It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back

btw i do think this kid's a tool and that it's hilarious some NPR staffer is squeezing Onion pieces out of the interns, but eh what music nerd at 19 wouldn't have said something ridiculous and flip about a classic if given the shot.

so points to questlove for fighting a candle and lol to web trolls who curse the intern's darkness

oh man, if I'd reviewed a Dylan album at 19...

lol i mean lighting a candle xpost

lol @ fighting a candle

what a disappointing GIS

literally laughed out loud at lex's headline "Surely such youthful individuality should be applauded?"

― Barack 2 Chainz Obama (some dude), Wednesday, July 18, 2012 8:00 PM (27 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh come on i shouldn't have to point out to you of all people that writers don't do the headlines and standfirsts

looking forward to intern takedowns of 36 Chambers and Loveless tbh

oh come on i shouldn't have to point out to you of all people that writers don't do the headlines and standfirsts

― bitch I'm on the 242 (lex pretend), Wednesday, July 18, 2012 4:31 PM (53 seconds ago) Bookmark

fair enough, i should have said the headline to your article instead of your headline, but still hilarious

Back to candlefighting please.

you want youtube, Dan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tKKg0b64ok

i bet like half the late 20s/early 30s successful web scribes could have pumped out a "Run-DMC? Bah, give me dipset" a decade ago.

i really sincerely do hope this all results in this kid having a one-on-one debate/interview with whiney

― Barack 2 Chainz Obama (some dude), Wednesday, July 18, 2012 4:18 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark

YES PLZ

i bet like half the late 20s/early 30s successful web scribes could have pumped out a "Run-DMC? Bah, give me dipset" a decade ago.

as i said in my piece, i actually DID write a "bah public enemy are nowhere near as great as trina" piece back in the day

lost to posterity obv but i stand by every word

also look i've not heard my fair share of classic albums (rap albums even! check my involvement in the 1994 albums poll) BUT i feel extremely comfortable saying that one of the world's most read music outlets shouldn't be out here propping up rap criticism by someone who by his own admission only first loved a rap song two years ago. even an intern! there are plenty of interns NPR could hire that could've done this piece in a way that wasn't like the thoughts of a puppy examining a new chew toy.

looking forward to intern takedowns of 36 Chambers and Loveless tbh

Actually they already did Loveless:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/allsongs/2009/12/youve_never_heard_loveless_1.html

i work with a lot of people around 10 years younger than me and am consistently surprised at the degree to which there is almost no generation gap and how many of them listen to music that was either popular more from my college years or stuff that was popular before BOTH of our times

i'd love it if this was a boss saying "man, my employees LOVE that my iPod plays through the office."

― da croupier, Wednesday, July 18, 2012 3:26 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol fuck no dogg i got an office....no but srsly one guy wears nothing but classic rock shirts like CCR, skynyrd, zz top, etc...another dude is all into testament, anthrax, megadeth (and some newer bands like amon amarth etc)

"Maybe every half-formed thought that comes into an intern's tiny developing mind doesn't need to be blasted out to the worlds largest public radio audience"

i didn't think this exactly when i read the npr thing but i did think damn what a missed opportunity to show people what you can do. it wss poorly written. and the guy even says that he had weeks to think about it/write it.

The only thing I knew was that My Bloody Valentine was one of the pioneers of shoegazer music.

the joke is that these pieces don't get edited right?

i don't think the piece was great (though i'm not into tearing down 19-yr-old writers really) and obv i think the kid has absolutely dreadful taste in what he does like, BUT i'm not gonna get outraged that NPR published it when there are ACRES AND ACRES of awful, awful music writing shat out every week by professional adult journalists that are way more necessary to take down

there are plenty of interns NPR could hire that could've done this piece in a way that wasn't like the thoughts of a puppy examining a new chew toy.

oh i don't doubt plenty of earnest teens would have loved to just regurgitate old reviews "put me in, coach!" book report style

though I bet we'd shred apart some noble-hearted scrubs "chuck d was a prophet" piece too

also look i've not heard my fair share of classic albums (rap albums even! check my involvement in the 1994 albums poll) BUT i feel extremely comfortable saying that one of the world's most read music outlets shouldn't be out here propping up rap criticism by someone who by his own admission only first loved a rap song two years ago. even an intern! there are plenty of interns NPR could hire that could've done this piece in a way that wasn't like the thoughts of a puppy examining a new chew toy.

― J0rdan S., Wednesday, July 18, 2012 4:37 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

no lie what the tone of the NPR piece reminded me of more than anything was
http://www.ithaca.edu/rhp/ithacan/articles/0308/28/accent/2back_beat.htm

will admit i was thinking of the purpology people when i made my dipset comment

dude should have worked harder at it. there are all kinds of interesting things you could say about now -vs- then. i don't care if he's 19.

don't mock them. just call them cultured. (xpost)

does NPR have any interns that aren't bored and alienated by any music that doesn't precisely resemble the music they already listen to?

nope!

if they have any smart interns they're figuring out ways to work on pieces that don't have the word "intern" in the byline

in today's "ask an intern" piece, a 19 year old thoughtfully considers what joni mitchell means to their parents, and how it compares to the fanship of fiona apple.

yeah no this isn't a school recital, gimme TROLL

and i liked lex's thing. i'm all for killing any and all idols. for all the anarchy of the internet its funny how the moldy oldie canon stuff just gets reinforced over and over again. everything is being reappraised and reappreciated over and over. EVERYTHING ever made is underrated. apparently.

dude should have worked harder at it. there are all kinds of interesting things you could say about now -vs- then. i don't care if he's 19.

to be fair to him a majority of professional critics are guilty of saying uninteresting things and parroting lazy thinking most of the time too, and they have less excuse

haha okay now that I've read that piece I understand exactly why the Internet hates that dude, it's because he's a hateable fuck

being on some "rap must be smooth in order to be good" bullshit basically earns nothing but scorn and derision for me and it makes complete and total sense that he would think Drake is the epitome of hip-hop, basically I just want to hold this kid down and play Waka and Death Grips at him until his head explodes

if they have any smart interns they're figuring out ways to work on pieces that don't have the word "intern" in the byline

this is so OTM

yeah but i'm talking about this piece specifically. when you have that kind of audience and the opportunity to write something really good that you know a lot of people will see and you write what he wrote...i dunno, he should have gone for the gold. it was sloppy.

x-post

I mean fuck, "A Milli" would probably make him cry

I don't think it'd make a bit of difference if the kid had written a thoughtful, reflective, careful analysis of why Millions doesn't really sound so amazing to him/her really tho, the same olds who got their lives changed by that record, me included, would be all "You are dumb!! This amazing record" etc etc & they/we'd sound just like fuckin baby boomers only w/rap. The piece is really stupid but there's a fair bit in the response to it that's going unexamined imo

has anyone read any of the many 'you've never heard?' pieces before this?

http://www.npr.org/templates/archives/archive.php?thingId=126330958

lol, they've been doing these since 2009! guessing it just wasn't on anyone's radar until that emily white/lowery kerfluffle

"I don't think it'd make a bit of difference if the kid had written a thoughtful, reflective, careful analysis of why Millions doesn't really sound so amazing to him/her really tho"

it would have made a difference to me. i might have enjoyed reading it. i don't like cringing when i read stuff. i don't like to cringe.

from the loveless one (from '09) posted upthread

The guitars on Loveless, which for many are the most compelling element of the album, were hit-and-miss for me; I love the quality but not the quantity. The thick distortion, bends and subtle tremolo make for a truly mind-blowing sound. It's obvious that the guitars are what make the album. But I'm a big fan of space in music, and how what isn't played is just as important as what is. So for me, the constant barrage of guitar haze is too confining. Also, without some of that space, the music tends to blend together with only repetitive, and often grating, synth hooks to distinguish between songs. The ones that did stand out to me are the opener "Only Shallow" and "Come in Alone." I think I would like all of the songs a lot more outside of the context of the album as a whole, where they (and I) have more room to breathe.

that's just cuz yr old scott. kids these days LOVE cringe

i was 18 when i started writing for large-ish outlets and continued to do so as a college student, and i sure as hell had more gaps in my knowledge then and COULD have exposed my naivete or played up my youth but i was more interested in coming across as an adult who had an idea of what he was talking about it.

that loveless one reads fine! maybe everyone hates this PE review because it's poorly written!

stop shouting, mad guy

no lie what the tone of the NPR piece reminded me of more than anything was
http://www.ithaca.edu/rhp/ithacan/articles/0308/28/accent/2back_beat.htm

Haha me too.

"The dashikis, baggy pants, giant clocks that hang around your neck, throwback jerseys — they’re all vibrant and different and fun."

vs.

"His hook over that yappy guitar, the service-academy beat that drops shortly afterwards, the bells on the top-end — it's all so viscerally pleasing."

stop shouting, mad guy

lol u don't know how to read!

I don't think it'd make a bit of difference if the kid had written a thoughtful, reflective, careful analysis of why Millions doesn't really sound so amazing to him/her really tho, the same olds who got their lives changed by that record, me included, would be all "You are dumb!! This amazing record" etc etc & they/we'd sound just like fuckin baby boomers only w/rap. The piece is really stupid but there's a fair bit in the response to it that's going unexamined imo

there is some truth to this but I ultimately disagree, because this idiot is a total dickbag who thinks hip-hop sucks unless it sounds like Drake

like, there is literally NO context within the hip-hop sphere for him to engage with what Public Enemy is doing, and furthermore instead of using that disconnect as the foundation of the piece he basically whines that the album isn't very smooth and then throws the interesting bits about the evolution of hip-hop in as a half-assed aside at the end, mixed in with a comment about he's "evolved" as a music fan

I mean, I read the Loveless one; that writer didn't "get" the album either, but somehow managed to write about it in a manner that didn't make it sound like everyone who DID get the album or who grew up with it or whatever must have deluded themselves into liking it because they didn't have the benefit of someone amazing like 30 Seconds To Mars to enjoy

no lie what the tone of the NPR piece reminded me of more than anything was
http://www.ithaca.edu/rhp/ithacan/articles/0308/28/accent/2back_beat.htm

hahahaha yesssssss

being on some "rap must be smooth in order to be good" bullshit

I don't think he ever said that, though -- he just suggested that the smooth stuff was more appealing to him. I mean, you can't fault the dude for expressing a subjective opinion.