Six Years of Musoscribe: The Pre-blog Days

In the years before I launched the Musoscribe blog (celebrating its six-year anniversary this week), I wrote for a number of other outlets. Music journalism hero Ira Robbins gave me one of my first big breaks when he commissioned me to write a pair of long-form biography/review entries on Trouser Press online. One is a critical essay on the music of Pink Floyd, and the other is a review of Todd Rundgren‘s recorded output. And after the print magazine where I worked (as Editor in Chief) folded, one of my writing team – someone who has deservedly gone on to much bigger and better things) hired me to author a sort of advertorial/feature that appeared as a lavish spread in Billboard.

In my early days at that not-to-be-named, now-defunct magazine (they still owe me upward of $7000, the bastards), I was a reviewer. We were assigned albums at random, and I ended up covering some truly awful garbage. These days I only review music I enjoy, but I enjoyed a special kind of amusement reviewing these irredeemably despicable albums (you haven’t heard of most of ’em, which is good, ’cause they suck):

I also wrote some odds-and-ends pieces that had little or nothing to do with music; it was a good bit of fun writing this motel review, this restaurant review, and this short-lived blog about a motorcycle I briefly owned.

I also wrote a stack of commissioned pieces for a music-related project about which I am not allowed to discuss. That project crashed when the economy did likewise (2008) and those work-for-hire pieces have never seen the light of day*. A shame, as there’s some good stuff in there.

But there’s more good stuff here, with more to come tomorrow. Thanks for reading!

* No longer true! Stay tuned for an update.

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About the Author

Bill Kopp

With a background in marketing and advertising, Bill Kopp got his professional start writing for Trouser Press. After a stint as Editor-in-chief for a national music magazine, Bill launched Musoscribe in 2009, and has published new content every business day since then (and every single day since 2018). The 4500-plus interviews, essays, and reviews on Musoscribe reflect Bill's keen interest in American musical forms, most notably rock, jazz, and soul. His work features a special emphasis on reissues and vinyl. Bill's work also appears in many other outlets both online and in print. He regularly hosts lecture/discussions on artists and albums of historical importance (including monthly events Music to Your Ears and Music Movie Mondays), and is a frequent guest on music-focused radio programs and podcasts. In Spring 2023 he taught a history of Rock 'n' Roll at UNC Asheville's College for Seniors. He also researches and authors liner notes for album reissues -- more than 30 to date -- and co-produced a reissue of jazz legend Julian "Cannonball" Adderley's final album. His first book, Reinventing Pink Floyd: From Syd Barrett to The Dark Side of the Moon was published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2018, and in paperback in 2019. His second book, Disturbing the Peace: 415 Records and the Rise of New Wave, was published in 2021 by HoZac Books. His third book, What's the Big Idea: Great Concept Albums will be published in 2024. Read even more about him here.