pitchfork is dumb (#34985859340293849494 in a series.)

Ya sorry but music writers have never had to face even a modicum of the level of entitlement, resentment, intrusiveness and abuse that musicians face every day from punters, fans, journalists, family and friends.

woe to the music writer who’s said a harsh word about an arena-filling act though

feel like musicians get their art assailed and critics get their existence as a human attacked. not exclusively, but more often in those terms

No, musicians have their entire existence and personhood threatened on a daily basis by the nearest possible asshole

I track textbook abusive patterns in the way that even “respected” journalists report on and speak on the works of musicians. Even in this thread, a group of extremely kind and generous individuals have been determined to be “bullies” off the back of a poorly realized promo campaign

The irony is that most music writers, once they themselves publish, have that epiphany where they see how musicians feel every day— Ann when her book got middling reviews, Carl when his book got celebrated by the wrong people, Maura when she herself faced a mob of entitled crowd-funders, and on and on and on. You literally have no idea what it’s like until you experience it yourself

I’m sorry. All of that is completely wrong and I’m sorry that’s come your direction

Dogg, dudes/chicks in indie band have weird stalkers and shit, which is not like someone blowing up your menchies because you said ‘My Teenage Dream Has Ended’ is more of a feminist statement than ‘Lemonade’

noted

Ya like I have two dudes who send me semi-annual death threats. One of them still habitually e-mail-harasses my ex, with whom I broke up with three years ago.

If I were to go into detail about the sexual harassment I've experienced you'd have a panic attack, and like, I'm a DUDE.

It's not really about me either, musicians face an incredible amount of dehumanization, it's always been the case and it's getting worse; apparently, to the point where a musician can't call themselves "queer" unless they actively are engaging in queer sex at that exact point in time, or a musician can't be a landlord, or a musician isn't allowed to clap back at a bad review without the entire internet calling her "entitled" or "diva" or a purveyor of "a terrible look"

Anyway, speaking of shit that musicians probably shouldn't say, when is that paywall on Pitchfork going up? Every musician and every label is waiting with baited breath

I’m goin to outright disavow how I phrased things earlier and just agree that the criticism of where an artist stands and the perception of who they “really are” has taken a weird turn in public perception and discourse and the ability to make work, and have it commented upon without it becoming this assault on character, is fucked up

I’d have put things a lot more effectively if not for my continued naivety and thanks for the reminder, which should have been unnecessary

Ugh I’m not railing at anyone in particular and I think I’m being perhaps a little nasty and I apologize if so

I’m just exhausted beyond exhausted

You people who write about pop acts really have it rough! You should switch to writing about jazz, where no one gives a fuck what you say (because no one's reading it; the magazines are all subsidized by ads from music schools and instrument manufacturers).

(i think you might be confusing me with someone else fgti? but i definitely had to face entitled portugal. the man fans. over thanksgiving. that sucked.)

That sounds awful! And no I’m thinking about the magazine, and a frustrating moment when boarders were like “I paid for a subscription, where’s my product” to a point where I wanted to email everyone a benzo but my memory might have been paraphrasing in my annoyed state last night

I read yr jazz columns religiously & much of my listening traces to stuff i learn there, fwiw, unperson -- I can't keep up myself & am grateful for that work

Oh, I know I have readers, but the idea that I might get waves of frothing, rage-filled email because I dared to criticize Kurt Rosenwinkel, for example, is totally alien to me. There's one dude, a bassist, who I know hates my writing, but we have each other blocked on Facebook so I never really have to worry about him. (I once reviewed an album he played on and discussed every other member of the group but totally ignored his contributions, and he actually expressed gratitude; that's how much he hates me.)

And thanks for reading, btw! You and I disagree on a lot of stuff, but we agree on a lot, too, and you've definitely turned me on to some things in the past, like that Italian power metal band whose name escapes me at the moment - something about Frost or Winter.

I think every writer can get haters. I've had the drunk director posting a tirade on facebook about how I'm a psycho rapist, and the leader of the association of Danish cinemas sending me twitter messages late at night saying I should be put in a mental institution. Oh yeah, and a photographer talking about gathering a group of strong guys and getting me into a truck and making me see things a different way. I think the key is to write about feminism.

Was it this truck?

https://nw3tonyc.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/hunk.jpg

oh yeah! everyone was really nice about it tbh. it just became unsustainable (probably because i didn't have anyone funding it). life!

Ah so <3 it was such a good magazine!!

thank you!! i miss it!!

it was indeed v unsustainable

i tried to make an archival website for maura mag two years ago but the web designer ghosted me about halfway through the process. if anyone here wants to help i have a very difficult to parse xml file and some money to offer

portugal. the man fans. over thanksgiving.

portugal, the man vs maura, the mag

I think every writer can get haters. I've had the drunk director posting a tirade on facebook about how I'm a psycho rapist, and the leader of the association of Danish cinemas sending me twitter messages late at night saying I should be put in a mental institution. Oh yeah, and a photographer talking about gathering a group of strong guys and getting me into a truck and making me see things a different way. I think the key is to write about feminism. politics, on ILX

― Frederik B, Thursday, April 25, 2019 12:47 AM (four hours ago)

the big difference is that musicians, at least at the level we are talking here, are generally paid way more than writers are, or at least have more gross if not net revenue

for instance, with the ariana grande thing just now, I am fairly certain she can make more in one day than I have in my entire life to date, and probably my entire upcoming life

actually, there are two major differences, the second being counterbalances. musicians in general get far more counterbalancing positive feedback than writers do (often, they get none)

This longish thread is worth reading.

I prefer criticism to fiction if only because I like to see the blueprints of things.

— in-house antiquarian (@apotrafied) April 24, 2019

...we’ve gotten to a point in mass art/ mass culture where three quarters of the things we’re being subjected to DON’T stand up on their own WITHOUT criticism.

It’s a point I keep returning to, but a number of works only become compelling because they’re given the intellectual veneer of importance by critics (some of whom were actually good) who were high on Barthes and poptimism.

Criticism became an extension of PR, and there was a period where we split the difference between craft, social implications, and “how the sausage was made”. A number of acts coasted by on people putting acts into a socio-political context that they *really* did not deserve.

Acts like Ariana Grande benefitted from a kind of “girls and queer kids love this stuff & it is oppressive to criticize their tastes”, and people mistook *brands* for the fans they represented, and we forgot that a lot of mass art & entertainment only works as a way to sell people a way OUT of the alienation, however temporarily.

It became more fun to *think* about these kinds of entities than it was to experience them. And the more *types* you can attract to a product, the more likely producers, execs, etc. are to invest.

this is a very strange thread to apply to ariana grande, whose music is generally well-crafted mariah carey pastiche and even at its worst ("7 Rings") cannot be described as "the compulsive repetition of one word over and over again" (as if that's even a bad thing by definition)

like, this is basically just the old "pop music sucks" argument dressed up a bit ,and you can tell because the entire argument falls apart if you do not take "this music has no value" as a given

don't worry we've already collectively as a culture determined that music has no value

I’m very interested in the ways that Feeling Things About Media has in some respects supplanted media in the digital age & what this means for the people who make a living doing both but that thread is a... suboptimal exploration of the topic

stick to jazz & metal, phil

ah, "socio-political context" again

Chris Brown Attacks Chvrches: “These Are the Type of People I Wish Walked In Front of a Speeding Bus”

was this really necessary

i generally assume Chris Brown hopes everyone he knows that isn't in his immediate entourage gets hit by a bus

I was intrigued by the specificity of the speeding bus being "full of mental patients"

Woodstock 50 Is Canceled, Unless It’s Not—Here’s Why

I thought you were writing a joke clickhole parody title based on something on the site but turns out it does say that exactly

that's a good headline

Woodstock 50 Is Canceled, Unless It’s Not—Here’s Why (or Why Not, and That's Okay)

fixed

Pitchfork is finally covering the law of excluded middle.

The Libertines’ Peter Doherty Hospitalized After Being Injured by a Hedgehog

^now, that’s a good headline!

Quite the news cycle for hedgehogs

There's a pretty hilarious piece of sponcon up today:

The Glorious Past and Promising Future of the RV

SPONSOR CONTENT GO RVING

This has probably already been done, but why are the Isley Brothers headlining the P4K festival?

gotta get those R. Kelly songs in there somehow

lol

the thing about pfork fest compared to other festivals is that it's remained pretty small and accessible (hasn't moved off it's small-ish site on the west side in years) & as such legitimately serves a local audience. you'd be surprised by the number of ppl who live in chicago and show up to pfork fest w/o knowing that there's a music review site of the same name, or with only the vaguest idea, or have heard of the site but don't ever read it. further -- and this is just a hypothesis based on having attended the festival a few times incl the year r kelly played -- is that part of the legacy of pfork booking r kelly is that it opened the festival to an audience of local black residents, esp older black ppl who, again, broadly speaking likely have no idea what pitchfork.com is all about. i think you can see this reflected in recent bookings incl isely bros, chaka kahn, raphael saddiq etc.

cuz funktimism!