IS ROCK CRITICISM DEAD?

most of this stuff you can pick up all over the place, in terms of influences.

if this is so, then where did all these people learn how to write about music? surely most of them didn't do it by reading the 'greats'.

No we don't. I am well aware that some critics are truely beautiful people, kind, sensitive and attentive lovers, morally upstanding and intellectually captivating too.

But nobody has ever written a single word on pop music that made any difference to either the listener or the musician.

There is no such thing as influence.

Including the sentence quoted above, presumably. So...why did you even bother typing it in, then?

Eh...given how many bands I first found out about because somebody wrote about them in such a way that I was intrigued, I'd have to disagree. But if you mean that if a listener who has already heard some music and then decided on its worth wouldn't be influenced by a critical opinion, that's something else.

Ahh...I see. But the sentence is still an example of music criticism, since you're saying something about an aspect of rock culture (music criticism isn't merely about records, y'know), and hence, still defeats itself.

Alexander: Dave Marsh's takes on "Surfin' USA", "I Second That Emotion" and "Don't Worry Baby" from "The Heart Of Rock & Soul"; Lester Bang's dissertation of "Astral Weeks"; Jon Savage, the review of "(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais" in "England's Dreaming"; Robert Lawsley's online essays about the work of Sly Stone; Billy Vera's liner notes on the Rhino 50's Rock box set; Patrick Humphries' track-by-track analysis of the Springsteen ouevre; the review of New Order's latest album in "Q" magazine....

And I'm only getting started here. All of these pieces have made me think in different ways about the music- sometimes opening whole new dimensions to it (Surf music as the will to power? Who woulda though!), sometimes just beautifully bringing something to the point (on "White Man In Hammersmith Palais", Joe Strummer is "the lonliest man in the world").

Much of this music I didn't like before reading other people's takes on it; some of it I just didn't understand. In every case, it enrichened the music for me. And I know I'm not alone here, others have reported similiar experiences.

It's not about being the taste police- it's about making people look at music in diferent ways or just alert them to details they may have missed the first time around.

Unfortunately, critics, and criticism, are becoming more and more irrelevant. Their authority has been undermined by chat rooms, bulletin boards and online reviews from your fellow Amazon.com customer.

...and I find myself hard-pressed to see why this is necessarily a BAD thing. Never mind that Bemis is using the big, bad Internet as the scapegoat for a "problem" that's been around a LOT longer (unless the Internet's been around for the 20 years between Meltzer's / Crawdaddy's reign in Camelot and today). And if the problem is the Internet (instead of the niche marketing genocide perpetrated by The Man), then PLEASE leave it broken.

It's a shame, though, because Alec Bemis is one of the better music writers I've encountered (up until this article), and it's a shame to see him fall back on the same crotchety stance that other "rock critics" strike when those pesky kids are playing on their lawn.

Anyone up for KlezmerCritics.com?

My own opinions are more valuable to me than other peoples, but I like to see how people recieve a certain song or album. I can't remember ever reading a review that MADE me want to go and get an album. I read reviews that make me want to hear a single but mainly because they say "Jon Carter/Erick Morillo have been playing this" and not because they say this is the sonic equivalent of a great date with Kirsten Dunst, or this sounds like a washing machine.

I read reviews that make me want to hear a single but mainly because they say "Jon Carter/Erick Morillo have been playing this"

Is there a contradiction here Ronan? Or does Jon Carter transcend the mere "people" category.

But you've made me see that dance music is an area where you don't bother so much with reviews except to try and find out what tune is what so you can buy it or download it. You'll already know it of course.

Well, I can't say that we weren't warned.

No one ever said the music business was a populist enterprise...

Why was I doing a websearch on my own name? Well, for one, like all writers, I'm somewhat of a narcissist (and a bad speller). And, secondly, I'm always curious to find out where my articles have been discussed on the net.

I figured I'd respond to some of the responses. My main qualm with what people seem to be saying about my article is that I'm somehow AGAINST the internet, or that I think it's a bad thing. That's the farthest thing from the truth. I LOVE the participatory nature of the internet. As I said above, I periodically google myself after I've published a big article in the LA Weekly. It helps me gauge how good a job I'm doing with my writing. When I see that an article has gotten a big response from those surfing the web -- and my Meltzer/Williams piece has probably gotten the best response yet -- I consider it a sign that I truly am doing something right. When people are discussing something on the web, blogging away, etc. it means they've been struck by something they've been reading or something they've heard or something they've seen. Hitting individual listeners is pretty much the goal of each and every creative person/writer person/musican person I've ever met, so I consider this a great thing indeed.

And to be honest, besides hearing about stuff from friends, I get most of my information on new music from a handful of....websites. Yes, websites. Admittedly most of 'em are not pure up-with-the-people sites -- I don't peruse too many webboards -- but they are very internet-like in character. My faves are:

- http://www.pitchforkmedia.com (for indie hipsterism from some extremely with it and gimlet eyed young observers -- not that I'm old...yet)

- http://www.allmusic.com (for the most comprhensive and handily available encyclopedia of reviews and information ANYWHERE)

- http://www.sxsw.com/music/daily_chord/ (for a fine, fine weblog of industry-ish information...though they also cite excellent reviewing and music writing when they see it)

As for what music criticism is good for? It's good for gauging what individual critics (who are really nothing but individual people) are excited about...basically music fans with a forum. What is the reason to write music criticism (I actually hate the term rock criticism)? Because you enjoy doing it...and you can find no better outlet for a certain kind of energy...and because it pays your rent. That's it.

I think that's that. BTW, the Melter article is available here: http://www.laweekly.com/ink/02/30/is-bemis2.php

And the Paul Wililams on here: http://www.laweekly.com/ink/02/30/is-bemis3.php

Better yet, pick up one of their books. Try Amazon.com. That's where I buy most of my books. Grrr....internet.

Why thank you. And yes, new answers to old threads are noted in the software, which is how I'm noticing this. More comprehensive thoughts later but I need to dash...

Well, that makes 'food critics' much more important than I'd realised....

I used to find some music critics (Jon Savage, John Gill) v. useful in the late 70's as an 'if you like that you might like this too' type of deal, but I can recall Jon Savage also opening up a totally different way of listening for me, and a way of embedding the listening into a wider conceptual setting (the paradigm shift).
But that's felt like a one-shot deal - and music since has become so multifaceted, so complex and so interwoven with other references that most writing about it is nearly incomprehensible to me now. I find David Toop, for example, almost literally (ahem) unreadable.
I also find this 'use other facts' approach (which I think you like mark s?) can generally be more like 'use irrelevancies dug up by the tenuous connections department'.

But then, I'm pretty fossilised by now - I gave up reading the music weeklies at the end of '81: can still remember ripping that year-end NME apart in a fit of absolute fucking rage, a final response to that year's shift towards both 'hedonism' and what were probably the early shoots of populist/ironic appreciation. (The endless stream of Me-Me-Me and Barthes/Heidegger/Cleverclogs guff produced by the Morley/Penman comedy duo were shite too.)

I've found reading this site (and dipping into the FreakyTrigger one) a lot more rewarding though because of the dialogue nature of it, and there seem to be a wide range of types and outlooks here. I'm hoping to use it soon to help me open up to other kinds of music, and find out about, er, stuff, by asking for guidance from contributors who I figure out I might initially have some common ground with......wait, where are you all going ?
*Sound of hooves stampeding away*

haha i like dylan but renaldo and clara is still NOT the greatest film ever filmed greatly on film by a great film-maker

Well I know they were not the same person...
I also don't think they addressed the same things, but I don't believe I'd implied that - or that the NME's Morecambe & Wise thought so either (actually, maybe it was actually Kierkegaard that one of them went through a phase of quoting).
Or did you mean (Barthes = !Heidegger)in some way?
Do you like both, or think one good and one guff?

You've made me wish I had kept some of the offending NME writings now, to see what it was about them that annoyed me so much...

whiney weighs in.

fuckin loved that, wtg dude

ya congratulations. talk about burying the lede!

Congratulations, Al.

some babby

"some dudeito"

i'd join in the congrats, but i already congratulated you on yr blog

as a guy who's made MAYBE four grand on music writing in the past decade, i've never really entertained the idea of being a full time critic/writer. as others have noted, it requires a certain amount of hustle that I've found I just don't have. i'd just say to anyone who really enjoys writing to try to enjoy writing about any topic, music or otherwise. I've gotten to the point where I like the activity of writing, regardless of whether it's about some psych folk dude or a business report on Denver. And this attitude is what makes me able to pay my bills without wanting to kill myself.

i should have been born rich

some dude can u change yr name to some dad

not yet!

(congrats)

― some dad (some dude), Tuesday, March 17, 2009 9:15 AM (3 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

^^ i thought this qualified as an announcement guys

I thought it was self-deprecation.

gay dude is the drummer in some dad

hater dads having hater babies and shit

j/k congrats, al!

look at this thread, it was all depressing, and then al had a baby

in a lot of ways, music criticism, is the baby, of writers, making people happy

Let's all get shitty jobs so that Al can afford to take his kid to Starbucks in a couple of years.

"3,000 rock crits and a baby"

rock criticism is dead, and will be reincarnated as my scion

some scion

congratulations!!

"When rock crit is reincarnated as a Scion, can I borrow the keys?"

i am enjoying this good cheer because tbh the past 24 hours have been about the most pessimistic and hopeless i have felt about the whole situation since i found out

christgau is risen

lol was toying with christ/gau puns for the past 5 mins but yours was better than any i had

congrats!

which ringtone cru member are u gonna name it after? I propose HOOS

also: congrats!

some brood

true story: once a few years ago the mrs. looked over my shoulder at an AIM window as said "ethan...i like that name"

i don't think even luriqua is a big enough padgettstan to name his first born that, though

lol god help us if there's ever a luriqua jr.

talk about burying the lede!

great new euphemism!

congratulations, some dude sr.!

name the kid Vedder

i think after a family friend who's a huge NIN fan named his first son Trent we collectively put our foot down like NO ROCK STAR NAMES

i choose to believe your friend named his kid after Trent Tucker

some woman just came in and sold me a big stack of 70's rolling stones. so i'm gonna sit around and read name-brand critics all day.

Holy crap this thread exploded. Still not finished reading, but I'll just mention that the only critic I've been really following is John Mulvey. Ironically I never noticed him apart from others in the Uncut reviews, mainly because I don't buy it anymore, just skim at the bookstore. I subscribe to Uncut on Twitter, which is mostly incredibly annoying, because it updates what it's playing in the office almost hourly. The one thing that keeps me from canceling are the occasional reminders of Mulvey's posts in his Wild Mercury Sound blog. I like how he reviews promos pretty much when he hears them, long before the official release date when most reviews are coordinated to come out and duly collated at Metacritic, weeks after most of us have heard 'em.

http://www.uncut.co.uk/blog/index.php?blog=6&p=1208&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

Looking at his half-year list and recent posts, a lot of this stuff isn't even leaked yet, like Fiery Furnaces, Cornershop, Wild Beasts and White Denim (a Texas band that has no U.S. distribution?) His casual blog-style writing isn't as polished as the 100 word blurbs in the glossies, which is a good thing. It's been a while since a single writer got me excited about multiple releases in a given week. I'm currently listening to Arbouretum and Sleepy Sun, which I wasn't aware of until seeing them in his blog. David Fricke sort of plays this role at Rolling Stone, and would do well to follow the Wild Mercury Sound model and expand on his casual album reviews.

I presume with its overpriced cover price and high overhead, that Uncut's days are numbered. Hopefully Mulvey and some others like him will be able to maintain an audience, perhaps by banding together into their own site?

― some dad (some dude), Tuesday, March 17, 2009 9:15 AM (3 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

^^ i thought this qualified as an announcement guys

― some dude, Thursday, June 18, 2009 11:42 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i knew u were reproducing but even i assumed this was abt your dad jokes

now 100% more authentic

I barely graduated high school and went to three semesters of community college; while there, I met my wife, and academics went right out the goddamn window.

― unperson, Wednesday, June 17, 2009 6:42 PM (20 hours ago)

This would be the Curvy Colombian Wife, right? Spina Biffita?

Bizarre that Mulvey lists Alela Diane at #9 in that list, and no Neko Case at all. (Speaking as someone who loves both albums, but really no comparison.) I wish I remember who I was reading/watching/listening to recently who said that the music critic is transforming/will transform into a curator-like position instead - probably lots of people have been saying that lately. It's something that confused me at Whiney's argument; yes, everyone can download the albums for themselves and render their own judgement, but who has time for that?

Looking for a good place to put this. Failing.

A pretty good conversation between Carl "Let's Talk About Love" Wilson and Jesse "Jian Gomeshi's a Raging Pervert" Brown, on Brown's podcast: http://canadalandshow.com/podcast/last-music-critic

Bit dull. Also, hyperbolic and meta. Would rather he was just talking about new music that he's into etc. That should be the job of a music critic. Next podcast: "what does it mean when the writer we're calling the last music critic goes on a show and never discusses any music."

"the writer we're calling the last music critic"--do people actually say that?

"The Last Music Critic" is the name of the podcast episode. Starts off with Brown saying stuff like "Carl Wilson changed the way we think about music. I don't know if that's hyperbole or not". I'm listening to this thinking "YES. IT'S HYPERBOLE!"

Thanks--why the royal "we" is a terrible idea. (Not really a knock on Wilson; definitely a knock on whoever would make such a statement.)

In the podcast Brown goes on about how he (I guess as a teenager) hated hip-hop but finally started to like it in the early 90s, realizing his own musical snobbery. In 2007 Wilson did his book about Celine Dion which somehow reminded Brown of his own experience (of shedding his rockism or whatever). In this way, Wilson "changed the way we think about music". It's all a bit silly. I'd rather have Wilson just do his job and talk about whatever music is on his radar right now.

He who is not busy being born is busy dying