OK, is this the worst piece of music writing ever?

I just don't understand how it can be possible to be so *on* all the time. I work 38 hrs a week in a day job (and I don't have the luxury of being able to select music or use headphones at a desk, lol retail), I have friends and family I spend time with around that, and then it's a struggle to find time to catch-up on what The Conversation suggests I should be listening to, as well as all the stuff I want to listen to outside it, then form opinions on it and write/blog about it. If I wanted to establish myself as a critical writer, I'd need to throw myself into Twitter culture and it feels overwhelming and exhausting on top of real life. And its easy to say "don't chase the same rainbow, establish your own niche" but there's still bills to pay.

Also I think pop music writing is so big now because it traditionally hasn't been seen as "worthy" due to rockism and patriarchy etc - thanks to the rise of social media, Tumblr, etc, people are finally taking audiences outside of old white men seriously. Like, if Taylor Swift/The 1975 had been around twenty years ago there would have been just as much writing due to the scope of their celebrity, but the tone, style, attitude etc would be very different.

Well, I don't know I feel like artists like Madonna and Prince were written about pretty extensively and seriously at their Peaks. Or Michael Jackson or Janet Jackson, the original "popist" movement of writers were basically UK writers who are now old white men... And people like Kogan, Eddy etc... Hip hop was taken as an important movement pretty much from jump

Jonny Garrett is now assistant editor of jamieoliver.com and reviews craft beers on youtube

it pains me to say this, but I'm not sure those audiences are being taken seriously. I think there's a lot of condescension toward those audiences, which is not the same thing

it pains me to say this, but I'm not sure those audiences are being taken seriously. I think there's a lot of condescension toward those audiences, which is not the same thing

Condescension from whom? I know the shorthand is that Rolling Stone and Mojo and Q (is Q even still around?) sneer at pop and champion past-it old man bands, but is that even true? RS seems to do both with equal fervor - put this month's young sensation on the cover, then turn around and release a "Special Edition" tribute to Keith Richards or whoever. Mojo is Mojo, yeah, but they're no less of a niche publication than The Wire and they know it. It seems to me that the dominant mode of pop music writing - and I don't just mean dominant as in "this is what everyone's doing," but dominant as in "this is everywhere" - is about whoever's at the top of the charts, and it's either blanket celebration or (in the case of Beyoncé and to a lesser degree Rihanna) an attempt to show why buying the same album - or watching the same YouTube video - as ten million other people is somehow a politically insurgent gesture. I mean, if you want to find condescension toward pop audiences, you're pretty much stuck going to ultimateclassicrock.com or someplace, which at that point aren't you basically actively seeking out the thing you dislike, so you can complain that it still exists at all?

*searches for beyoncé on the charts*

it pains me to say this, but I'm not sure those audiences are being taken seriously. I think there's a lot of condescension toward those audiences, which is not the same thing

Condescension from whom? I know the shorthand is that Rolling Stone and Mojo and Q (is Q even still around?) sneer at pop and champion past-it old man bands, but is that even true? RS seems to do both with equal fervor - put this month's young sensation on the cover, then turn around and release a "Special Edition" tribute to Keith Richards or whoever. Mojo is Mojo, yeah, but they're no less of a niche publication than The Wire and they know it. It seems to me that the dominant mode of pop music writing - and I don't just mean dominant as in "this is what everyone's doing," but dominant as in "this is everywhere" - is about whoever's at the top of the charts, and it's either blanket celebration or (in the case of Beyoncé and to a lesser degree Rihanna) an attempt to show why buying the same album - or watching the same YouTube video - as ten million other people is somehow a politically insurgent gesture. I mean, if you want to find condescension toward pop audiences, you're pretty much stuck going to ultimateclassicrock.com or someplace, which at that point aren't you basically actively seeking out the thing you dislike, so you can complain that it still exists at all?

― the top man in the language department (誤訳侮辱), Saturday, March 12, 2016 2:08 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

condescension from editors, whether it's "these kids will click on anything" or "they won't care if it's good or not."

(and yes, I have heard both these statements and/or variations on them, it's not my reading anything in)

condescension from editors, whether it's "these kids will click on anything" or "they won't care if it's good or not."

Since I'm mostly out of the field at this point (I don't even write for Alternative Press anymore - an outlet that I think really does respect its largely teenage, largely female readership - I'm mostly covering jazz now) I genuinely don't know whether the low quality of current music journalism is attributable to condescension-toward-audiences-presumed-dumb or to the writers and editors themselves being kinda dumb. (There are a lot of currently prominent music journalists and editors who I think are very bad at both thinking and writing.)

It's probably fair to say that if The Conversation involves The 1975, you're probably better off walking away and looking for a different conversation.

you never have!

i don't think i would know the 1975 if they shook a stick at me. maybe i know them from the radio without knowing it.

#10 song in the nation right now. never heard of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWaRiD5ym74

okay, i have to hear these people:

DJ Snake Featuring Bipolar Sunshine

wait, i lied, that dnce song was on the hot 100 which isn't the same as the top ten i don't think.

maybe i'll write something about the hot 100. i've been looking for something to do.

the Hot 100 is the main singles chart, being on the top ten of that means "top ten in the nation" etc.

i propose that "the conversation" be renamed to "the people punching each other in the face".

that DNCE song is awesome btw

its like basement jaxx finally crosses over 20 years late

yeesh that times thing is embarrassing

that DNCE song is shitty btw and something like six months old

I just don't understand how it can be possible to be so *on* all the time.

it's called 'faking it until you make it' (where the second 'it' in this case is word count)

the dnce song is this year's hot chelle rae i.e. catchy but rather bad song that one imagines is only a hit b/c radio is desperate for something resembling a new artist even tho said artist will surely never have a hit again. i almost miss metro station.

"new" "artist"

one imagines it's only a hit because someone somewhere is invested in giving joe jonas a third(?) chance

that band floundered for months

maybe i'll write something about the hot 100. i've been looking for something to do.

would read

basement jaxx now is about 100x better than DNCE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPLE2Bo3T6M

maybe i'll write something about the hot 100. i've been looking for something to do.

would read

― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Monday, March 14, 2016 11:31 AM (22 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Second

xp Q doesn't sneer at pop fwiw. A lot of the key writers were and are ex-Smash Hits so the vibe has always been pro-pop as well as pro-old-man-bands. The current issue has The 1975 on the cover.

I'm well aware of how old the dnce song is and that it's a joe Jonas vehicle and that it's naff and shameless/tasteless and yet....it is great

I'd feel really sad if I thought you two were right—but that's mostly because I don't think of myself as "established." I think of myself as "old." Which actually puts me at a disadvantage in the market. There are writers I think of as established—Chuck Eddy, Rob Harvilla, Maura, Weingarten, Julianne Escobedo Shepherd, Jessica Hopper, plenty of others—but I definitely don't count myself among them.

on the emo tip, I actually, authentically, non-sarcastically appreciated seeing my name in this list considering not all that long a Ph1l didn't consider me established or w/e enough to be a part of the Marooned book

awww, emo puppy! let's all hug. you and phil are both nuts but you are OUR nuts.

define...."thrilling"...

"For decades, indie rock bands like Built to Spill, Pavement, and Sonic Youth won critical and fan praise with their clever lyrics and distorted guitars. Those bands and their peers moved into thrilling new styles throughout the 1990s;"

http://www.mtv.com/news/2793656/rip-indie-rock/

also, r.i.p. indie rock.

also that quote makes it sound like those bands were around for decades and then got thrilling in the 90's. but maybe i can't read right.

"throughout" kind of fixes that misread, but yeah.

that thing also doesn't have anything to do with being white until the last paragraph. which makes the title weird. i read the whole thing! i really gotta go home...

Title is just clickbait I suspect.

pop music is tackling sexism and racism in profound ways? cool i guess i'll have to take your word on that, since you've provided literally no examples!

also kind of funny how an article on male supremacy in indie rock only offers one lyric from a female musician and it is “You’re less than me / I am nothing”

define...."thrilling"...

define..."new styles"...

Damn we had so much riding on the new Diiv and Porches albums

is there really a band called porches?

that band floundered for months

― Whiney G. Weingarten, Monday, March 14, 2016 9:27 AM (6 hours ago)

this is how long it takes for unestablished acts to climb pop radio playlists in today's age of ridiculously tight playlists. before long it'll be like country radio where it routinely takes over 6 months for a newer artist's single to rise to the level of exposure where ppl who only listen to radio on the drive home will hear it. w/ a song like "cake by the ocean" i wouldn't be surprised if they were expecting it to take until summer to break.

the torches of porches

The porches of the mystics

now that's a good band name

Chill, Jack Johnson style Sun City Girls cover band