sometime i read christgau and am amazed...

"Believes in reincarnation, wishes the pope had a bigger dick" = "All music is horrible." How could anybody have interpreted it otherwise?

x-post: chuck, that's a pretty limited view of what sort of books would fit my description.

Examples of critics I think do the fuctional thing well? I don't follow any particular music writers, so that makes it difficult for me to give examples. I'll try to think of an example. I like what I've read about Arabic music by A. J. Racy, though he's more ethnomusicologist than critic. I also found ethnomusicologist Lise Waxer helpful on salsa.

(What little exposure I've had to Christgau's writing gives me a really visceral negative reaction, which I guess is why I always end up jumping into these Christgau threads.)

*

Maybe this is a delayed reaction to my having spent too much time in my teens so focused on poetry? At any rate, I mostly read non-fiction books about things that interest me. The artistic side of reading is of pretty marginal interest to me.

The review was under his "Honorable Mention" category, which is reserved for albums that are good, even "solid," but not great. So I don't think he's being snide...flip maybe, but hey, it's not as if Blondie are strangers to flippishness.

how many people who contribute to these threads actually read Christgau

As the originator or the tread, I feel I should respond:

I've been reading Christgau since I discovered the Village Voice in the University of Illinois' (Urbana-Champaign) main library about 13 years ago. Since the music section is online now, I read just about every word he publishes. Hell, I even read (and finished, mind you) his Believer article on the roots of minstrelry.

Some of his articles have moved with me to every apartment I've lived in since the day I first read them. His article on Freedy Johnston's Can You Fly, titled Arguing with Perfection, is one of my absolute favorite pieces of music writing ever.

Sure, oftentimes I don't get him on the first read, or even the second read, or (I'll admit it) even on the third. When I do, I find myself paid in full for *my* (emphasis added for his editor, whom I understand thinks I need to be spoonfed) effort and his. But in all honesty, the pope's-dick line is such a throwaway as to come off as being for the guys on bathroom break at the symposium. "Hey, Greil! Chuck! Whadya think of that one? Heh, heh."

Like I said, sometimes I'm amazed, others confounded.

I'm just saying that if you're gonna argue that music criticism has an inherent aesthetic value (as you clearly believe), then for the sake of intellectual consistency an inherent respect for the aesthetic value of the musical work of others should follow as well. This particular case - Blondie/Xgau - I don't really give a shit about. It just irritates me to see people who dismiss other people's careers with 10 words get all hyper-defensive when the value of their own careers are questioned.

any idea where one can find this online?

It just irritates me to see people who dismiss other people's careers with 10 words

If you were paying attention, you'd understand that he's not dismissing their career. If you read more of his work, you might know that he called Parallel Lines "as close to God as pop-rock albums ever get, or got."

Thanks for playing.

(x-post)

What does this "inherent respect for the aesthetic value of the musical work of others" entail? You mean ALL PEOPLE'S MUSICAL WORKS OF ALL TIMES? If you believe rockcrit has worth, then you can't EVER be mean or irreverent or flip or silly or dismissive about a piece of music? Even ones you like? Why the fuck would anybody want to do that? NOBODY does this. Not critics, not listeners, not musicians, not fans, nobody. Maybe bizarro l'art pour l'art idolators do, but who takes THEM seriously?

this is what we call 'a distinction without a difference'

about a zillion x posts

The format of the 10-word joke review is inherently dismissive to whatever it's reviewing. By extension, being casually dismissive of the aesthetic value of that 10-word review is only fair.

even if it says more than 600 words? some examples.

do you think that 10 minutes songs are better than 3 minute ones?

"Flip" = "this album is so obviously not a matter of life and death" --> "so I can be pretty or silly or cute or pretentious or extremely casual about this album." OR "It's pretty much common knowledge I love these guys" --> "I can say all sorts of silly things about them without seeming mean." (Much like I can call a friend a "fascist" or a "jerk" in certain contexts -- like in jokes -- and they'll KNOW I'm not dissing them.")

"Dismissive" = "This sucks, and isn't worth respect in any contexts."

He needs the blood of the living to retain his girlish figure.

Doesn't look like it's made it to his archive yet. But his consumer guide review is here

U2 - "Pop"
Misses his mother, misses Jesus ("Mofo, "Wake Up Dead Man")

I want to start a thread now.

For distinguished criticism, Ten thousand dollars ($10,000).

Awarded to Dan Neil of the Los Angeles Times for his one-of-a-kind reviews of automobiles, blending technical expertise with offbeat humor and astute cultural observations.

Also nominated as finalists in this category were: Nicolai Ouroussoff of the Los Angeles Times for his versatile architectural criticism that stretched from his hometown's new Disney Hall to the rubble in Baghdad, where he pondered the ancient city's resurrection, and Inga Saffron of The Philadelphia Inquirer for her passionate and insightful architectural criticism that, through clear, elegant writing, was as accessible to the ordinary reader as it was to the expert.