By: Tyler Addison<\/p>\r\n
Mark Mobley is an award-winning music journalist and radio producer who currently works as the director of marketing and communications for the University of Georgia Performing Arts Center.
Q: What was your relationship with music growing up?<\/strong>
A:<\/strong> My father was an Army bandsman. Really? Yeah, he played flute in the Third Army Band at Fort McPherson, which is now Tyler Perry studios. So when I came along as a kid, I just fell in love with music and started taking drum lessons. Kept my lessons off to piano, started composing. Gigged all around Atlanta in like university wind ensembles and orchestras and stuff. The earliest thing I remember hearing on the radio was Otis Redding’s \u201cDock of the Bay.\u201d Then got into really weird classical music as a high school student and then went to FSU for percussion. I decided midway through that wasn’t really for me, that I didn’t have the discipline required to be an orchestral musician.
Q: What was it like being a radio producer?<\/strong>
A:<\/strong> I was at NPR. I started as a commentator. I was just a guest in the mid 90s and then I went full time to a show called \u201cPerformance Today.\u201d I was in charge of all the music. So the host and I would program the show together. \u201cPerformance Today\u201d is 90% concert tape from all around the world. I supervised people who acquired the tape and edited the tape and got it ready. Then I picked out what was to go on air. I also did some reporting and producing, but there’s also just the curation work of figuring out what goes on the air, that sort of thing. So I was with NPR on and off for about 20 years. Lastly working with NPR music as an editor and writer.
Q:<\/strong> What did you do as a music critic?<\/strong>
A: So my job was to cover both reviewing and interviewing and reporting arts in music specifically, but the arts in general in that area. There are all different types of music critics, I mean, the ones that people know now really are the people who write for websites like \u201cPitchfork\u201d and you know, NPR if your music is still really robust, the online version of that. So you basically interpret music for people, you listen and you do your research. You figure out a way and words to describe what you hear and it’s very hard work, but it’s very exciting to do.
Q: Do you have any advice for people who are interested in pursuing music journalism or journalism in general?<\/strong>
A:<\/strong> Read a lot, write a lot. I did not go to journalism school. My closest friend and one of my best colleagues, who is now on the \u201cNew York Times\u201d bestseller list as a nonfiction writer of books, Earl Swift. We did not go to journalism school we learned by doing and I think that’s the most important. The education is great. You’re getting good training. You’re learning a lot in a short amount of time, but there’s no substitute for actually doing the work. Listen to music that you don’t know, listen to different kinds of music. Just acquaint yourself with a lot of things. And if there’s a kind of music you don’t understand or you don’t like particularly well, listen to it again and see what makes it work. You know, because you’re gonna have to write about things that are not your deal.<\/p>\r\n
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