OK, is this the worst piece of music writing ever?

so bitter that Gospel has been hijacked by the cult of Christianity

Going through my reggae collection, removing anything tainted by Rastafarianism. Left with Uptown Top Ranking.

"Dreadlock Holiday" probly doesn't count

You need some Yabby You

Amol Rajan is editor of The Independent.

So wait, was this the guy that cut Simon Price loose??

No, SP worked for the Indy on Sunday - different editors.

Is he not 28 or something?

oh okay, thanks DL xp

He's very young. Just realised what his column reminds me of.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXRuWshJH0c

dude i love those Paul Nicholas records

I think it might be possible for a 70s reggae fan to argue the case, in a manner that doesn't make you want to slap them, that the commercial split in the genre between dancehall and 'conscious' reggae has led to the increasing domination of Rastafarian themes - but he's falling quite a long way short here.

so in summary this dude loves Congo Natty's back catalogue but doesn't know what kind of music it is and is completely unfamiliar with its lyrical content. righto

i don't really get any sense of whether he's bemoaning the changes in Reggae's musical form or the absence of club nights playing classics or segregation in the audience or not being able to smoke weed any more tbh

not sure whether "dub step" is meant to be "dubstep" or "dub" either

In the meantime, Jah bless.

I'm sure it said "dub" in the print ed., but I might have misread

i cd've sworn the online verzh said just "dub" the first time i read it but maybe my brain elided the step

No, it was "dub step" in the paper last night (xpost)

This guy edits the Independent? Wtf?

Standard editor clearly thinking "give him enough rope" by running this imo

A previous article by the editor of the independent
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/amol-rajan-how-about-a-reggae-anthem-to-inspire-the-nation-8030765.html

what a weirdo

that this guy is all jah bless, while simon price is all jobless is a national scandal

New winner here. Holy fuck.

Near the end of the slow burning “Key/Hole”, for instance, he kicks in a raw cacophony and lets the guitar screech. He may not be playing with a screwdriver or attempting to make Michael Gira’s ears bleed, but throughout Night on Earth, Ranaldo takes a step back and realizes that—oh, that’s right—he was in Sonic Youth. And he thrashed.

Oh, Ranaldo's lyrics don't have the 'storytelling deftness' (actual quote, no shit) of Robert Hunter's? Ignoring for a moment the fact that Robert Hunter rarely wrote 'story' songs, it seems to me this reviewer read Lee's recent piece on the Dead and structured his entire review around the specious idea of Ranaldo and the Dust as a 'jam band,' pesky facts be damned. I get the feeling that if Lee had instead written a billet-doux to, oh, I don't know, Kriss Kross, St John might be complaining that the cadences heard on Last Night on Earth aren't as 'poignantly riveting' as Daddy Mack's.

you tell 'em, son

has this been linked yet?

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/oct/08/school-of-pop

from the comments: I kind of rely on well informed Guardian commenters to expand upon my limited range of references, as you have done.

Almost the only aspect of being paid to write columns that is not highly pleasurable is being scooped.

old dude be old

Amol Rajan should write a book on reggae. What would it be called I wonder?

Almost the only aspect of being paid to write columns that is not highly pleasurable is being scooped.

I'd imagine rereading such dogshit columns before submitting them must be quite painful too, though its clear that the reggae guy doesn't actually reread his stuff before sending it.

He's the editor of the fucking Independent. wtf.

The weird thing is that he actually seems to know quite a lot about reggae - he must have actively worked to come across as so clueless and objectionable.

http://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/article8514227.ece/ALTERNATES/w460/Amol_Rajan_crisps.jpg

needs some Reggae Reggae Sauce on those crisps

andrew collins' blog is the smuggest piece of shit in the world

do i have to cross out the "s' blog" there?

modern chart pop – industrially produced by a risk-averse industry for distracted tweens who generally get to vote for the artists they'd like to perform it – is no longer required to induce academic curiosity

Apples and oranges, this. All of his old examples are art-rock or post-punk, apart from the mighty Boney M.

Likewise this: The National Literary Trust study found that 21.5% of young people agreed with the statement: "I would be embarrassed if my friends saw me read." This jars with my fond teenage memory of poring over lyrics with friends in the gatefold-sleeve era. I'm sure some of the other 78.5% do the equivalent now.

That piece is maddening and lazy and loads of people argued with it beneath the fold and so therefore it generated lots of clicks and so therefore it justified itself as "paid journalism" but really this isn't why I "got into" writing about music, and certainly not what I read it for. Also his books are wincingly poor "Do u remember spangles and white dog poo?" dogshit.

modern clickbait "journalism" – industrially produced by a risk-averse industry for distracted twenty-somethings who generally get to vote for the writers they'd like to perform it – is no longer required to induce academic curiosity

he literally writes impassioned 4000 word posts where he cries about people not putting their british library carrier bags back in the box properly

I'm wary of the phrase "clickbait" tbh. There's always been a need for eyeballs and a disappointing willingness to run sloppily argued "provocative" columns, long before the internet. AC isn't a product of the SEO era - he was writing like this in the NME 20 years ago.

30 years ago.

I'm wary of the phrase "clickbait" tbh.

Just makes me think of the song(?) "Slug Bait" by Throbbing Gristle

https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/1391487_10151956929613834_974845207_n.jpg

Tory reggae could totally be a thing.

Jah Trustafar-i

How long shall they kill our profits/ while we stand aside and look

New winner

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/10358000/Dave-Berry-the-10-albums-every-man-should-own.html

Fuck me.