For the latest installment of our ongoing series highlighting the faces behind today’s top music blogs we’re turning our focus to the world of pop, and nobody knows that better than our friends at Idolator.
SInce its inception in 2006, Idolator has been heralded as the go-to destination not just for what’s currently topping the Billboard and radio charts. By blending a love for what’s hot and what deserves to be hot next with a love for poking fun at pop culture and a style of news writing best described as “sassy,” Idolator has carved a niche in pop music blogging that dozens, if not hundreds have followed when attempting to break into the industry. There is a team of people responsible for bringing their efforts to life, and recently we had the opportunity to speak with one of them, Editor Sam Lansky. You can read our discussion, which talks about the site’s history and where he sees pop music headed in the future, below.
If you don’t already follow Idolator and claim to love pop music, you’re doing yourself a grave injustice. Connect with them on Twitter and Facebook to ensure you never miss another headline. Sam is also one of our favorite social funny people, so we highly encourage you to give him a follow as well.
H: For those unaware, please state your name, the site you work for, and your role at said site:
SL:Hey! I’m Sam Lansky, and I’m an editor at the pop music website Idolator, where I’m the resident Taylor Swift apologist, diva enthusiast, and snark monster.
H: What inspired you to begin writing in the first place, and how did you get from there to where you are today?
SL: I never planned to be a music journalist, but I always really loved pop music — I actually studied creative writing as an undergrad because I wanted to write serious memoir and essay, while on the side, I blogged about music on my little-read Tumblr. After college, I worked in celebrity gossip for awhile; while there, I was invited to blog for The Huffington Post; someone at MTV liked what I was doing there, and so I wrote for MTV Buzzworthy (and a number of other outlets) as a freelancer for awhile, before Idolator invited me to come join their team full-time a little less than a year ago.
I can’t say for sure whether or not this is true, but my suspicion is that I was able to move along in my career fairly quickly and easily because I take mainstream pop music pretty seriously and give it a lot of careful thought. Lots of people will do that for indie rock, but the pool of people who are inspired to do that about, say, Miley Cyrus — there just aren’t that many of us.
H: Idolator is often praised as one of the best pop music blogs online. What do you think you and your team do that separates you from all the rest?
SL: Really? It is? That’s great! Next time that happens, ask them to please comment on one of our posts, because the last comment I read on Idolator characterized the editorial staff as “messy queens.”
No, in all seriousness, I feel very fortunate to be a part of Idolator, which has gone through a few editorial incarnations but is now, I think, the straight-up best place for pop on the Internet. I feel like our editorial team work well together because our enthusiasm for the subject matter is genuine: We live, eat, and sleep pop music. (I certainly do, and I’m pretty sure everyone with whom I work does as well.) We cover the things that we love; we avoid covering the things that we don’t (or drag them mercilessly, if a dragging is deserved); and, as much as possible, I think we speak for the fans, because we are all fans. I think you’d be hard pressed to find a space more polarized than pop music — as is frequently demonstrated by the fervor of various artists’ fan armies — and we have a really amazing platform to wax or whine about our excitement or frustration over what artists are doing.
H: Pop music has changed a lot in recent years, from the return of boy bands to the seemingly inescapable influence of EDM. Who do you think the next big sound is going to be and who, if anyone, is promoting that kind of music right now?
SL: I never thought I’d say this, because I used to stan for anything with a four-on-the-floor beat, but I’m ready for a return to sparer production, less conventional sounds — I’d point to the new Miley Cyrus single, “We Can’t Stop,” as an example, since I think the production on that song (especially the pre-chorus) is staggeringly weird and cool. It sounds like she’s Robotripping. I think the slickness of the David Guetta moment is finally passing.
She’s not reinventing the wheel necessarily, but Betty Who is doing what most of her pop star contemporaries are doing, better than they are, without the backing of a major label or a producer with a boldface name; I’m proud to say we’ve really championed her on Idolator and I’ll be surprised if she isn’t at a Katy Perry level of stardom by this time next year. She’s gotten a lot of love from many of the key pop outlets: Popjustice, Popdust, MTV Buzzworthy.
Other artists I’d say to keep an eye on: Florrie, A*M*E, Ariana Grande (Christ, she can sing), Tove Lo, Cady Groves.
H: Speaking of new music, you break a lot of acts at Idolator. Where do you go to discover new music?
SL: Twitter is the best resource any of us have to hear about what’s new and coming up; I follow a lot of bloggers and writers and industry professionals who tweet about what they’re listening to, even if they’re just posting a link to a video or something on Tumblr.
I don’t think anyone’s better at getting on good pop first than Popjustice; Peter Robinson, the editor, has the best ear in the music industry. I read Record of the Day and Neon Gold compulsively. I’d say, though, that I find more great songs on Scandipop than anywhere else; I have a soft spot for Scandinavian (especially Swedish) music, and even though not everything posted there is good, most of it is, and I’m always finding some brilliant single from a Finnish Idol runner-up or a singer-songwriter out of Malmo with 4 followers on Twitter who’s just written the most heartbreakingly Robynesque song you’ve ever heard. (Scandinavian pop is just objectively better. It’s a fact.)
H: Let’s say a band wants to approach you about being featured on these sites, what advice would you offer them to help separate themselves from the others vying for your attention?
SL: First off: Make pop music. If you make pop music, tell me you make pop music. If you make German krautrock, don’t pitch me. It doesn’t matter how good it is; I’m going to hate it. My taste is pathetically narrow; it’s basically radio pop, and stuff that sounds like radio pop but might not be on the radio, for whatever reason. Most of what I get pitched is something I would never, ever write about. It means that the good stuff gets buried in my inbox, which is maddening. Blindly pitching every music critic whose email you can track down is an awesome way to make everyone dislike you.
Second of all: Tell me who you sound like, and have it be someone I love. I’m not cagey about which artists I love and which I disdain. An email that says you sound like Robyn means I will listen to you. (Then you actually have to sound like Robyn, though, or else I’ll be really disappointed.) But figure out which major artists you sound like, and cite them. Assume that I am lazy and unimaginative (I am) and give me an easy point of reference. There’s a difference, too, between sounding like something and being inspired by it. If you’re inspired by Joni Mitchell but you sound like a female Frank Ocean, tell me that you’re a female Frank Ocean before you tell me that you’re inspired by Joni Mitchell, y’know?
Third of all: Make great pop music. I want your chorus to lodge itself in my brain and never leave. I want to hum that shit while I walk down the street. If you do that, I will write about you. If you can’t do that, I’m probably not going to be championing you. That doesn’t mean your music has no value, of course; it’s just not my taste, and I’m probably not going to want to put it on Idolator.
H: When it comes to receiving music for review and feature consideration, which services do you prefer and why?
Getting sent an mp3 is nice because you can take it on the go (I listen to music on the subway). A private SoundCloud link is cool, but those can be finicky; Haulix is easy. I basically believe that the best music streaming services are ones you don’t notice at all. It should be straightforward and functional. (Also, if there’s a mobile interface, that’s dope.)
H: If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?
SL: Label politics are the worst. There’s a long list of hugely talented artists whose singles and albums don’t get adequately promoted — or sometimes released at all — because of somebody’s ego, budget, or timeline. We all just want to hear music from the artists we love. Labels should serve to make that possible, not to keep it from happening.
H: You tweet a lot about having big plans for the future. Before we let you go, can you tell us a bit about what Idolator has planned for the remainder of 2013?
SL: There are some big changes coming to Idolator, which I’m super excited about, but I can’t reveal too much about those just yet — so let’s focus on the most important thing on my agenda: Bringing about the downfall of Beyonce.
