í¢â‚¬Å“Fictionsí¢â‚¬  is the word of the month here at Capital. A darling of a concept to the creative writer, fiction(s) is a dirty yet enticing word for journalists. Ask Pulitzer Prize winning Washington Post writer Janet Cooke about embellishing the truth to make the story sing. Everyone condemns it, but show me a writer who hasní¢â‚¬â„¢t thought of omitting certain facts or conveniently ignoring contrary opinions in order to build a story.

But í¢â‚¬Å“fictioní¢â‚¬  is a slippery term. Ií¢â‚¬â„¢ve been thinking about this while researching a music underground movement for the past six months. Is this really a movement, or am I making too much out of it? This is a constant question I ask myself. The word í¢â‚¬Å“fictioní¢â‚¬  pops up again when I read about a growing í¢â‚¬Å“sceneí¢â‚¬  of blipsters (black hipsters according to urbandictionary.com) whoí¢â‚¬â„¢re downloading TV on the Radio instead of Clipse onto their iPods. Are blipsters really a scene? Are hipsters all white? Ití¢â‚¬â„¢s debatable, but it sure makes for an interesting read in the New York Times, not to mention another bit of slang to add to onesí¢â‚¬â„¢ arsenal. Some writers are talking about the new rave scene. It sounds great, but upon closer inspection, the story seems to have more to do with a misguided belief in cyclical trends than a real scene.

The truth is that sometimes journalists need to leave out certain points and build upon others. Often facts are left out in order to focus on more important matters. Sometimes there isní¢â‚¬â„¢t enough room to include everything. Or often certain facts doní¢â‚¬â„¢t advance and contribute enough to the final piece. In the end, journalists arení¢â‚¬â„¢t just conduits for information but storytellers as well. This is what weí¢â‚¬â„¢re striving for each month at Capital. Sometimes we succeed, and sometimes we fail and try again the next month. This month I think we have some good stories to tell. The age of female blues is upon us and so are post-rockers channeling Hindu/Buddhist cosmology (see Guitar Divas and Art and The Zen of Deerhoof). Each writer/journalist this and every month brings his/her life story to their work in some form or another. What a CD reviewer leaves out tells as much of a story as what theyí¢â‚¬â„¢ve included. So have a read of our collective musical fictions. But be warned, theyí¢â‚¬â„¢re rife with facts.