination
• What is Future Funk?
• Of Wizards, Demons and Rock Music