Who Are The Worst Pop Journalists?

Oh, and good call to Stevo on Paul Mathur, who by 1995 had possibly the worst taste on Melody Maker. Sadly I'm too young to remember him being as good as you mention.

On a slightly more slanderous note, scuttlebutt from a friend at an LA record company -- one of the Big Ones -- is that a few years back he tried to leverage said company to sign either his son or his nephew, I forget which, to a recording contract. Let us thank our lucky stars that disaster never occurred.

I wanted to punch Hilburn's face in after Joey Ramone died, his obituary was so stupid and mean-spirited and dismissive. Something like "U2 and R.E.M. and Pearl Jam liked Joey Ramone and for that reason alone we must acknowledge his importance in the grand scheme of things..."

He's even more square than Dave Marsh. Pathetic.

sarah vowell's attempts to write about pop music always grated on me for their 'all snark, no substance' ethos, although i don't know if she's doing music writing so much now.

i don't really get the appeal of ben greenman, who's a favorite son over at mcsweeney's and who writes about pop music for the new yorker. i find his writing uninspired and his insights pedestrian at best.

most of the 'mainstream indie' pubs - pitchfork, magnet, et al - are for the most part horrid, proof that once you give the former strivers outside of the mainstream any sort of respect they'll take liberties in wankery/establishments of canons that they'd decry if taken by those in that oh-so-despised middle of the road.

He loved Prince from "Controversy" and maybe even "Dirty Mind," though. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

No indeed.

Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

There's a concept, Hilburn and I. Bound to be better than My Dinner With Robert.

I don't know. Does she? Does anyone? Plese tell!

Rob Sheffield (a fine writer) manages to irk me every time I read anything he's written - just a turn of phrase, some snarky comment, SOMETHING. Even when I agree with him, he pisses me off. Eric Weisbard, especially during his "the end of Nirvana = the end of everything" phase, managed to push my buttons. I seem to have a pet peeve for folks who A) write end-of-year synopses for Spin (promoting their own agenda) or B) appear on VH1 & MTV specials (again, promoting their own agenda). (I exclude Mr. Douglas Wolk, of course, being the exception for his appearance on some long-forgotten VH1 show discussing Skip Spence. I think I even saw Sasha Frere-Jones on some show once as well. But Alan Light, Joe Levy, Ms. Powers, Mr. John Farley, Ms. Ali, anyone appearing on those VH1 "heavy metal" specials telling me what "rocks" - dear God, STOP IT!) (I think they are, actually - here's hoping.)

I will ask this question until someone brands my tongue with a hot rivet - why do you ask MUSIC JOURNALISTS about what constitutes ROCK STARDOM? You don't ask Alice Cooper about Stockhausen, do you?

You mean you've not gone into print elsewhere on the web with that very para? If not, it genuinely was deja vu and the very strongest case of it I've had in a while. Weird.

Hey, that sentence has now appeared at least twice in the last four posts. Or am I getting deja vu too?

i wonder, too, how much of a role editing and directives from above plays into some critics' brain-deadness. i know many people whose places of work have 'suggested' that they take a more 'populist' (spit ptui) angle -- ann powers was actually saying during interviews for her (terrible) book that she felt lucky at the times because she rarely had to dumb down.

I wondered what on earth Mark S was doing pressing Oasis's canonical Brit claims in 1988.

I wonder what the relevant text is?

(it wz called "look back in anguish" but that title wasn't my idea)

it wz a good idea badly realised, i think: god knows there wz enough rubbishy "celtic soul" polemic in the mag at that time, so i possibly veered against that deliberately

And anyone who works at NME, obviously.

give or take a decade or so of music journalism behind her... hse is pretty bad though...

funny to see the hate poured on hilburn and powers, not so funny to have one replace the other : (

oh wow look at sterling going at juzwiak! how strange.

(so long ago, though)

http://www.fuse.tv/contributors/david-shapiro

not clicking on that but i am glad this is now the thread for updates on this guy

i don't think david shapiro would claim to be a "Pop Journalist"

Just read the new shindig's article on Strawberry Alarm Clock and have just been rereminded why I can't stand that writer. There is just way too much self-regarding noise in the piece.
Tend to find that any time I bother reading that guy. Used to annoy me that he'd get given items I wanted to find out about to review in various psych mags and I'd just be reminded that the guy was in love with himself instead of finding out about the product.