Musicians have long had their careers captured for posterity by the music press. Yet, the spotlight has rarely been turned around to the journalists who write these stories. Totally Wired is a vivid oral history of music journalists in the UK and US.
Paul Gorman began collecting these interviews over 20 years ago, publishing them as In Their Own Write: Adventures in the Music Press (2001). Concentrating particularly on the period from the 1950s to the late 1990s, it was presented as a thematically arranged set of conversations between some leading journalists, discussing the so-called “golden era” of music journalism (1950 to the late 2000s).
Totally Wired is a labour of love and a rich complement to its precursor. It draws on previously published histories and biographies by music journalists, including Melody Maker: History of 20th Century Popular Music by Nick Johnstone (1999), The History of NME by Pat Long (2012) and The Rolling Stone Magazine by Robert Draper (1990).
