#0022: Courtney Smith on structured creativity, career pivots + indie rock on MTV

Le vital corps Salon

Her debut book of music essays was featured in Entertainment Weekly, Vanity Fair, Elle, and many other outlets. It’s easy to understand why. Her book a super-fun look at how we connect with music and the role it plays in the lives of many female music nerds out there. Courtney’s chapter on “Where have all the girl bands gone?” should be required reading for any feminist who says she likes rock & roll. (Note: If you don’t know who Goldie & The Gingerbreads, Fanny, and Joan Jett are yet, pick up Courtney’s book for a concise history.) Courtney started on her professional writing career with the Subterranean blog, a companion blog to the only indie rock video show in America, MTV2 Subterranean, which she programmed and produced. What you might not know is how hard she worked on the difficult feat of giving women musicians equal airplay in that role. She’ll share what it was like to be on the inside of the machine during a unique time in the history of indie rock, especially in New York. When she’s not working on her next book, Courtney is currently an editor and writer at Refinery29, the third most trafficked website for millennial women. She shares how she pivoted to this role and intentionally fits it into her lifestyle.

If you’re someone who dreams of writing a book or realizing a creative project while still paying the bills, there is so much to learn from Courtney’s experience and this conversation. We discuss how she structures her week to bring the necessary focus and structure to her writing process, as well as what it’s like to write from two very different ends of the spectrum. And, let’s be real, we geek-out about indie rock, too.

Selected link love + resources from the episode

• Connect with Courtney on social media: Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn
• [Please link all books to Amazon and all music to the artists’ websites. Link movies to IMDB.com.]
• Record Collecting for Girls: Finding Your Inner Music Nerd, One Record at a Time by Courtney E. Smith
• Refinery29.com
• Howl by Allen Ginsberg (book)
• Tim Ferriss/Cheryl Strayed podcast on The Tim Ferriss Show
• MTV and MTV2
• Insound.com
• Mercury Lounge (NYC music venue)
• Apple Music
• Tuma Basa (Hip-Hop Head at Spotify)
• Oh My Rockness
• Feedly (app)
• Apple Newsstand
• Metacritic
• NPR
• Pitchfork
• Chuck Klosterman and Rob Tannenbaum (author)
• Beatles and The Rolling Stones
• Blur and Oasis
• Ghettotech (music genre)
• Women Entertainment Network
• Style.com
• Alice Isn't Dead (podcast)
• Cherry 2000 (movie)
• Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (book)
• Intersectional feminism
• Two Dope Queens (podcast)
• And all the other artists we mention in the episode: Brittany Spears, Death Cab for Cutie, Fall Out Boy, Father John Misty, Jesus & Mary Chain, Ludicris, Mac DeMarco, Pavement, Smiths, Sonic Youth, White Stripes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs
• Kickass Theme Music: “Things Are Getting Better” Written by Rishi Dhir. Performed by The High Dials.
• Stay in the loop about future Le vital corps Salon episodes or with Kara: Twitter | Instagram | The List (sent monthly-ish including helpful health + lifestyle information)

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