Alumni
Alumni
Josh du Lac '93 Faces the Wrath of Fans
- Class: 1999
- Degrees: B.A. Business Administration
- Current Job: Pop Music Critic for The Washington Post
Who knew forgetting to bring earplugs to a Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus concert could be an occupational hazard? For Josh Freedom du Lac, pop music critic for The Washington Post, it's just another day on the job.
Studying business administration at Whittier, du Lac had no idea he would wind up in a job where Elton John would call him up to chat about Brian Wilson. When he graduated in 1993, du Lac's experience in music was limited to the single music theory class he took with Danny Lozano. One thing he did have, however, was four years experience working on the Quaker Campus, and a grounding in journalism built on close discussions of the craft with QC advisor Gary Libman.
"I never really had designs on bringing music and journalism together," du Lac explains. "I mean, I loved musi... I still do. But at the time, I wasn't 'music obsessive.' Then when I started writing about it, there was definitely a learning curve."
Three days after graduation, du Lac started a sports-writing internship at the Sacramento Bee. But as his three months came to an end, the paper gave him a series of extensions, and before long he was regularly writing features. Then, the music critic left.
"The editors decided the most qualified person to fill the vacancy was whoever was the youngest person on the staff, because they could 'identify with the music.'" So, 14 months out of college, du Lac owned the music beat.
For the next 12 years he wrote about music and popular culture for the Bee (interviewing Motown legend Rick James when the artist was serving time at Folson Prison, and getting "cussed out" by Eagles bass player Timothy B. Schmit), before being offered the position at The Washington Post.
"Every writer wants to be read, but it can also be a little intimidating working here as well," he says of his job writing for one of the country's top 10 dailies. "I feel like the guy who snuck onto the field at the All-Star game. I'm still waiting for security to come tackle me and lock me up."
While at the Post, du Lac has interviewed artists ranging from Smokey Robinson to System of a Down, Good Charlotte to Brad Paisley, Latin jazz legend Sergio Mendes to pop culture curiosity Tila Tequila—in all cases, bringing his insightful and humorous descriptive powers to bear. Too, as a music critic in the nation's capital, he is often at the confluence of national politics and pop culture, for example when famed investigative journalist Carl Bernstein asked du Lac to watch his son's rock band perform.
Though the idea of listening to music and writing about it might sound easy, the job is anything but simple. The wrath of fans is not something to be taken lightly, as he discovered when he compared those who enjoy Cold Play to "medium-level dull people" and wrote, "Don't hate James Blunt because he's beautiful. Hate him because he sounds like his underwear is three sizes too small."
On attending concerts for a living, du Lac explains, "It can be fun or it can be tedious—amusing or torturous. Actually the easiest shows to write about are the ones you absolutely love or absolutely hate. There are some moments when I absolutely think I have the greatest job in the world.
"Then at other times you have to do stuff like review the Hannah Montana concert, and if you say anything bad, you know you're gonna end up in hot water—or hot chocolate, as the case may be."
--Published in The Rock, Spring 2008
