The Pitchfork People's List - top albums 1996-2012

i think its a lot less parochial than its audience

absolutely!

I think on the one hand this is dumb as shit. Presumably a lot of people are into indie and pitchfork specifically as a way to escape the popular music zeitgeist.

I've thought about this too but I wonder how much Popular Music most people who care about music actually get exposed to! The days of relying on saturation radio play are over; you have so much competition. The average twentysomething's exposure to popular music is at college football games and "Call Me Maybe" played in student union buildings.

pitchfork attempts a broad view, but remains pretty indie, pretty niche at heart, imo. this only makes sense, allows it to court new readers without alienating its core audience.

I've thought about this too but I wonder how much Popular Music most people who care about music actually get exposed to! The days of relying on saturation radio play are over; you have so much competition. The average twentysomething's exposure to popular music is at college football games and "Call Me Maybe" played in student union buildings.

well they roughly know what it's about and could easily seek it out if they were interested. I mean the obvious answer to "Did it escape their attention that for much of the past decade and a half, female artists have had a stranglehold on the popular music zeitgeist?" is no, of course not. They want to hear dudes with guitars, so the "popular music zeitgeist" has nothing for them anymore.

look, pitchfork isn't the singles jukebox. and it has wide gaps in coverage, sure. but there isn't a publication -- certainly not one on its level -- that covers as wide a breadth of music as in-depth. stylus beat it, back in the day. but it also had like 1/100th the audience. new spin is close-ish.

Some of the reaction of course is reflexive teenage "ew it's popular so it sucks" attitude.

maybe the guardian, idk

but there isn't a publication -- certainly not one on its level -- that covers as wide a breadth of music as in-depth.

this doesn't necessarily make it not niche. it makes it wide-ranging in its coverage. despite the breadth of coverage, its values, style, focus and audience remain pretty closely associated w indie music & culture.

Comparatively, Pitchfork does have a broad view compared to stalwarts like Spin and RS, though they still have pop and country and r&b blind spots (and a couple of those a coming into view slowly, though I don't think we'll ever see Pitchfork cover a country release that No Depression wouldn't have also covered if they still existed). It's the readers, both old and young, who tend to ignore the day-to-day content and just listen to records they recognize or have heard about from friends or from the "hot & new" section of the record shop.

i mean, a core part of indie's identity (or imagined identity) is "the informed sophisticate's" general interest in arts & culture.

they also drink lattes and abort babies

gotta give jody rosen's ballot some credit for walking the walk more than almost anybody talking the talk about the list's makeup

Pfork may have a broad view in terms of their reviews but when it comes time to do their BEST OF lists it's always the same indie shit. plus Kanye.

not actually true but whatever but argh let's talk about pitchfork some more

does anyone have any stories about actual pitchforks they would like to share

If Chris Ott is to be believed, Pitchfork's official lists are highly tailored to reflect the brand.

I dunno, I admire Pitchfork for what they do day to day, but I also hate all the conniving that goes into their listmaking, the stupid festivals, the news section, etc.

do u?

i think u hate ~urself~

older rock crits on my facebook HATED this thing. man. like serious hate. the results of this thing. they are not down with the fork at all. the list looked pretty much exactly like i thought it would. so, no hate from me. i knew what to expect.

lots of xps!

The Top 40 scarcely registers a blip in this world. Hip-hop—and for that matter, Afro-America—is represented mainly by Kanye West. (Kanye contains multitudes, but c’mon.) Country music doesn’t exist. Metal doesn’t exist. Reggaeton, bachata, salsa? ¿Cómo? The world outside the United States—it’s barely there.

Bit harsh, literally no publication anywhere covers all this. Pitchfork fulfills its mission reasonably well in terms of genre coverage, if it's somehow made out to be the dominant player in the ecosystem that's more the ecosystem's fault than Pitchfork's imo.

I dunno, I admire Pitchfork for what they do day to day, but I also hate all the conniving that goes into their listmaking, the stupid festivals, the news section, etc.

yeah this is how I feel too

I mean the obvious answer to "Did it escape their attention that for much of the past decade and a half, female artists have had a stranglehold on the popular music zeitgeist?" is no, of course not. They want to hear dudes with guitars, so the "popular music zeitgeist" has nothing for them anymore.

That's kind of my problem with Can they really prefer The National to M.I.A.’s Kala, to Bjork’s Homogenic, to Joanna Newsom’s Ys? I prefer Homogenic and Kala to the National (I haven't listened to Ys and not in a rush), but like, are you actually going to argue that people who REALLY LIKE THE NATIONAL are going to get what they're looking for from Bjork/MIA/Missy?

Also noteworthy that both the women who bothered to vote and the men are guitar-centric

Can they really prefer The National to M.I.A.’s Kala, to Bjork’s Homogenic, to Joanna Newsom’s Ys

if you wouldn't prefer to not listen to music ...

It's almost as if... women who have learned to function in a SWM-centred world have taken on the SWM aesthetic values that are promoted there! Uncanny!

indie rock fans REALLY like indie rock. like, a lot.

IMPORTANT STATISTIC less than one percent of pitchfork's readership submitted a ballot for this shit

haha awesome

Also noteworthy that both the women who bothered to vote and the men are guitar-centric

― da croupier, Wednesday, August 22, 2012 2:34 PM (3 minutes ago)

interesting to the extent that people who like guitar music like guitar music

That's not even counting ppl like me who don't even read Pitchfork but submitted a ballot through sheer frustragetion.

Are you telling me nearly 3M people are reading Pitchfork at any given time? xps

...conniving?

also it looks like dudes were into My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy a good bit more than the ladies

weird

yeah conniving? wtf

"If Chris Ott is to be believed"

IMPORTANT FACT the top ten google results for 'women in the pitchfork readers list' include pitchfork's artist pages for of montreal, public enemy, and david bowie

And man-centric, compared to the distinction index for female voters. There seems to be less consensus on which albums by women are great, which I guess makes sense because there's really no monolithic critical consensus either. I wonder how much there's a sense of duty/shame at play here, with women feeling duty-bound to list the same common "greatest albums of all-time" as anyone else, but maybe also feeling like anyone will question their taste or deride it for its femininity if they dare put Regina Spektor over Radiohead or Arcade Fire. x-posts

did sister soulja crack the top 100?

Regina Spektor is a bad example, but I'd rank a lot of albums made by women over anything by Radiohead or Arcade Fire.

Regina Spektor is #1 on the female voters distinction index, also you aren't a woman.

which I guess makes sense because there's really no monolithic critical consensus either

eh I would've guessed the Missy and MIA and Joanna Newsom albs are as canonical as things get...?

but there isn't a publication -- certainly not one on its level -- that covers as wide a breadth of music as in-depth.

You seriously believe the bolded bit?

older rock crits on my facebook HATED this thing. man. like serious hate. the results of this thing. they are not down with the fork at all. the list looked pretty much exactly like i thought it would. so, no hate from me. i knew what to expect.

― scott seward, Wednesday, August 22, 2012 5:32 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Exactly. I'm a little surprised by the degree of nastiness.

I would have submitted a list if I didn't do it so damn often at the day job.

Not in the same "greatest of all-time" sort of way. There's a consensus that they're good or great, not so much a consensus that they belong at the very top of your list. x-posts

i am more and more baffled as to how they arrived at 'distinction index'

Regina Spektor is #1 on the female voters distinction index, also you aren't a woman.

Fair enough. I haven't perused any of the individual voter block info.

i am more and more baffled as to how they arrived at 'distinction index'

― thomp, Wednesday, August 22, 2012 5:46 PM (16 seconds ago) Bookmark

what about their explanation of it isn't clear?

You seriously believe the bolded bit?

― some white dude (Turangalila), Wednesday, August 22, 2012 5:44 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

uhh... yeah. pitchfork runs probably 4,000+ new words of criticism every day for practically the entire year. that's not even counting features, news or video stuff.

Anyone who got legitimately angry about these results must have a massive stroke every time the People's Choice Awards roll around.

i am more and more baffled as to how they arrived at 'distinction index'

― thomp, Wednesday, August 22, 2012 5:46 PM (16 seconds ago) Bookmark

what about their explanation of it isn't clear?

― some dude, Wednesday, 22 August 2012 21:47 (7 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that it doesn't tell you how they arrived at the number