dumbest music journalist term

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so many bad ones, but "Natch"? ... what does it even mean?

― ken taylrr, Tuesday, 11 February 2003 21:55 (twenty-one years ago) link

naturally.

― hstencil, Tuesday, 11 February 2003 21:57 (twenty-one years ago) link

hardly started with music journalists either

― James Blount (James Blount), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 21:58 (twenty-one years ago) link

pomo

― donut bitch (donut), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 22:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

"overrated"

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 22:01 (twenty-one years ago) link

cred

― James Blount (James Blount), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 22:01 (twenty-one years ago) link

"the radio", "Top 40"

― James Blount (James Blount), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 22:01 (twenty-one years ago) link

the streets (not The Streets, natch).

― hstencil, Tuesday, 11 February 2003 22:02 (twenty-one years ago) link

"manufactured"!!

― mark p (Mark P), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 22:02 (twenty-one years ago) link

roots music

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 22:03 (twenty-one years ago) link

velvets-esque

― Evan (Evan), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 22:04 (twenty-one years ago) link

ohhh, naturally. fuck, i thought it was some onomatopoeia for a really bad laugh or something... and just never bothered to ask, til now. well, it still looks dumb.

― ken taylrr, Tuesday, 11 February 2003 22:06 (twenty-one years ago) link

post-punk.

― hstencil, Tuesday, 11 February 2003 22:06 (twenty-one years ago) link

It's like [band x] meets [band y].

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 22:07 (twenty-one years ago) link

post-rock

pretentious

emo

― Callum (Callum), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 22:08 (twenty-one years ago) link

It's like [band x] meets [band y] while [activity takes place] in [location].

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 22:10 (twenty-one years ago) link

ethereal

cinematic

experimental

― James Blount (James Blount), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 22:12 (twenty-one years ago) link

avant-garde.

avant-anything, for that matter.

― hstencil, Tuesday, 11 February 2003 22:13 (twenty-one years ago) link

"nu"

― James Blount (James Blount), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 22:14 (twenty-one years ago) link

return-to-form

singer/songwriter

IDM

― hstencil, Tuesday, 11 February 2003 22:15 (twenty-one years ago) link

[x]-on-acid, followed closely by [x]-on-[other drug]

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 22:18 (twenty-one years ago) link

I still think [x]-on-e has some life left in it.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 22:19 (twenty-one years ago) link

"filler"

― maria b (maria b), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 22:26 (twenty-one years ago) link

"pretentious" can be ok when qualified a bit and then read as a compliment.

(hstencil so otm - "singer/songwriter" has been lazy nonsense for years)

― jones (actual), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 22:30 (twenty-one years ago) link

"pop sensibility"

"[artist] was one of the most unlikely stars of [decade]"

― Curtis Stephens, Tuesday, 11 February 2003 22:40 (twenty-one years ago) link

soundscape

― gygax!, Tuesday, 11 February 2003 22:43 (twenty-one years ago) link

"plaintive" to describe young white males who can't really sing

― ben sterling (frozen in time), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 22:45 (twenty-one years ago) link

calling new albums "latest outings"

― Captain Sleep (Captain Sleep), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 22:45 (twenty-one years ago) link

"effort" as a synonym for an album.

― Yanc3y (ystrickler), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 22:49 (twenty-one years ago) link

stellar

― bflaska, Tuesday, 11 February 2003 22:51 (twenty-one years ago) link

"singer/songwriter" has been lazy nonsense for years

I'm a I'm a hunter-gatherer I kill what I eat
I'm a I'm a singer-songwriter I write what I sing

(Geewhiz I haven't quoted Big Black lyrics in like 12 yrs)

― Andy K (Andy K), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 22:53 (twenty-one years ago) link

"the [40s/50s/60s/70s/80s/90s] are back"

― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 11 February 2003 23:01 (twenty-one years ago) link

LUSCIOUS POUTING!!!

up there with "cathedrals of sound"

― kate, Tuesday, 11 February 2003 23:03 (twenty-one years ago) link

adenoidal.

― hstencil, Tuesday, 11 February 2003 23:06 (twenty-one years ago) link

old-school

― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 11 February 2003 23:08 (twenty-one years ago) link

splenetic

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 23:10 (twenty-one years ago) link

splenetic? What the hell does that mean?

― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 11 February 2003 23:12 (twenty-one years ago) link

i think its mu-jo shorthand for 'angry' or 'shouty' music..

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 23:15 (twenty-one years ago) link

of the spleen?

― hstencil, Tuesday, 11 February 2003 23:15 (twenty-one years ago) link

underrated

― bflaska, Tuesday, 11 February 2003 23:19 (twenty-one years ago) link

I prefer music that comes from the liver. The spleen is so last millenium.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 11 February 2003 23:20 (twenty-one years ago) link

frenetic?
i think splenetic is that red website with all those reviews every day...

― ben sterling (frozen in time), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 23:20 (twenty-one years ago) link

"compelling"

― Nick Mirov (nick), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 23:21 (twenty-one years ago) link

"felching"

― Jerry (Jerry), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 23:22 (twenty-one years ago) link

(I don't think anyone who uses the term actually knows the word's rather unappetising origin in gay San Francisco slang)

― Jerry (Jerry), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 23:23 (twenty-one years ago) link

"aw, bless" (or variations thereof)

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 23:24 (twenty-one years ago) link

ILX

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 23:25 (twenty-one years ago) link

everything that Mark Beaumont writes

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 23:33 (twenty-one years ago) link

I think I've used just about all of these at one point or another (except maybe felching).

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 23:35 (twenty-one years ago) link

off-kilter dynamics

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 23:40 (twenty-one years ago) link

Skipping 191 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

"noise" (when it's not noise they're talking about)

― mei (mei), Thursday, 2 September 2004 14:54 (nineteen years ago) link

Hey, let's count 'em in this gem of a sentence (the opening paragraph of an article from a neighboring thread):

Destined to live high on the hog by way of Talking Heads royalties until the day he dies, the adventurous quirkmeister has been nothing but ballsy since his seminal new-wave outfit parted ways."

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Thursday, 2 September 2004 15:02 (nineteen years ago) link

"quirkmeister"

― mei (mei), Thursday, 2 September 2004 15:07 (nineteen years ago) link

don't forget "seminal" "outfit"

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Thursday, 2 September 2004 15:15 (nineteen years ago) link

is that what depp wore in that one scene in Fear and Loathing?

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Thursday, 2 September 2004 17:20 (nineteen years ago) link

But to reject a certain term altogether is to surrender it to the dumpster-diving enemy. ("When you pass a market, and say,'Man I'm starvin',' shut up! Jump in the dumpster, and just start carvin'." Charles Manson sang that.)Such words should be spirited awy for re-programming, re-cycling, but *not* via the dumpster!

― Don, Thursday, 2 September 2004 21:16 (nineteen years ago) link

I cannot believe that no post has yet mentioned the phrase "solid effort" ...!

― kjoerup, Friday, 3 September 2004 14:34 (nineteen years ago) link

two weeks pass...

Funny. No one's mentioned "[Y] is the new [X]."

Hate.

― babyalive (babyalive), Tuesday, 21 September 2004 22:49 (nineteen years ago) link

Alright, judging by the length of this thread, it's obviously time for some post-modernist rock-crit action -- take cliched terms and build them into something new: jangly + angular = jangular

― st. uber, Wednesday, 22 September 2004 01:27 (nineteen years ago) link

archetypal jangly angular music that grabs everyone by the throat: Jungular

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Wednesday, 22 September 2004 02:10 (nineteen years ago) link

...backed by clattering 180bpm rhythms, of course.

― st. uber, Wednesday, 22 September 2004 04:59 (nineteen years ago) link

...and emanating from our collective unconscious.

― oops (Oops), Wednesday, 22 September 2004 05:01 (nineteen years ago) link

I put in "archetypal" and "everyone" cos I thought collective unconscious would stretch it a bit...

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Wednesday, 22 September 2004 05:23 (nineteen years ago) link

"braggadocio"

― peter $.., Thursday, 23 September 2004 18:00 (nineteen years ago) link

Diamond Dave > Sammy Hagar, fight new wars please!

― Huk-L, Thursday, 23 September 2004 18:03 (nineteen years ago) link

"Atmospheric" (ARGGHHH!!!! WHAT IS IT SUPPOSED TO MEAN????)

Also, when the word "Pop" is used to describe anything that's not really in the commercial mainstream right now.

― Hurting, Friday, 24 September 2004 03:35 (nineteen years ago) link

one year passes...

"poor man's Radiohead"

― cracker killer (crackerkiller), Saturday, 1 July 2006 20:08 (seventeen years ago) link

"keybs"

― I will commence to drop a knowledge bomb. (Rock Hardy), Saturday, 1 July 2006 20:23 (seventeen years ago) link

sounds like ___________ on acid

pffft. really old but perennial and woeful, natch .

see other thread *burp*

― drunken (beeble), Saturday, 1 July 2006 20:42 (seventeen years ago) link

socially conscious (see: dero)

― s blaze (conrad), Saturday, 1 July 2006 20:46 (seventeen years ago) link

"Americana" is badly abused by BRITISH journalists. They would
consign rock with any hint of country to the ghetto of "Americana,"
as if ALL of rock's major moves were invented here, anyway.

― Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Saturday, 1 July 2006 20:51 (seventeen years ago) link

ahem, that should read
"as if ALL of rock's major moves WEREN'T invented here, anyway"

― Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Saturday, 1 July 2006 21:08 (seventeen years ago) link

"Commercial" for fucking sake!

― It's Rodney, poised and rational! (R. J. Greene), Sunday, 2 July 2006 00:36 (seventeen years ago) link

it's july. how did that happen?

― jed_ (jed), Sunday, 2 July 2006 01:10 (seventeen years ago) link

I can't believe that no one's said "overproduced," which is a word that doesn't really mean anything.

― max (maxreax), Sunday, 2 July 2006 01:22 (seventeen years ago) link

it's the opposite of "underproduced"

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Sunday, 2 July 2006 01:32 (seventeen years ago) link

"dreamy"

― cdwill (cdwill), Sunday, 2 July 2006 01:42 (seventeen years ago) link

I can't believe that no one's said "overproduced," which is a word that doesn't really mean anything.

Sure it does.

― Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Sunday, 2 July 2006 02:07 (seventeen years ago) link

'Nuff said.

incendiary, flaming, aural, bliss, sonic, in flames, from hell, talking about music is like dancing about architecture, blistering, contact high.

― John W. Smoke, Jr. (Uri Frendimein), Sunday, 2 July 2006 03:49 (seventeen years ago) link

Rationing Board overdue to act on: Transcend, Subversive.

― don (dow), Sunday, 2 July 2006 04:02 (seventeen years ago) link

epic (= longer than 3 minutes)

(so "long and epic" = "I'm paid by the word")

― StanM (StanM), Sunday, 2 July 2006 08:04 (seventeen years ago) link

sounds like ___________ on acid

Wow, I'd never noticed how annoying that is. You'd think somebody might've pointed out that it was annoying before.

― Duck Rivers (noodle vague), Sunday, 2 July 2006 10:22 (seventeen years ago) link

Snarf actually means something? Heavens, what?

-- Ned Raggett (ne...), February 12th, 2003. (Ned)

Snarfing is "the act of sniffing a bicycle seat after a lady has just been seated upon it"

-- Jerry (everet...)February 13th, 2003. (Jerry)

i always thought snarfing was when you laugh when you're in the middle of drinking and it comes out your nose,no?

-- robin (robin_lace...), February 13th, 2003. (robin)

I'm sure there are snarfing e-groups on Yahoo.

-- Vic (Iodine99...), February 13th, 2003. (Vic)

Dagnabbit! I thought I had found a usage of "snarfing" in a song. It turns out I haven't but I feel I'm closing in. My misheard lyric comes courtesy of Ed Sanders and Ken Weaver from the Fugs album "It Crawled Into My Hand, Honest": the track is track 7 on side two of the LP--"We're Both Dead Now, Alice."

We're both dead now.

No more Viceroys

No more K-Y

No more slurpings at the narthax

All is over

Over the lee.

If anyone has used Snarf(s/ed/ing) in a song, it has to be the Fugs.

― J Arthur Rank (Quin Tillian), Sunday, 2 July 2006 20:41 (seventeen years ago) link

I will always think of "Snarf" as a noun that denotes the colorful sidekick of the Thundercats. Snarf-the-being continually says "Snarf!" in a whiny, neurotic manner as an expression of fear/anxiety.

― Drew Daniel (Drew Daniel), Sunday, 2 July 2006 21:44 (seventeen years ago) link

Snarf - Lion-O's nursemaid, Snarf is a small, fat, cat-like creature from the Valley of the Snarfs on Thundera. Not fond of his proper name, "Osbert". When Lion-O aged to maturity, the Lord of the ThunderCats didn't feel he needed a babysitter anymore. Still, Snarf is the most loyal of ThunderCats and their most underrated member. His relatives now live on the Planet of the Snarfs after escaping Thundera's destruction. Snarfs are the only creatures in the universe incapable of evil (except while possessed).

― Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Sunday, 2 July 2006 21:47 (seventeen years ago) link

Whoah, Osbert, eh? I had no idea. Thanks!

― Drew Daniel (Drew Daniel), Sunday, 2 July 2006 22:05 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah, I guess Osbert just doesn't roll off the tongue the way Snarf does.

― Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Sunday, 2 July 2006 22:16 (seventeen years ago) link

use of the term "transcendent" without explication of how the song/album/sound transcends...what?

― trees (treesessplode), Sunday, 2 July 2006 22:41 (seventeen years ago) link

But transcendent simply means "Surpassing others; preeminent or supreme."

― Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Sunday, 2 July 2006 23:54 (seventeen years ago) link

"the smart money is on"

can we gamble on music? An ILM dream I'm sure.

― Major Alfonso (Major Alfonso), Sunday, 2 July 2006 23:57 (seventeen years ago) link

I'll be in the cold, cold ground before I stop using 'keybs.'

― Zwan (miccio), Monday, 3 July 2006 00:00 (seventeen years ago) link

xpost yeah, but "Surpassing all others, preeminent or supreme" how often does that happen; using it that way in a damn record review usually seems grandiose, not even carried away by enthusiasm for the music, but more like "This has to be important, because I'm reviewing it!" But also just sort of standard-yet-inflationary. And really the non-hype use , judging by context, really comes down to something like, "this album's not perfect, but more bad than good," or "succeeds in spite of itself," which is often the most interesting kind of thing to write and read about and maybe even listen to, I think! But I'm not saying it's not the mot juste sometimes, not trying to *ban* anything mentioned on here, really,that's why I mentioned the Rationing Board. (dammit, some things are "crisp," etc.; texture can very appropriate to mention, long as you don't leave it at that, or use that or any other term too often or too predictably.)

― don (dow), Monday, 3 July 2006 01:26 (seventeen years ago) link

four weeks pass...

there's so many threads about overused words/phrases on here, but i somehow didn't see anyone mention my biggest pet peeve in music criticism (maybe i missed it?): the word "unlistenable." how can sound be unlistenable?

here's an excerpt of a review on stylus today:

While searching for information regarding Camille's Le Fil, the most frequent description you’ll run into is that the album is "the French pop equivalent to Björk's Medúlla." A bit troubling, considering that the Matthew Barney stroke-a-thon is one of the most pretentious, unlistenable albums of the last five years.

ooh, the pretentious/unlistenable double whammy! i've heard medulla plenty of times now and i can't say it's ever occured to me to describe 45 minutes of sound as "unlistenable."

― spastic heritage (spastic heritage), Monday, 31 July 2006 16:09 (seventeen years ago) link

"fetid underbelly"

― shookout (shookout), Monday, 31 July 2006 16:53 (seventeen years ago) link

six months pass...

Is it still okay to say 'Cut to July 2006...' or whatever in a music feature, or has that been murdered through overuse?

― Nedpoleon (NedBeauman), Friday, 9 February 2007 21:18 (seventeen years ago) link

using that once is murdering it

― exayve (xave), Friday, 9 February 2007 21:25 (seventeen years ago) link

"Blog-ready" "blog-friendly" "blog-driven" etc.

Obviously it's forgivable to discuss blogs if you're talking about the marketing of a band, (which itself is quite overdone as a story these days), but it doesn't say one thing about the music, and it's always used to seem *in-the-know* but blase while avoiding actually saying anything new about the artist.

― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Friday, 9 February 2007 22:31 (seventeen years ago) link

Our radio station advisor sent out the weekly DJ playlist email describing Lily Allen as a "breakthrough blog-pop act". I suppose the right way for him to have said it is "MySpace-pop" but again that really doesn't lend any insight either.

― musically (musically), Friday, 9 February 2007 22:40 (seventeen years ago) link

BOXCAR

― senator second p. newcastle (a_p), Friday, 9 February 2007 22:43 (seventeen years ago) link

Our radio station advisor sent out the weekly DJ playlist email describing Lily Allen as a "breakthrough blog-pop act".

It's like calling a band "e-mail blastcore"

― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Friday, 9 February 2007 22:47 (seventeen years ago) link

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