Black Sunshine Media

Editorial Standards & Practices

wooden stamp on an open book

Last Updated on July 28, 2026 by Christian Adams

With few exceptions and noted where applicable, all content on Black Sunshine Media is based on the opinion of one person, me, Christian Adams.

Since 2012, all editorial standards have been defined, enforced, and occasionally reviewed in respect to one mission statement: To write exclusively about subjects that matter to me.

Recently, the mission was refined to focus only on subjects related to rock music. I moved the travel and literature content somewhere else.

Rock music has been a massive part of my life, so it matters to me. As the “fearless appreciation” of BSM’s tagline suggests, I take it too seriously, if I’m being honest.1

The editorial shift reflects an engagement of search engine optimization and content strategy as opposed to philosophy or intent. If it were up to me, I’d still be writing about whatever the fuck I want, whenever I feel like doing it, and watching my page views sink to zero. It’s better this way, trust me.

Putting in the Work

While the content is mainly based on my opinion, I think you’d be surprised by how long it takes and how much effort goes into a simple listicle like “Songs About Sex“. Long-form articles like “Calling Bullshit: 25 Overrated Rock Albums” take weeks, sometimes months of on-again/off-again work.

Regardless, our overall editorial mandate demands exhaustive research and revision. I don’t just publish a bunch of bullshit for clicks. If you care about something, you gotta be willing to put in the work. That’s just the way it is. And if you want to get a job done, you need rules and standards.

man carrying gray pipe
Photo by Yury Kim on Pexels.com

Rules

The following regulations are generally non-negotiable, non-starters, deal-breakers if breached.

  1. Opinions must be proactively supported with reasons, examples, and personal anecdotes and/or experience. No “This Sucks” and moving on. I must explain why it sucks.
  2. I must try to avoid talking about music I haven’t heard unless it’s tangentially related to the subject, e.g., I don’t talk about unfamiliar jazz music unless it’s related to jazz rock, jazz fusion, or jazz punk.
  3. I must listen to everything that’s included on a listicle. For example, I’ve listened to every album on “Top 50 Progressive Rock Albums” and every song on the songs about sex list, at least once. E-T-C. This is probably the most ironclad rule on the list that rarely gets broken.
  4. Use of artificial intelligence or large language modeling is acceptable under three limited sub-conditions: (a) data and image aggregation, (b) fact-checking, and (c) critique or editorial feedback.
  5. Concurrent with listening criteria but specific to the Albums You Must Hear Before You Die…Or Not Series, I must listen to at least 1 full song and at least 1 minute of every track on the album.
  6. Write sober during the day, edit with a glass of red wine at night.

Standards

We strive to maintain the following editorial standards.

  • We are the sworn enemy of electronic dance music (EDM) in most of its forms. We stand for all forms of rock music.
  • We maintain reasonable SEO standards (titles, meta, headings, etc.) but no keyword chasing. I repeat: No keyword chasing. We don’t care if “Rush tour dates” are trending. We’ll talk about Rush when we want, and if we use that keyword phrase, so be it.
  • Most listicles are created in compliance with a predetermined set of rules, terms, and/or conditions, sometimes called “parameters,” established and clearly described within the post.
  • Each artist, album, and song is thoroughly vetted on at least two trustworthy sources, typically (but not limited to): the artist’s website, AllMusic, MusicBrainz, and Wikipedia.2
  • Sales figures are verified by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), Billboard, and/or the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).3 However, source URLs are not mandatory for sales figures unless they meet a threshold for imperative defined by the context.
  • Hearsay, rumor, and word-on-the-street are allowed under strict compliance and verification procedures and/or accompanied by a disclaimer or a source URL.
  • Sexist, homophobic, and racist language are prohibited.
  • BSM has a strict policy against trying to hurt somebody’s feelings. Criticism targets the work, the industry, or the choice — never the person’s character, appearance, or body. If a critique only works by being cruel to someone specifically, it doesn’t run. I’ll happily call an album, a tour, or an entire genre a disaster. I won’t take shots at the human being who made it.
  • Political discourse is only acceptable within the context of the music.
  • Sometimes my opinion doesn’t matter, and I’m morally compelled to acknowledge the disparity, i.e., when I’m out of step with common wisdom, and probably out of line, too.

How I’ve Arrived at My Opinions

I started playing drums at 7 and formed my first rock band at 12, picking up guitar at the same time. At 19, I dropped out of college to form my first “professional” rock band. From roughly 1988 to 2006, and again in 2012 and 2017, I played in a series of rock bands. We played shows, recorded and released albums, sold T-shirts, and got minor levels of recognition. You can read about those bands here. I’m not interested in going any deeper for these purposes. I’m a musician. I can play.

I started writing for a local newspaper at 15, started writing about music for the high school newspaper at 16, and wrote for several Chicago indie rock ‘zines in the mid-1990s. At some point in the mid-2000s, my vinyl collection exceeded 1,000 albums. In the mid-2010s, I wrote freelance for several music websites, mainly about guitar: learning, playing, and purchasing. I started Black Sunshine Media in 2012 as a platform for my extra-curricular musings about music, art, travel, and whatever.

Writing Credentials

Aside from BSM, I’ve held numerous professional positions as a writer and/or editor, including a four-year stint as the Director of Editorial for a digital marketing startup. From 2008 to 2018, I was the Head Writer and Editor of a Taiwanese publishing company. My non-music work has appeared on/in dozens of publications such as Catster, Dogster, Corner Coffee Shop, Travel in Taiwan, and Listen & Learn.

I’m also the independent author of a four-book travel series, Lunar New Years, based on my real-life experiences in Taiwan and Southeast Asia.

Footnotes

  1. The origins of Black Sunshine Media ↩︎
  2. People talk shit about Wikipedia pages, but I’ve worked personally and professionally with Wikipedia editors. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get a Wikipedia page? Sure, sometimes entries get vandalized. But somebody comes around and cleans it up almost immediately. ↩︎
  3. For tracking specific historical, pure, and equivalent album sales, the most comprehensive public databases are ChartMasters and the Worldwide iTunes Album Chart. ↩︎