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

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

true but I don't think it's a coincidence that the description of critics he uses are shrill cheerleaders who shout. (liking speedy ortiz doesn't negate this)

This article reads like an elaborate self-justification which in the writer's heart of hearts he knows is wrong.

Scott Seward Greenfield Ma 1 hour ago
If you are young and considering writing about music for fun or profit, read this piece very carefully. AND THEN NEVER WRITE LIKE THIS. Or think like this, if you can help it. Think harder and listen to a LOT of music. All kinds. From every era. And read a ton. Anything you can get your hands on. Read and listen as much as humanly possible. Listen closely. REALLY listen. Inspiration can come from the most unlikely places.

i couldn't help myself...

UM, is that freakytrigger essay Sterling posted like widely read and acknowledged and/or anything? it says "457 views" and it is really crazy and great and I wish I'd read it ten years ago, five years ago, or yesterday

FT migrated from one place to another - Blogger to Wordpress iirc- a few years ago, and a few of us copied everything across, article by article. The hits count you see there today means the hits since then; I don't know that anyone bothered to make a note of the figures for hits up to that point. If I happen across an obtuse shepherd I'll ask.

I've inwardly made a ???-face any time Lex has talked about "realness" :( I wish I'd read that essay first

Only 457 people read freakytrigger but all of them etc. etc.

lol scott

B-b-but...

re the FT post, now it's 804 views :-D

and yeah, the counter started from zero at some point after migrating to WP which was many years after it was first published - so it's languished in the blogging long tail. gonna promote it to our front page 'featured posts' for a bit.

i'm glad someone agrees with me...

https://twitter.com/benratliff

thumbs_up_mr_natural_smiley.jpg

I'm a big

It's true that I am a big. But why I, or my trousers, chose to make that clear on this thread is not obvious. As you were.

Your big big pants

Who will be the 1000th reader of that piece. There should be a prize, anyone has 20p to spare?

The poptimism 'oh where has it gone?' discussion and that NPR blog sorta mesh into one.

Certainly -- this is waayy back in the day -- ILM had pop as driver for posts and discussion but also an openness to everything on the margins and beyond, which is why there are threads on any pop group, indie group or Robert Ashley and the like in new answers. This is a good thing, despite all the fragmentation that has always been there.

What hasn't happened is that its never been an environment where non-experts -- i.e. people that like music but don't have record collections could come in and talk about it with not even that much of a commitment or stake in it. So an equivalent of NPR person could not post here, would get shouted at and would probably go away.

Yes it was changing the discourse but also to include a wider set of attitudes and expertise. It could only grow with others, and in that sense it was a disaster.

a few non-experts have worked on their expertise tbf, and a few are still proudly non-experts :D

'experts' needs to be more fully defined. Its just as much about non-listening or talking about a time when you loved music and now don't, for example. I think there are a few of those on 'Popular', where a new fashion/scene came in and something in them 'broke'. But something is there, a desire to participate and talk, not least because you are surrounded by people in your daily life that still listen and feel importance.

i shared that fake-real taxonomy with some friends last night and they seemed very convinced. a million views by sundown.

Merdeyeux and his Million Mates