Week One: Adam King Introduction

Hey there everybody. I’m a little late to the game here as I still get this whole duckweb ball rolling, but quite clearly I’m taking this class so I can get a stronger grasp on participating with media, and antecedently with my participatory media class.

Throughout my undergrad years, I had never considered journalism as a particular field of interest for me because I had always viewed it a non-participatory action. I had always wanted to be the ‘doer’ – the catalytic instigator of story rather than being what I viewed as a chronicling rehasher. Even more so, as a professional musician I had been trained to view the music journalist as an ignorant enemy. You know what they say – “Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.” Or as Frank Zappa once said, “Most rock journalism is people who can’t write, interviewing people who can’t talk, for people who can’t read.” But that all changed one day when a New England music magazine asked me to write a guest column for them entitled “Musicians On Musicians.” Long story short: I write a glowing dissertation on how Stephen Malkmus of Pavement changed my life, and next thing I know I’m hired as a staff writer and being flown all over the country to review concerts and interview my musical heroes. It’s difficult for me to pinpoint the moment when my perspective on media in general flipped, but now I consider the work I do as a continuation of the art rather than a termination of it. I’m enamored with the actions and accomplishments of present-day humans, and love to explore the causal relations between everything we create. My goal in this class is to broaden my passion onto a larger landscape, and to expand my affinity for social engagement into unfamiliar territory.