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Word on No Depression: Somewhat depressing

Listening to the podcast of a recent installment of Sound Opinions, I learned that alt-country magazine No Depression is ceasing publication as a print magazine. The May-June issue will be the final print issue in magazine form. According to editor Peter Blackstock, No Depression will publish shorter-form music news at nodepression.net, and issue semi-annual “bookazines” through the University of Texas Press.

In the course of the interview, Blackstock and his interviewers, Sound Opinions hosts Jim Derogatis and Greg Kot, contextualized the demise of No Depression with the folding of cult magazines like Punk Planet and an overall decrease in ad revenue at major music magazines such as Blender. They also mentioned the closing of independent bookstores and a reduced demand for long-form music writing among younger readers as factors contributing to the No Depression sea change.

All of the above arguments make good sense, but I’m wondering if any account of No Depression’s misfortune is complete without an examination of changes to the alternative-country genre. When the magazine was founded, alternative country was a new term, but it was clear—alternative country blended the energy of punk with American country and folk music. Though many of them have gone on to successful recording careers, original alt-country standard bearers like Jeff Tweedy and Ryan Adams have all but abandoned the term and the kind of music it once defined. And perhaps they left the term behind because of all it came to include. A quick survey of No Depression covers reveals that the punk-country ethic, and the aesthetics represented by its forbearers, outlaw-country legends Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard, were never abandoned by the magazine. But the same survey reveals that something—either No Depression or alt-country itself—changed over the years. Maybe they both did.

One thing is certain: the decline of print music criticism likely means that readers will be fed more under-researched, half-cocked music writing like the kind I’m perpetrating (though not maliciously) here. Great music writing takes time, and time and talent demand money. The instantly updateable web demands that writers take less of the former, and few web outlets (Pitchfork excepted) have the ad revenue to pay enough of the latter. For the moment, print outlets are coming short on revenue, too.

Such is our landscape, music lovers. Whether we made it or not, it’s our bed, and it looks like we’ll have to lie in it.