pitchfork is dumb (#34985859340293849494 in a series.)

Once you realize that every accolade in popular culture is essentially meaningless (and that extends to things like the Pulitzer, Booker, Nobel for Literature, Oscars, etc.) you can appreciate the meaning behind the art more and divorce the aesthetics from the politics and climate of the awarding bodies.

There is a contradiction here. How can they be "essentially meaningless" when they reflect "the politics and climate of the awarding bodies"? Maybe you don't care about that, but there's meaning in it. In fact, a big part of what continues to interest me about awards is how they fit into broader cultural narratives.

I don't think such awards are meaningless, but in *many* cases, considerations of the market are paramount, and considerations of whether something is *actually good* are secondary.

they should try to capture the early 00s magic by every year picking a different steely dan song as record of the year

I don't think such awards are meaningless, but in *many* cases, considerations of the market are paramount, and considerations of whether something is *actually good* are secondary.

― it's like edging for your mind (the table is the table), Tuesday, March 16, 2021 5:04 PM (fourteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Most of the time, I don't think that awards voters are deliberately choosing to reward commercial success over artistic merit. But the market obviously does have a profound effect on how the awards take shape, most clearly evidenced by the fact that promotional campaigns are waged by those who can afford them.

What's interesting to me is how these considerations clash with each other. The Oscars, for instance, routinely shuts out a lot of indie and foreign films because they don't play the game, but AMPAS (and many of the voters themselves) still want the awards to be seen as prestigious and markers of quality. They want to recognize commercially successful films to show that they are relevant (and to juice TV ratings), but they don't want to tarnish the legacy and become the People's Choice Awards.

the grammys have always focused on music that sells, and artists who release blockbuster albums expect to be nominated. hence the weeknd's tantrum.

Most of the time, I don't think that awards voters are deliberately choosing to reward commercial success over artistic merit.

non-commercial music is excluded in advance from consideration.

Radiohead want a word with you.

(NB: if you consider them "non-commercial").

of course they're not "non-commercial"

even if their music isn't commercial-sounding, it sells.

exactly. i love radiohead but they are huge and so it makes sense the grammys have recognized them

eilish, too, has an unusual sound. but she proved herself in the market first. i don't even really get her music but her following seems authentic to me.

So much residual rockism itt.

^^^seriously

I'm lovin' it.

you all sound like gregg turkington revering oscer

i made a simple, common sense suggestion - award all the grammys to steely dan every year - to try and build a bipartisan solution, and you come in once again with the politics of division

(imago did you listen to thinking fellers union again?)

i have given them a go and enjoyed it, need to return! i don't think grammy will be rewarding them any time soon though

I dunno if my comment was rockist but it wasn't meant to be. I like some pop music, but not the sort of pop music that gets Grammy's, usually. treeship got the gist of what I was writing: non-commercial music is precluded from even being considered, and thus, it is objectively true (IMHO) that commercial success is valued over artistic merit in such environments.

Ums OTM and the way he slyly upped the ante in his follow-up post shows real political acumen.

Brad's Anita Baker review is fantastic. The final image — Baker as "a magician pulling silk scarves from her mouth" — is one of the best things I've read all year. Great work, Brad!

That is a beautiful piece for a beautiful album

Beautiful

That's a magnificent piece.

Great stuff

No idea she was only 27, looked it up, same age as Prince, definitely didn't perceive them as being the same age as the time

thanks y'all it means a lot <3

I loved it.

No wonder you were quiet on the Rapture revive.

Good stuff, Brad, as always.

great review brad :)

It’s great to see These Are Not Fall Colors get the retrospective treatment—though not sure why Sherburne avoids mentioning the name of Jayne’s later/long-running project (Love As Laughter), even though it’s discussed.

I also would have maybe lost the six paragraphs about Olympia / K... this is one of my favorite albums, and even I found the piece hard to get through. The exhaustive Sunday review treatment—dutifully cataloging every tiny detail surrounding an album—can be exhausting. Some great writing when he’s actually talking about the music, though!

wow this is a bad review

On “Two Feet in Front,” a 1994 single for K’s International Pop Underground series, they approached their arrangements first like glassblowers, drawing out elegantly elongated tones, then blacksmiths, hammering bent chords till sparks flew.

These Are Not Fall Colors is not a manifesto but a personal statement, the sound of a fistful of wrinkled notebook pages covered in blurry blue ballpoint.

There’s no actual melody to speak of; bass, guitar, and drums merely tumble in rough concord, like a rockslide moving grudgingly uphill. Jayne is sing-shouting front and center, something about seriousness and serial killers, while in the background, another voice screams bloody murder.

Also he mentions LAL!

With his Love as Laughter project, Jayne’s tapes would occupy him, miraculously, for the next 26 years of his life.

They must have added that, I swear it wasn’t there y’day.

I believe it

They've definitely added that later, it wasn't formulated like that when I read the piece yesterday

I never knew Sam was Layne Staley's cousin!

I didn’t either!

On its 10th anniversary, Van Etten revisits the landmark that marked her arrival to the forefront of indie rock with a collection of covers, from Lucinda Williams to Fiona Apple, that offer proof of her music’s deep healing and complexity.

are we buying magic crystals or

get really weary of this thing where the tenth anniversary of every well reviewed indie rock album ever recorded is somehow a milestone

Whokill (stylized as w h o k i l l) is the second full-length release by Merrill Garbus' project Tune-Yards. It was released on 4AD Records on April 19, 2011.

How are you guys celebrating w h o k i l l day?

listening to dr. feelgood

they didnt even review the latest tune-yards record weirdly (it was great fwiw)

xpost down by the jetty goes hard

i remember being confused by the 10th anniversary reissue of The Moon and Antarctica, like really, we're doing this?

they didnt even review the latest tune-yards record weirdly (it was great fwiw)

― ufo, Monday, April 19, 2021 10:26 AM (ten minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

She should have released it on Griselda

doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo

"a decade after baby shark, what's changed?"

get really weary of this thing where the tenth anniversary of every well reviewed indie rock album ever recorded is somehow a milestone

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 19 April 2021 13:42 (two hours ago) link

Because they're trying to drive sales

"a decade after baby shark, what's changed?"

― G.A.G.S. (Gophers Against Getting Stuffed) (forksclovetofu), Monday, April 19, 2021 8:17 AM

NOTHING I STILL CAN'T SLEEP OH GOD IT HAUNTS ME

If you were 18 when all those albums came out they do probably feel like milestones. Plus you're all, can you believe we're 28 now, when did we get so old??! and you want to canonize the stuff from high school.

We all did it, what's wrong with letting the kids do it too?

(granted, I think we waited until the 20 year anniversary)

they didnt even review the latest tune-yards record weirdly (it was great fwiw)

― ufo, poniedziałek, 19 kwietnia 2021 16:26 (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Weird they totally skipped this one, given the amount of praise they gave the band in the early 2010s