While the conventional course of media framing research is to focus on political communication, this essay explores the boundaries of framing and its promise for studying the alternative domain of music journalism. We examine characteristics of music journalism and of framing within it, establishing the reason and potential in connecting the two concepts. We also review research about music journalism, show how framing research has been applied outside of political topics, and reflect on some of music journalism’s core customs. The article concludes that music journalism should be a priority site to learn about critical issues (e.g. race, gender, sexuality, celebrity) woven into the popular culture content of such media coverage.