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

complaining that brilliant art is routinely ignored by the critical consensus is fine; I do it vehemently

however, the brilliant and ignored art he mentions in his article is fairly mainstream & has an extant critical discourse around it

consequently it all comes off as indier-than-thou mithering

http://furia.com/pjs/voter_686209.html#2013

we need more professional writers writing about stuff nobody wants to read about

hmmmmm trying to connect poptimism in music criticism to the gossip mill-style coverage of pop music in the media in general is really reaching. also the part where he quotes the kelefa sanneh 2004 piece to portray poptimism as basically "reverse rockism" is lolsobad. there may have some good points in there but i am too lazy to trim out all the cabbage to find them. (we poptimists ARE that lazy after all -- appreciating the national takes way too much effort for my feeble brain.)

in truth much of the mainstream pop music that is rapturously covered in the media over the past decade is still justified by rockist ideals in the press, but apparently that is "poptimism"

non-ilmer on my facebook after i posted this:

"NYT trolling ILM."

ryan otm about the "keiji haino" thing. This article's stance isn't "Hey, it's a big, wide world out there with tons of non-charting music that might be awesome!" Austerlitz instead takes the ever popular stance of "What, so I"m not allowed to like Springsteen anymore and still be cool? What the hell?!"

I mean, The National album he mentioned hit #20 on the Pazz n Jop poll referenced at the top of the article. The idea that it's "kryptonite" in the current critical discourse is a little silly.

ahahahaha omg lol @ his ballot

this truly is the vanity of not getting a decent pop critic job offer isn't it

Unless he really thinks that #20 is so low for that National album that it amounts to a slap in the face to sophisticated music fans everywhere

every "my music is deeper and more complicated than yours" stance is open to that kind of outflanking tho, which is why it's an idiot move in the first place

I thought P&J stopped being vaunted when the voice got bought and canned everyone

It's like he starts his article with a bad assumption and then rolls from there

i'm probably one of 2 or 3 ILMers who ever dares to try to put a stick in poptimism's whirring spokes, and i'll give ciara vs the national to ciara in a blaze of glorious & righteous truth

the national is like the worst possible example I can think of if you want to make some kind of case for more "sophisticated" and "difficult" music deserving more attention relative to pop.

steven hyden at the top of his similar ballots list deeply unsurprising

lmaoooo really

He also wrote: http://www.amazon.com/Money-Nothing-History-Beatles-Stripes/dp/0826429580

You are watching as a history of the moving image unfolds onscreen, but this history will not take note of D.W. Griffith or Jean Renoir, nor will King Kong or Jaws make an appearance

the national plays arenas! a movie about them just came out!

well that's my weekend sorted

Alfred is killing it. Don't know what the heck lj is on about.

The paragraph where he blames poptimism on piracy makes zero sense.

The dissolution of a shared musical mainstream means that my Speedy Ortiz or Ka may be gobbledygook to someone whose musical hero is Sky Ferreira.

every "my music is deeper and more complicated than yours" stance is open to that kind of outflanking tho, which is why it's an idiot move in the first place

― twistent consistent (Noodle Vague), Friday, April 4, 2014 12:32 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^^^^

Dude needs new friends.

i hope they never stop publishing articles like this

Haha, crüt otm

ILX will be down for a few hours this evening (GMT) for maintenance by, oh, let's say ... Moe

at least we now have a serious contender for 2014 worst. no faux-cutesy blog post this. the paper of record!

the fundamental misunderstanding of this piece is the idea that pop criticism isn't "specialized"

i think this guy is conflating, like, people writing about whether lorde or miley cyrus or katy perry is racist (thinkpiece culture, basically) with actual engagement w/ the music aside from line reading a ubiquitous single. pitching pieces about pop music is not a way to make a living.

Case in point regarding two artists he mentions: As far as I can tell, late period Strokes sell more records than Sky Ferreira, regardless of "poptimist" cred.

The whole piece has no real acknowledgment that writers are maybe not just striking a stance, that maybe they feel passionately about the Beyonce record or the Sky Ferreira record. The tone of the whole thing is, "C'mon, you guys don't really like this dreck, you're obviously too smart for it! This is clearly just 'penance' on some level."

i'm really sorry half of FT's mission has gotten lost in later discussions of "poptimism"

The goal was to treat pop music like "serious" music, but _also_ to write about serious music "like pop music", c.f. tom's articles on Charlemagne Palestine, etc. and plenty of things that Sinkah pushed later on, etc.

To look _just_ at the call for a different treatment of pop is to miss the point entirely. Its a call for a different notion of critical discourse.

and like lool at living in a pitchfork dominated era and thinking 'poptimism' (however defined) somehow won

i'm probably one of 2 or 3 ILMers who ever dares to try to put a stick in poptimism's whirring spokes, and i'll give ciara vs the national to ciara in a blaze of glorious & righteous truth
― halber mensch halber keks (imago), Friday, April 4, 2014 11:37 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Um do you not read like all the posts that happen about all kinds of non mainstream pop music every single day? Or are you suggesting like everyone on, say, the ilx brigade thread should be butting in to Beyonce threads telling everyone to listen to Robbie Basho?

Actually though I'd love to make lex listen to Basho actually

Rule of thumb: If you're writing a big generalising piece about the problem with music criticism then there's at least a 50% chance that the problem with music criticism is you.

ewing still underrecognized as critic shockah

Well he hasn't been employed by a big-name pub in North America. But, you know, how could you accuse someone of having a bunch of Beggars and Columbia records in his year-end top 10 of not looking hard enough?

link some robbie basho here!

all music is garbage and pop culture is garbage and the internet is garbage and human life is garbage just sayin

i think 'published' critics who obviously have no qualms about poking around ilm ought to pay a tax for every piece they place that shows they learned nothing and contributed nothing

I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
I can hear the footsteps every night on the decks.
But I was there.
I was there at the first indie rock thread on ILM.
I was there when the noize piece hit pitas.
I was there.

ground zero poptimist manifesto: http://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2000/01/do-you-feel-real-and-if-so-id-like-to-know/

in retrospect less a disciplinary matrix than a consultant's quadrant chart, but nonetheless...

who ever dares to try to put a stick in poptimism's whirring spokes
Don't know about sticks, but there a might have been a baseball card here and there.

Sorry, rounders.

Recasting the 'rockism/popism' discourse -- and music critical discourse -- for 2005 (and beyond)

That NYT piece is like a bunch of people who hate pop and want to keep it in its critically-reviled box having their very own "Feminism? That's all very well and good, but what about men? Where's the men's rights movement, eh, eh, eh?" moment.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/85/TWWL.jpg

pop music is not feminism

Yes, that's exactly what I meant in that sentence. Definitely.

yep