Job description:
The Weekly’s music editor takes point on our coverage of music on the South Side. Their responsibilities include scouting out new music, maintaining the music calendar, responding to pitches and press releases, supporting writers, and—of course— pitching, editing, and writing articles.
The music section regularly features concert reviews, album reviews, and interviews with musicians, archivists, and DJs. But at the end of the day, the music section’s mission is to cover anything new, exciting, or important about music on the South Side, and that can take just about any form.
An interview can mean anything from a track-by-track breakdown to a walking tour, and some of our most exciting articles combine different styles of reporting, whether they record oral histories of Chicago genres or give commentary on local scenes.
There’s also a lot of potential for collaboration with other branches of the Weekly, from interviewing artists on-air with South Side Weekly radio to creating videos about artists. And in the past we’ve run a special music issue, which is a great chance to work with local freelancers or write that top 10 list you’ve been sitting on.
If you want to learn more about the music section, we have a great list of tips, advice, pointers and sources right here. You can also start by checking out past music writing over here.
Time commitment:
The time commitment for this position can range from five hours to fifteen hours a week, depending on how many stories are on deck in the music section. Week-to-week responsibilities include attending production night, updating the music calendar, and editing and advising on stories. It’s also important that the music editor set aside time for discovering new music and pitching stories to writers.
Qualifications:
Experience with writing and editing; a passion for music. Availability to edit at the Weekly’s Woodlawn office on Monday nights is a big plus.
We’d like you to send a sample pitch for the section along with your application. Here are some examples of previous pitches:
Queen Key
Queen Key, a 21-year-old rapper from the South Side, has dropped five videos in the last three months, and they’re all blowing up––the terrific “Queen Shit” is around a million views, and this Bodak Yellow freestyle is at the 400k mark. She’s also done a series of video interviews (“All About Key”) on topics like college and not flexing with guns, and is running “Talk my Shit,” a vlog series where she discusses “the industry, God, music, etc.” Key’s clearly on the rise, and her music is filled with nods to the South Side, but she hasn’t had much coverage in print. I think a Weekly interview or profile would be fantastic. Check out “My Way” for a really catchy track.
Africa Hi-Fi Returns
For much of the aughts, Sonia Hassan and Chicago house DJ Ron Trent put on the “Africa Hi-Fi” show, a series that brought together music and dance from the continent and helped to offer some familiar culture to the diasporic African communities of Chicago. The series ended in 2009 amid the shutdown of their resident club Sonotheque and the busy schedules of Trent and Hassan, but they seem to be back together. Between a successful show at the end of August for Silver Room and an upcoming show Saturday, October 9 at Promontory, it’s worth looking in—what brought the series back together, and is it staying for good?