Music Edition

I find that people who don’t know much about music tend to ask the same few questions when given the task of interviewing an artist. I’m guessing there’s an equivalent in every line of work, but I’ll leave it to someone else to inform us of the complete list of banal questions in politics (“What’s it feel like to be a senator/congressman/president?”), movies (“What’s it like to be famous?”) or plumbing (“Why did you choose urine and feces as your work medium?”).

For music though, here are the questions that should make you groan and set down the magazine or turn the dial (radio, television, whatever) as soon as you see or hear them.

“Who are some of your influences?”
(Better – research the artist and see who you can hear in the music and ask them specific questions about specific artists.)

“Tell me about your new record.”
(This is just flat out lazy and technically not even a question. Better – actually listen to the new record and ask specific questions about some of the songs.)

And the absolute worst music interview question ever:

“Which comes first,the music or the lyrics?”
(Better – anything. Asking them about the weather would be preferable. The really savvy artist will answer this question with the artist shorthand for acknowledging that they know the interviewer is an unprepared doofus - “It depends.”)