cyclonewehner

Hey! At the moment I am actually trying to rationalise my writing as I am actually working all hours, all days, all nights, and I am exhausted - I tend to take on more than I can handle. I kind of wish we were paid better in Australia for music writing so that an established writer could really focus on one or two projects at a time, not several. It's hard in the current economic climate for anyone in the music industry, so I think everyone is hustling a little! I would love to spend more time furthering personal projects, such as the Gender story, but these days when I finish deadlines I just wanna sleep or catch up with music friends and see the sun! With that topic, I kinda feel like I've been there, done that - sure, there's more work to be done in that field, but I am more fired up about other topics. I think the dance scene is mutating. I know on a local level in Melbourne there are far more prominent female DJs across the stylistic spectrum - so where once it was a boys' club that is less of a factor now. What's more, the scene has diversified more. And there is some amazing production work afoot. But thanks again everybody for the constructive feedback, I really appreciate that you guys read it! Cheers Cyclone

Thanks everyone for the feedback!!! I am new to this site. I was just told that my article had found its way onto this site and that it had provoked discussion - which is very cool. I was unaware of this site before! I guess the points raised above would be explained if you were aware of the original source of the article! I actually wrote the story a few years ago specifically for a publication in Melbourne, Australia - it was my concept and, as an avid reader of magazines, I had not read anything else that really addressed this issue. Techno has always been strong in Melbourne - Jeff Mills was voted most popular DJ in an Australian magazine poll. The dance music culture is different to the UK and US, in this regard, so that accounts for the focus on that scene. The magazine, Go, was published by a community dance station in Melbourne called KISS FM (no relation to the UK station) and then sent to a small band of subscribers - everyone involved was working on a voluntary basis. Every issue they would pretty much let me do an article on whatever I wanted - which I loved! My day job is working as a contributing ed to a dance magazine and as a freelancer, so it was great to have that freedom. I had been thinking about the topic for some time and gathering material. However, I really regretted not having more time to formulate my ideas over a period of time as I found the actual writing raised new angles. The work involved in the story was comparable to an honours thesis yet I had just a couple of days and I had to prioritize my rather demanding 'day' job (I can turn around 10, 000 words a week!). I actually went way over the word length suggested to me and they then had to accommodate that. I sent in the story late and held up everyone! I never set out to come up with any 'concrete theories' as I really don't think this is possible - I wanted an approach that was discursive and fluid and raised some new ideas. I feel that if nothing else the article was a good starting point for discussion and I am very happy that it has proved to be that. Cheers! Cyclone