Music: Please Provide Clear Evidence Of Your Knowledge And Passion For Music

I've started applying for work experience for the summer, and as unlikely as getting a place will be, I'm going for a couple of BBC ones. I've just written an answer to a question for a one week placement at Radio 1 (well, you've got to be in it to win it) but I'm actually quite pleased with how it sounds so I thought I'd pop it on here. I'm not sure if it's the kind of answer they were after, but it's how I'm interpreting the question, and as I once told  a literature lecturer, an interpretation can never be wrong.

Question: Please provide clear evidence of your knowledge and passion for music.


I cannot remember a time when I was not entirely committed to music. Every Christmas present I ever asked for as a child was a device upon which I could play music: a cassette player, a CD walkman, my battered and much used ipod, a digital radio alarm clock so that music could be the first thing I heard when I woke up in the morning. Whilst other students spend a fortune on nights out or expensive vintage clothing, I blow all my spare cash on concerts, CDs and unusual musical merchandise (my favourite piece of merch by far is my Stornoway camping tin water bottle). I am aware that buying CDs may be considered a tad unusual for someone of the internet generation. I know we live in a digital age and I’ll admit that the internet has been a fantastic medium for exposing us to music we may never otherwise have discovered, but I still think there’s something much more magical about popping the hard copy in the hi-fi and settling down and really listening to the music. Or standing up and really dancing to it. When you download an album you get the songs, yes, but with a physical album you can look at the artwork, read the lyrics and the thank yous and feel properly connected to the band and the wonderful sound that they have produced. That’s why I think illegal downloading is so terrible; it’s being unbelievably disrespectful to something so many people have worked so hard to create. I believe anyone who downloads illegally is essentially saying that they aren’t interested in the production of new and exciting music, because without money, how are bands ever going to be able to afford to produce it? Music is beautiful and is thoroughly worth paying for.

I research music for fun. There’s nothing I like more than delving into soundcloud or last.fm armed with nothing but a cup of tea and a notebook. I get indecently excited when I can recommend new music that I’ve found to friends, even more so when they recommend new stuff to me. I write articles about new music I have discovered, about albums I’ve heard and about gigs I have seen, not because anyone has told me to or because there is a deadline is hanging over my head, but because I simply want to let other people know that I have heard something marvellous and think they should know about it too. I have been lucky enough to have had a little taste of what working with music is like. I have reviewed gigs and albums and had my articles published, I have interviewed reasonably famous bands (the Futureheads and the Holloways included), and every time I get close to the music industry in this way I feel privileged that, even just for a second, I’ve been able to be a part of it. It’s similar every time I watch a band perform;  be it the clear, crisp, heartfelt vocals of Emmy The Great or Twin Atlantic smashing out chords until the audience’s ears bleed, I feel inextricably happy to be there, connected to everyone else in the room who feels just like me and knowing that I want to be able to do this every single day of my life.

I wasn’t quite sure what response was expected for this question. I think perhaps I was supposed to give a bit more of a technical answer. However, I don’t think it’s possible to deny my true and unrelenting passion for music, nor my knowledge and willingness to extend it even further. Everything written above is exactly how I feel about music, and, if you think about it, that’s exactly what music is for: to make you feel.