So here I was in my off-music-writing-hours having a grand old time blogging about my food adventures with my fellow culinary adventurers over at Three Points Kitchen, and it turns out I’m just a trend. A trend!
Food for Thinkers: When Music Writers Grow Up, They Become Food Writers
…Both music and food journalism deal with writing about something intangible–something invisible. Sure, sound waves exist, but you can’t see them. And taste; there’s no accounting for it. So how do you describe something that is not there? Analogy, comparison, hyperbole, these are often the (overused) tools of a music journalist. Music journalists coin phrases and make up terms for genres that have never existed before. Chill wave? Witch House? Coke Rap? We describe something by its effects, like describing the wind by the movement of the trees….
On first pass through the entire piece, I wasn’t convinced that this was the connection–for me, at least–but I appreciated the idea. On reflection, however, I considered the fact that I am not much interested in writing about the food “experience” so much as I’m into digging around in the process of how the food is made. And then I thought about how I write about music and the kinds of articles and interviews I produce, all those lines of questioning I pursue concerning method and motivation.
Aww, man. I am riding a trend.
I wonder who will be the first newspaper editor to get wind of this and decide that the food critic can handle covering fine dining and the symphony all in the same evening (and the same 800 words).
The music industry is the sonic form of agro-business. Most Americans are consuming musical canned food. And concerning composers like Wagner, you definitely don’t want to know what’s in the sausage.
Make it 600 words and you’re hired.
As a former professional flautist, arts manager etc to me great food and wine is so connected with the inner experience of joy, soul, love and more. Even in my early music days my musician colleagues and I would gather together for great food and talk about our lives as musicians. It is such a natural paring for me. And believe that many of the food shows now on TV should connect with musicians, styles of music, etc. Music is food for the soul!
I’ve often thought about how to incorporate food and music reviews. With restaurants and bars offering “classical” music fare along with food (think Poisson Rouge in Greenwich Village NYC) I don’t see why it isn’t being done more often.
Foodies might read what you write and actually take in a concert. Concert goes would read your piece and try a new restaurant. Hybrid culture journalism. Sounds like a good thing to me.
I’ll grant that writing about tastes and writing about sounds are equally prone to over-stretched analogies and imprecise metaphors. But as for food and music both being “intangible”? I have pretty wide-ranging tastes in both, but I’ve never come across intangible food. Maybe that’s the next diet craze. Or maybe that means music…