Critical Support 08/15/2022

In June, Critical Support columnist Adlan Jackson discussed the resurrection of the live concert review through party reporting. In this column, he lays out how critics can go about getting access to the works they seek to engage with. Here’s Adlan’s beginner’s guide to getting around.

HOW TO GET ACCESS AS A FREELANCE CRITIC

When I was pitching my first album reviews to Pitchfork, where I’m now a contributor, I asked for an advance copy of an album from a label, not knowing the etiquette for such a request. The label rep shot back a brief email requesting previous work I had done for Pitchfork. Their tone felt suspicious, so I panicked and ghosted. This drama, almost entirely in my head, spooked me, and for a long time made me feel like asking for access is something I should only do when absolutely necessary. Friends I’ve spoken to have had similar experiences. “I figured out how to request books from publishers way back in college when I was working for the school newspaper,” said Emily Christensen, a freelance arts and culture writer. “But when I wanted to write about a TV show last year, I had no idea what the process was. A friend gave me a script to use, but I hate that part of it.”

THE PROBLEM OF ACCESS

To be a working critic, you need access to the material you’re writing about. Access, especially exclusive access, is how you settle into a beat and develop your sense of what’s going on in the arts community you’re interested in critically engaging with. Who are the brightest stars, candidates for your profiles? What complications, tensions, and beefs are out there that can be written into stories? You won’t find out by only seeing the single performance you’re able to get an assignment for every two months, and you’re less likely to land an album review pitch when everyone with a staff job got an advance stream two months prior. You won’t take off trying to thinkpiece about a movie three weeks after general release when the theaters aren’t too crowded. And most importantly, attending these events costs money — often a lot of money — and while you don’t have an expense account as a freelancer, you shouldn’t have to pay out of pocket to do your job well.

Accruing and retaining access to events can be particularly important if you want to try to cover more high-profile stories, and raise your own profile. But if you’re covering a smaller arts community, it’s just as likely that you’ll need to be in touch with the venues where discourses are being shaped. You need to be around, and by being around you’ll build relationships that will not only provide you access but deepen the stories you write. Here’s a beginner’s guide to getting the access you need to build your beat without going broke buying tickets. 

BARRIERS FACED BY CRITICS OF COLOR

There’s a step beyond gaining access to artistic work that’s required to do the job of an arts writer. “It’s getting access to talent that’s the hard part,” Kathia Woods, an arts critic, told Study Hall. Woods recently tweeted, “I’m tired of going through the humiliation of asking if I’m worthy enough of getting access after listing all of my accolades cause that’s what you have to do when you have melanin.” Valeria Complex, a film critic, likewise wrote this year about the experience of being Black at Cannes Film Festival in France, where she said she suffered repeated slights from security and federal personnel. Even though I’ve written about the barriers Black music writers face, the experience Complex described shocked me. The pop music industry’s institutions are often younger and more eager to at least seem to represent the wider public than those that structure arts disciplines like film or visual art, which thrive on images of wealth, prestige, and exclusivity. In a phone call, Woods said, “We don’t get access to talent like our counterparts.” When I asked Woods how she would advise young nonwhite critics without institutional support in this regard, she said, “You have to explain to folks that you cannot eat — cannot get an assignment — if you don’t have access. The two go hand in hand. In the beginning, be more open to work with independent films, where they’re more likely to give you access, because they want coverage. People are going to remember the people who recognize them.”

HOW TO ASK FOR SHIT

I’ve come to believe that no matter what industry you cover, you should always be asking for access — even though you don’t want to be thought of as taking advantage, even if you get told “no” in a way that makes you feel self-conscious. Ask for tickets, ask for press passes, ask for advance copies. You need these things to do your job well. Ask, ask, ask. Your request is not illegitimate, even though you don’t write about everything you get access to. “That attitude of ‘Who am I to be talking to someone?’ is something we all need to get rid of,” Juan Michael Porter II, a theatre and dance critic, told Study Hall. “Let them say no.” 

Generally speaking, access is cheap for venues and producers to provide. It benefits both you, the critic, and the artists you may write about. And because seeing more of whatever you’re covering will make you a more informed and better critic, it is in everyone’s best interest for clients to provide you with access to an event. “Your selling point is your audience, which artists and producers don’t have,” said Porter. Porter added that it can be helpful to do some research about who’s missing from their audience, and advocate for yourself and your reach by specifically noting that the piece you’re working on could reach people they otherwise would not. “That helps them to realize, ‘Oh we’re actually really missing out on this demographic,’” said Porter. And that gives you an edge. 

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU HAVE NO CLIPS

While it obviously helps to have some bylines to your name — even if they’re blogs, school publications, or personal publications — if you have none, there are workarounds. The best tool to get access to what you’re covering is to line up an assignment with an editor you can copy on communications with an artist’s or work’s representation to prove your credibility. “You want to let them know who you’re writing for ahead of time,” said Porter. “Make sure your intro is on point. Tell them who you are, what space you’re from, what perspective you’re writing from.” If you have a lot of followers, use that. Porter added that writers should explain, “‘I’d really like to speak to so and so because x, y, and z.’ It gives the artist’s representation the option to say no. Even if you’re writing for a big platform it doesn’t mean they’ll say yes. Even if you’re writing for a small platform, it doesn’t mean they’ll say no. When I reach out to dance publicists, some people will be like, ‘Tell us when you have something bigger.’ Sometimes people don’t consider that a win, but it is.” 

Here’s what I wish someone had explained to me earlier in my career: If whatever you want to cover has a press, publicity, or PR person, that’s who you want to find. This will often be on their website, but it also sometimes won’t. “You need to write to the correct person,” Porter said. “Like pitching to the right editor. The easiest way to find someone is to find a press release for the production you’re interested in writing about, which will often have press contacts at the end.” In theatre, Porter said, the Internet Broadway Database (IBDB) will often list who the press person is, and in film and TV you can often find equivalent information on IMDB Pro. I’ve personally had requests for IMDB Pro info answered by helpful Study Hallers with subscriptions to the service. Next, I try looking for contacts in popular PR agencies’ lists of clients. In music, these are places like Grandstand, Shorefire, and Orienteer. If you still have no luck, emailing a musician’s label, manager, or any of their representatives and asking politely to be directed to a good press contact will likely get you the information you need. For smaller artists, I’ve found that even a social media DM politely asking for contact information often works. 

When you reach out, always clarify that access doesn’t guarantee coverage, nor positive coverage. If you’re asking because you already know you want to cover something specific, you can write, “I’m developing a pitch about [topic], and I would like to [access]. The pitch hasn’t been placed, but if it’s helpful, here are my clips.” Publication names can get attention and open doors, so if I can credibly name-drop the publication I’ll be pitching to (I’ve written something for them, or a similar publication, before), I will. In that case, I’ll write something like, “I’m developing a pitch for [publication] about [topic] and I would like [access]. The pitch hasn’t been placed.” Of course, if you already have an assignment, you can walk right through the velvet ropes: “For [publication], I’m writing about [topic]. I would like to [access].” 

After you’ve interacted with a PR person, they’ll probably put you on their email list and reach out about future opportunities, pitching you ideas for future coverage. A lot of publicists, artists, venues, and studios have a PR and media email list — get yourself on some by emailing and asking to be put on them, and you’ll find yourself with a lot more to potentially write about. 

There’s a whole world of art happening that doesn’t involve official representation, though. Christensen told Study Hall, “It’s relatively easy to deal with press people compared to smaller artists and promoters who are doing everything themselves. They don’t exactly know what the protocols are and I barely know, so I’m not sure what to ask for.” This is a gray zone I often find myself in while covering music. 

But you can get creative about these scenarios: when I find myself enjoying a concert, I’ve started asking myself whether anyone involved — not just the artist, but also the venue or the promoter — could allow me to see more, or hear about a potential story, if I opened a dialogue with them. I’ve only had negative experiences turning 45-minute Zoom calls with publicists on the line into compelling writing — including an entire profile I was excited about getting killed. I find myself able to write things that are a lot more interesting when I’m hanging around, and seeing what’s going on with my own eyes. 

Caveat: I’ve done this at a bunch of places, and most haven’t responded. The ones who do typically have the money to hire professional PR teams. But two of the other venues that have responded have staff that I know through working, and they were both excited by the idea of giving me liberal access to shows, which surprised me. I encourage other critics to take the initiative to ask for similar access in their communities, and not to get discouraged if they receive a frosty no — you might not, especially if you’ve built relationships. Building rapport with an arts community doesn’t require you to be a gladhander who’s writing dewily about how everyone’s “revolutionizing their genre.” People are excited about being seriously engaged with, especially if you can bank on your reputation as a writer. “There are so many people who are waiting for someone to come and give them what they need,” said Porter. “Build a case for yourself.”