Meet The Danish Music Bizz: Lucia Odoom, Music Critic at Politiken

SPOT is much more than concerts: Denmark has also got significant agents in various parts in the music business, and while we are counting down to the festival, we aim to present some of the people you can meet at SPOT in brief Q&As.

This time it is Lucia Doom, Music Critic, Politiken (Newspaper)

What do you work with (booking, management, publishing etc.)?

I am a music critic at the newspaper Politiken where my primary areas are popular culture, movies, music etc., which are all connected to the culture pages. Besides that I make a podcast called “Politikens Poptillæg” (“Politiken’s Pop Supplement”)

What is your business background (time in the business, education etc.)?

I am autodidact, and started my career at DR 10 years ago, so this April you can say that workwise I have my 10th anniversary. At DR I started out making a programme called “The Electric Barometer” where we played a lot of upcoming Danish music and we also got letters from the listeners, mostly teenagers. It was an alternative chart show on P3 for music that was not quite as mainstream as most of the music on P3 at the time. Since then I have made some sound art podcasts, tried some different educations, and then I have written culture stuff for the magazine Eurowoman, so a lot of music related things. And now I have been at Politiken for 3 years.

What are the most important, exciting, well known, or interesting things in your portfolio?

The Most exciting thing for me has been the job as a critic. When I worked at DR, there was no music criticism because it was just a place for communication, and “what was happening right now”. If there is an element of criticism in what you are doing, I think there is more personal commitment in it. It’s not free for me to just go out and have an opinion about something, because I’m also held accountable by my colleagues at Politiken. They are also experts on these fields, so I have to be able to explain why I think so and so about something.

What is the most important thing to happen to Danish music in the last five years?

It’s maybe not just 5 years, maybe 10 years, but the focus on the rock genre, especially when it comes to upcoming bands has decreased. There is not an obvious expectation anymore that upcoming bands just play rock, but quite the contrary now and especially pop has got a renaissance. New bands are more open and experimental towards genres now, and they move more towards popular music, Hip Hop, electronic music etc., and this development brings about collectives like Vellness, who work with the genres in a new way. Especially with inspiration from Danish pop from the 80s. This openness in the business is very important not just in order to be relevant and new abroad but also to expand the creative scope in Denmark.

What are the most important questions or pressing issues in the music business right now?

I think the business should take more responsibility when it comes to creating and promoting music that we can actually remember in 10 years from now. Instead of shortsighted, desperate and viral one-hit wonders or teens with a funny song to get a lot of play on Spotify, or thin concepts which last a bit longer, like Gulddreng. And the business should also ask itself why the focus remains solely on the boys. Even though the intention is to appeal to as many people as possible, it’s really narrow both in sound and genre and lacks long-term durability. There are not enough strong works in the music that is popular right now. These acts might be a hit on stage, but there should be a bigger, substantial responsibility towards the music, and maybe the work with the artists should focus more on the long game. I would like to see more investment in the individual artist and a long-term artistic ambition with each project.

Which international business people and lines of business would you like to meet at SPOT this year?

I’m not interested in the business in the same way as many other guests because as a critic I have to keep some sort of distance to the business part of the music world, so right know I haven’t got any specific people I look forward to meeting. I will be at SPOT to talk about my work as a journalist and just take it from there.

Which artists are you looking forward to seeing at SPOT this year?

I look forward to seeing Astrid Sonne and KIHLA, because those are two cool ladies with lots of artistic ambition. Then I also look forward to seeing Jada again. It’s was an immense pleasure last time I saw her, and I hope even more people get to see the huge potential she has, both as an artist in Denmark and abroad. Besides that, I would also like to see irrelevantbitch101 because it’s a great and quirky project. Generally, I look forward to seeing some acts that bring something else. I like artists and bands who are all over the place.