Sparks Fly At Music Journalism Masterclass

Music stirs emotion like no other art form, and any discussion on music will quickly become a fascinating clash of opinions!

BIMM Dublin brought in some of the most forthright and experienced music journalists working today for our Masterclass — and we weren’t disappointed!

And what a line-up we had. Dave Fanning is a bona fide Irish national treasure: a rock journalist, DJ, film critic and enormously experienced broadcaster, hosting The 11th Hour on RTÉ Two as well as shows on RTÉ Radio 1 and RTÉ 2fm.

Dave was joined by the highly-acclaimed Roisin Dwyer, Commissioning Editor of Hot Press music magazine and DJ on Radio Nova’s Rock Report.

John Robb, the award-winning and widely-published music journalist, and also editor of the huge Louder Than War website, radio presenter and lead singer in punk band Goldblade, completed our panel.

As you can imagine, none of them were short of opinions!

They talked openly, bickered good-naturedly and philosophised freely: from dealing with the media and social media, to getting airplay and writing biographies — and of course, the state of music itself.

Our panel also dispensed lots of advice and insider knowledge to the BIMM students — and sparks flew at times due to their differing points of view. Each of them had so much experience in the music industry that everyone who attended learnt at least two sides to each story!

Students found the session invaluable. Michelle Mullen, BA Vocals student said:

“The masterclass was really informative. Roisin hit on a lot of points that we really need to know and it was good that they had different opinions so that we got to see different points of view… it was really good!”

We love booking these kind of Masterclasses: where everyone, whether student, panelist or staff member leaves feeling like they have learned, contributed and reaffirmed why they love music in the first place!