Laura Snapes

Laura Snapes is a British music journalist, currently deputy music editor at The Guardian.[2] She was previously an editor for NME and Pitchfork.

Laura Snapes
Born1988/1989 (age 30–31)[1]
NationalityBritish
Occupation
  • Music journalist
  • critic
  • writer

Early life and education

Snapes attended Truro High School in Cornwall.[3] She later attended two different universities but dropped out of both, and pursued a career in music journalism.[4] In 2009, while a student at the University of Bristol, she was shortlisted for the Guardian Student Media Awards for Critic of the Year in association with NME.[5]

Career

Snapes was a feature editor of NME (2013–2015), associate editor at Pitchfork (2012–2013), and assistant reviews editor of NME (2010–2012). She also worked as a senior editor at The Pitchfork Review and contributing editor to Pitchfork between 2015–2016.

Snapes has contributed to a variety of publications such as Pitchfork, The Guardian, The Observer, Q, Mojo, Financial Times, Uncut, Rookie, The Wire, NPR, The Fader, Vulture, Lenny, Buzzfeed, MTV News, and BBC. Snapes also regularly appears on The Monocle Arts Review on Monocle 24 and on the BBC.

A special issue of British magazine NME, titled "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time", was published on 23 October 2013.[6] NME's listing was criticised by the media. The Guardian noted that Snapes, an NME's Features Editor at the time, rated in her top four spots four albums by the same band, The National.[7] Snapes included a fifth National's album at number 7 in her top ten greatest albums of all time.[7] Similarly another NME journalist, Kevin EG Perry, also selected four albums by the same band in his top four spots, this time The Rolling Stones.[7] Ben Kaye of Consequence of Sound wrote that "if Laura Snapes had her wish, the top four would all be The National albums".[8]

In April 2016, Snapes' documentary The Drop Out Boogie about university dropouts was presented on BBC Radio 4.[4]

Snapes was appointed to the role of Deputy Music Editor at The Guardian on 15 January 2018.[9]

In 2019, Snapes visited Taylor Swift's house in Nashville to conduct an extensive interview with the singer-songwriter.[10][11][12] Her interview coincided the release of Swift's seventh album Lover and was published on 24 August 2019 in Weekend, The Guardian's Saturday magazine.[13]

In 2019, Snapes wrote the book Phoenix: Liberté, Égalité, Phoenix!, an oral history and archive of the 30-year career of the French band Phoenix. The book was co-written by the band's members Thomas Mars, Deck d'Arcy, Laurent Brancowitz, and Christian Mazzalai.[14] The book was published by Rizzoli on 15 October 2019 by Rizzoli.[15] Snapes previously interviewed Phoenix for Q magazine in 2017. She was contacted by the band in 2018 and asked to write the book. Snapes interviewed each member of the band individually in Paris in November 2018. She also later conducted phone and e-mail interviews with the band and people close to them, including Thomas Mars' father and his wife Sofia Coppola.[16] Ellen Johnson of Paste wrote, "When one of the best music journalists/critics around gets together with one of the best rock bands around, the result could only be something close to magic."[17]

In February 2020, Snapes called on male artists to only play festivals that commit to a more gender-balanced lineup. Matthew Healy of The 1975 pleged to do so in response, saying, "I will and believe this is how male artist can be true allies."[18][19][20]

Mark Kozelek
Snapes' writing on misogyny was quoted by Matthew Healy (pictured) in his acceptance speech at the 2019 Brit Awards.

In 2015, Snapes interviewed Mark Kozelek of the band Sun Kil Moon over e-mail. She had approached friends of Kozelek for supporting interviews, but later learned that Kozelek previously asked journalists not to do so when writing a piece on him. On 1 June 2015, Kozelek improvised a song about Snapes during a concert at the Barbican in London, performing to an audience of 1,900 people. He told the audience, "There's this girl named Laura Snapes, she's a journalist. She's out to do a story on me, has been contacting a lot of people who know me." The song included derogatory lyrics, including, "Laura Snapes totally wants to fuck me / get in line, bitch ... Laura Snapes totally wants to have my babies." Snapes posted audio of the incident online and wrote about her experience in a piece for The Guardian.[21][22] Snapes wrote:

He can use sexually violent language to reduce female critics to the status of groupies, knowing that while male musicians' misogynist acts are examined for nuance and defended as traits of “difficult” artists, women and those who call them out are treated as hysterics who don't understand art.

Snapes later included the quote in a 2019 op ed she wrote for The Guardian about misogyny in indie music in light of recent accusations of sexual and emotional abuse against musician Ryan Adams.[23] Matthew Healy of The 1975 read Snapes' quote during his acceptance at the 2019 Brit Awards.[24]

Amanda Palmer

In November 2019, singer Amanda Palmer took to Twitter to accuse The Guardian's "music editor" of blacklisting her from the publication after it did not feature her third solo album There Will Be No Intermission in its coverage.[25][26] Snapes previously blocked Palmer on Twitter in 2012 after an argument over Palmer's "paying her band in hugs and beer" controversy.[27][28] Palmer discovered she was blocked and tweeted this to her fans, initially not naming Snapes.[27][29] Snapes, who is The Guardian's deputy music editor and not its music editor, responded by saying she lacked the power to blacklist artists.[29][27] Snapes also detailed a "bizarre campaign" of harassment from Palmer, which included Pamer hiring a journalist to ask Snapes why she was not a fan of Palmer.[27] Palmer also invited Snapes to the White House Correspondents' Dinner and was also allegedly planning to devote a segment of her Europe tour to how Snapes "orchestrated a Guardian-wide ban on coverage of her album."[25][27] Palmer also mentioned Snapes on The Tim Ferriss Show in April 2019, saying, "I can't stop thinking about how I want to win her over, and change her mind, and force her to love me, and connect with me, and see the light. It's almost bordering on a mental obsession."[29][25] Palmer, who had 1.1 million followers on Twitter at the time, later named Snapes as the "music editor" she previously referred to.[29] Ben Beaumont-Thomas, music editor of The Guardian, defended Snapes on Twitter, writing that an artist is "not automatically entitled to coverage" and explaing that The Guardian has a limited number of albums it can cover each week.[27] Snapes called the experience "disturbing" and said that she had been harassed by male musicians in the past but did not expect it from Palmer, who is an outspoken feminist musician.[25][27]

In 2020, Snapes was featured in an article in the Columbia Journalism Review where she discussed the incident. She described the relationship between musicians and critics in the age of social media, where "artist-loyal audiences can reach into the millions" and "may confront a writer who lacks the manpower to respond."[26]

Personal life

Snapes currently resides in Letchworth Garden City with her partner, comics artist John Allison.[30][31][32]

Bibliography
  • Phoenix: Liberté, Égalité, Phoenix!. Rizzoli. 2019. ISBN 978-0-8478-6483-6. 240pp.
gollark: Why did you delete that? You must be a wrong person.
gollark: (C"M"LGHR for short)
gollark: Based on my estimation of LyricLy's budget for computer hardware and modern phone technology.
gollark: It's probably about 3GB.
gollark: Some GTech™ microcontrollers have 17 bytes of RAM.

References
  1. Snapes, Laura (12 December 2017). "The pop stars who cry "fake news!"". The Outline. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  2. "Laura Snapes". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  3. Trewhela, Lee (10 May 2020). "Cornwall Cool List 2020: The 50 coolest people in Cornwall today". Cornwall Live. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  4. "The Drop Out Boogie". BBC Radio 4. BBC. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  5. "Guardian Student Media Awards: shortlist announced". The Guardian. 28 September 2009. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  6. "The Smiths' 'The Queen Is Dead' tops NME's list of 500 greatest albums of all time". NME. 22 October 2013. Retrieved 4 August 2014.
  7. Hann, Michael (24 October 2013). "What's the difference between best and favourite albums?". Retrieved 6 August 2014.
  8. Kaye, Ben (25 October 2013). "The Top 500 Albums of All Time, according to NME". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved 4 August 2014.
  9. Mannan, Tahmina (11 January 2018). "Laura Snapes made Deputy Music Editor at The Guardian". ResponseSource. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  10. Snapes, Laura (24 August 2019). "Taylor Swift: 'I was literally about to break'". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  11. Spruch, Kirsten (23 August 2019). "Taylor Swift Says She's 'Obviously Pro-Choice,' Criticizes Trump: 'He Thinks This Is an Autocracy'". Billboard. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  12. White, Adam (24 August 2019). "Taylor Swift: 'I wasn't educated enough to talk about politics'". The Independent. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  13. Snapes, Laura (23 August 2019). "Taylor Swift: Trump thinks his presidency is an autocracy". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  14. Serota, Maggie (19 July 2019). "Phoenix Announce Book Titled Phoenix: Liberté, Égalité, Phoenix!". Spin. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  15. "Phoenix: Liberté, Égalité, Phoenix!". Rizzoli. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  16. Manno, Lizzie (16 October 2019). "Laura Snapes Discusses Working with Phoenix on New Oral History Book". Paste. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
  17. Manno, Lizzie; Johnson, Ellen (20 August 2019). "2019 Fall Music Book Preview". Paste. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
  18. Cirisano, Tatiana (12 February 2020). "The 1975's Matty Healy Pledges to Play Only Gender-Balanced Festivals". Billboard. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
  19. Sodomsky, Sam (12 February 2020). "Matty Healy Says the 1975 Will Only Play Festivals With Gender-Balanced Lineups". Pitchfork. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
  20. Srikanth, Anagha (13 February 2020). "Major pop rock band announces it will only play gender-balanced festivals". The Hill. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
  21. Battersby, Matilda (5 June 2015). "Mark Kozelek of Sun Kil Moon calls female journalist 'a b***h' in front of 1,900 people". The Independent. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
  22. Snapes, Laura (4 June 2015). "I interviewed Mark Kozelek. He called me a 'bitch' on stage". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
  23. Snapes, Laura (14 February 2019). "The Ryan Adams allegations are the tip of an indie-music iceberg". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
  24. Kinos-Goodin, Jesse (21 February 2019). "The 1975 use win at the Brit Awards to address misogyny in the music industry". CBC Radio. CBC. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
  25. Conditt, Jessica (13 December 2019). "The crowdfunded cult of Amanda Palmer". Engadget. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
  26. Ottenhof, Luke (6 March 2020). "Music criticism in the time of stans and haters". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
  27. Cohen, Libby (21 November 2019). "Amanda Palmer dragged for 'demanding' coverage of her music". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
  28. Mason, Jessica (23 November 2019). "What the Hell is Going On With Amanda Palmer?". The Mary Sue. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
  29. Reid, Poppy (25 November 2019). "Amanda Palmer divides and polarises with 'twisted behaviour' toward journalist". The Industry Observer. The Brag. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
  30. https://londonist.com/london/features/should-you-leave-london-for-letchworth
  31. https://shelfdust.com/2018/09/19/the-annotated-giant-days-year-one-3
  32. https://womenwriteaboutcomics.com/2019/09/as-we-say-goodbye-to-giant-days-john-allison-introduces-us-to-steeple
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