pitchfork is dumb (#34985859340293849494 in a series.)

i like Rosalia as much as the next person but i'm a bit surprised at her inclusion - she put out one album a few years ago (that got BNM, i know) and a few singles since to diminishing returns (imo) and that warrants inclusion? idk

It's so fucking funny that they're basically memory-holing the Stosuy/285 Kent era (Perfect Pussy, SunnO))), Swans, Iceage, Grouper, etc) to assert "No, we're more about Ariana Grande these days"

Like if your big mission statement is a list of respectable '00s indie rock ofays + the world's biggest pop and rap stars, idk what to tell you.

Like in 2021 Pitchfork wants to be Rolling Stone and Rolling Stone wants to be Pitchfork

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxPsXPCR5MU

grouper is on the list

swans probably too controversial a pick after the rape allegations, i think they'd very likely be there if it weren't for that

To kick off our 25th anniversary retrospective

Oh man

but yes this is about as uninteresting as a list can be

i like Rosalia as much as the next person but i'm a bit surprised at her inclusion - she put out one album a few years ago (that got BNM, i know) and a few singles since to diminishing returns (imo) and that warrants inclusion? idk

I haven't clicked over to the Pfork thing, but (fwiw) she's put out two albums, and (yes) various singles/collabs, some of which were a pretty big deal... I get why they would include her in a list of 200 acts, she's very Zeitgeist-y and feels like a major current artist.

sorry shoulda mentioned one album that they reviewed, i'm aware of the album before that

but lol yes apparently major current artist = one of the most important artists of Pitchfork's last 25 years

which goes back to what Whiney said

Well they can't all be The Strokes

i feel like the late 90s are relatively underrepresented? & 00s indie obviously way overrepresented, like i like the new pornographers and all but were they ever really an 'important' or 'influential' band?

important to pitchfork

And here's to the next 25! Or maybe 5 more years tops?

It's also funny that Ryan S. built this entire empire from nothing, led it from basement to office to New York to Conde Nast over like 20 years, sold it, and the new staff is just dedicated to doing backboard breaking dunks on how he ran it

In the past few years, we’ve purposefully expanded the range of music we cover, reexamined how we listen to music as a staff to allow more voices to be heard, and widened our contributor pool.

We canceled Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago due to the coronavirus in 2020, and then saw it sell out upon its return last month—a sign that a genre-spanning, inclusive lineup (including three female headliners for the first time in our history) is what music fans actually want.

important to pitchfork

this makes it especially boring but also very revisionist at times, worst of both worlds, like they never loved an erykah badu album on release lol so how important is she really to pitchfork's history?

modest mouse also a particularly notable absence by that standard

For years, Vijay Iyer was Pitchfork's stand-in for jazz as a whole: They reviewed NINE of his albums between 2004 and this year, and he doesn't make their top 200 artists list? Harsh.

It's also funny that Ryan S. built this entire empire from nothing, led it from basement to office to New York to Conde Nast over like 20 years, sold it,

i didn't read the rest, but as rare and difficult as this is for people who start with no money to do, it's also so shitty. the trajectory is shitty, i mean. just reading that alone, it's like yeah, he took something that was real and small and blew it up into a conde nast thing - dunk on him for that

& i don't think you can make a case at all that taylor swift has much to do with their history when they ignored her for most of her career

is anyone happy that the first starbucks ended up growing into what it is today? if i were a starbucks barista writing a 25th anniversary rememberance, i'd write (on the coffee cup in sharpie) "i bet that early time when it was just jimmy starbucks working the counter at the only starbucks in the country, spreading by word of mouth, was a pretty cool time"

the american dream is always to take something small, then expand and capitalize on the initial perception of "real, not a corporation) to the logical limit until it no longer resembles what it was, then sell it to a corporation

We canceled Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago due to the coronavirus in 2020, and then saw it sell out upon its return last month—a sign that a genre-spanning, inclusive lineup (including three female headliners for the first time in our history) is what music fans actually want.

So music fans prefer an inclusive line-up to catching coronavirus? Seems odd, but okay!

xxxxxxps, i prob play that shaggs song in my head four times a day

Congrats to brad for the Taylor Swift review excerpt in this feature...

(now that I've skimmed thru the list, I think it's v weirdly hierarchical the way they separated it into true kult Top 50 plus 150 "nearly-as-important acts")

I just find it odd that title of the article is "200 Most Important Artists of Pitchfork’s First 25 Years" while the browser heading says "200 Most Influential". I feel like those are two different things.

while we're at it, can i throw this in here?

should the MVP go toward musicians who are in very successful acts that make "the playoffs"? or can you be a MVP as the leader of a relatively unknown act?

modest mouse also a particularly notable absence by that standard

And not a single mention of The Dismemberment Plan. Got to talk about Puff Daddy instead.

We canceled Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago due to the coronavirus in 2020, and then saw it sell out upon its return last month—a sign that a genre-spanning, inclusive lineup (including three female headliners for the first time in our history) is what music fans actually want.

Asterisks within html italicized text = bold?

Formatting. I give up.

click "Show Formatting Help", just below 'submit post" button

For strong text, use:	your text
For emphasised text, use:	your text
For strikethrough text, use:	your text
For underlined text, use:	your text
For block quotes, use:	
your text

For literal, non-proportional text, use:	[code]your text

lol at me

it's really quite simple,

For underlined text, use: your text

I am relatively surprised to see Tortoise pop up on that list. Always seem like one of those bands were a big deal at the time, that people would rather forget about.

And not a single mention of The Dismemberment Plan. Got to talk about Puff Daddy instead.

i'm more than fine with both parts of this

i mean it makes zero sense considering their engagement with both those acts but still! fine with it!

tortoise rules

Our staffers will also revisit album scores from the archives that they’d like to quibble with, an acknowledgment of the reality that opinions and cultural contexts shift between writers, editors, and audiences with the passing of time.

oh boy

Thanks for trying KM, roffle. I thought I mostly had a grip on the formatting but clearly I need a refresher, I will carefully peruse the guidelines forthwith.

for real though, just click the "show formatting help" link at the bottom, haha

i was trying to copy and paste the particulars of it but failed

hope they have a roundtable on whether Travistan is still a 0.0

revisiting scores and reviews is a wonderful idea. but i hope they properly archive (and reference) the originals

maybe they'll replace the graphic they used for their Partie Traumatic review with a different graphic!

I haven't looked yet. How close are 12 Rods to #1?

important to pitchfork

jazmine sullivan is also on the list even tho they plainly ignored her work until well after reality show, the first record they acknowledged, came out. the world of rock/'pop' criticism had to basically be begged by dev hynes (i think?) to even listen to that album, + still doesn't really acknowledge that plenty of the music she put out prior to their starting to care is just as essential

I don't really care about this list, but it seems clear they're using it to redefine themselves, same as they've been doing with the retroactive Sunday reviews (many of which are the source of the pullquotes for individual artist entries, as opposed to contemporaneous write-ups, which is telling).

It's kind of odd to be celebrating a 25th anniversary while asking people to forget the first 10 years or so

Well, some of those artists are there. TBH, I think they could have leaned even harder into later stuff. I don't really think of Boredoms and YLT as acts "who released all – or at least the bulk of – their defining work within the last 25 years," but seems they were sort of grandfathered in based on a few respected late-'90s releases.

(or the opposite of "grandfathered" – grandchilded?)

justice for 12 rods