Oh, Bangs on a bike!
I know I shouldn't be giving these people publicity but I can't help it. Someone needs to speak up for brevity and incision (and I ain't talking wankers using Twitter as some sort of post-structuralist joke). WHY DOES IT ALWAYS TAKE A professional CRITIC 1,000 words TO SAY WHAT COULD BE SAID IN 1o0?
My least favourite kind of filmmaker is the one which makes films about people making films. My least favourite sort of author is the one who writes books about authors. My least favourite sort of music critic is the one who sits in judgement upon music critics - ALWAYS from a position of moral superiority and insufferable (usually American) smugness. I know I do this myself. But fuck ME! I DO NOT SPEND 5,000 WORDS GETTING TO THE POINT.
The Internet isn't killing off taste-maker music critics. Articles like this (from website Stereo Subversion) are boring them to death. I'll quote you. Ready?
To the musician, critics are a double edged sword. On one hand, it’s tough enough trying to make a go at playing in a rock band these days and certainly the last thing you need is some brat who can’t even tune an instrument or some bitter ex-metal drummer telling your potential audience that your band sucks beyond belief. Likewise, even the bands that are so called “critical darlings” will tell you that such praise is a long, long ways off from success. On the other hand, good critical reviews are an important part in the skyrocketing of many careers, even if the success of, say, Led Zeppelin and the nu-metal genre proved that critical love is hardly essential. Still, why did Husker Du get signed to a major label? Because Zen Arcade was a huge critical sensation that got the group noticed. Why were the Strokes such a big deal even back before they had a record out? Because a plethora of certifiable critics were hailing them as the best rock band since the ’70s, one that was going to save us from the dragon of nu-metal. The hard work of the group should never be slighted, but very many musicians wouldn’t get their time in the sun if it wasn’t for the critical community spilling ink and using blog space to praise them as newly forged musical messiahs.
In addition, records that have critical darling status tend to have more legs. For instance, Liz Phair’s Exile In Guyville and Velvet Crush’s Teenage Symphonies To God both came out in 1993. Which one got reissued last year for their 15th anniversary? Which one made the Pitchfork Top 100 Albums of the ’90s list? Is there a correlation? Both were certainly college radio status albums back in their day and I’m sure some would hold Velvet Crush up as the superior record, but one you don’t hear about so much anymore. Thus, one album remains out of print and available for $3 in the bargain bin, whilst the other goes $13.99 for a fancy new edition with bonus tracks. Might prestige have something to do with it?
To this end, the music industry finds critics a useful, if not always necessary tool. If they didn’t, I don’t think they’d be giving away promo copies of all their albums for free. Aside from the best possible ends that can be reached (i.e. the breaking of a new group, turning an unknown into a profitable commodity), published criticism is a solid branch of publicity, one all the more valuable in the realm of popular music. Genres like rock and rap that have a rebellious edge are going to lose face when band profiles are written by corporate shills. An independent go-between and a critical eye, even if the verdict is lukewarm at best, go a lot further than the standard “[insert band name] is a thrilling new artist” tripe.
Please tell me this isn't the future of music criticism 2.0. Please.
Sorry, I can't pass judgement either way...drifted off after the first paragraph.
ReplyDeleteThe democratization of media was always going to lead to an avalanche of the dull and the dreary. When anyone can be a creator/publisher, it becomes harder and harder to find the truly inspired and great. You can argue that this makes the role of the taste-maker critic even more important that it ever was. We're having this discussion in education: if students can access any content whenever they want from wherever they are, what is the role of the teacher? And people are thinking our roles become ever more important as those who might guide and point students towards what we consider to be the relevant and the inspirational content. More than ever we must act as filters and find the diamonds to share.
ReplyDeleteAnd I believe that trust, more than anything else, is the key ingredient in this.
"Articles like this are boring them to death." Indeed!
ReplyDeleteEverett, do you remember when Status Quo were ever so outraged by BBC Radio 1, who'd announced that they were effectively banning their music from the station? It was kinda funny, and kinda sad.
Your recent responses to the reception of your 'Defending the Indefensible' diatribes reminded me of the Quo's misplaced outrage. Kinda funny, kinda sad.
In your 'the differences between a taste-maker critic and a critic' post, you noted "Trust" as a necessary ingredient of the taste-maker; to me it's the most vital.
I used to trust you, you were a musical taste-maker to my ears. But now, along with the Quo, you're living on past glories, lost in your old self, with no distance to see the present. To be clear: the nature of the responses to your writing which you have recently received on the DiS and SR message boards (however you self-justify them) are not the "outraged" and "hot under the collar" remarks which your ego would deem them to be. They are simply honest and frank responses to your piss-poor blog posts. These people don't know who you 'were', and rallying against a teenager's opinion of your writing is no more inspiring or edifying than the state of modern music journalism which you seem to be decrying. Isn't the ultimate irony of the professional critic that they are so unable to accept criticism themselves?
Before you fully disappear up your self-parody, why not try to be a music journalist again? Write about NEW MUSIC that you LOVE. Inspire people. Or has the flame gone out? Who cares what you dislike, literally no one - anyone can be a critic if all they do is criticise.
Tastemakers are appointed by people who TRUST them, the taste-maker cannot be solely self-defined. You are no longer a taste-maker, but it's not too late to be so again.
I just picked out sentences from that and was bored enough.
ReplyDeleteThe thing about music criticism 2.0, particularly criticism relating to independent music, is that the writer now has to take a much more "active" role. I don't think it is uncommon [Drowned in Sound do it... Plan B were doing it...] who are promoters as well as writers. Who put out records as well as being writers...
I may well be completely wrong but it seems like it is the people who continue to separate themselves off from 'creators' that are boring criticism to death.
Rather than just criticise, or reassert self importance [like the Stereo Subversion] critics need to interact and put something into practice that backs up their taste. Otherwise they are just a name on the internet. Put on their new favourite grrl band or something. Show there is a real alternative to what ever they dislike - or nobody will see the opinion as valid.
I think you'll enjoy this but not a lot http://hitsingularity.wordpress.com/2009/07/07/how-a-buzz-band-became-a-buzz-band-a-rural-alberta-advantage-case-study/
ReplyDeleteBangs alive, Sean! Now there's a find...
ReplyDeleteYes, The Other Disco, you are completely wrong.
ReplyDeleteI mind blanket statements like the one in your response that infer that critics aren't 'creators' and they don't "interact and put something into practice" (we both say from behind computers). Where is your evidence to back this up? How many of the critics that you included have you actually met? Are you aware of what they do in their communities, musical and otherwise (not online communities, either)?
Probably not, because it's not possible to know that; it's just easier to throw darts from an armchair...something that I will grant you lots of web critics do, too. But let's think about how we can prove that writers and critics don't have an "active role" before we allege that they don't.
Hi
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to relate a story here that is sort of tangentially related to all this and which is sort of oddly interesting.
I am the author of the article Sean posted the link two a few minutes ago. Not sure if you were commenting on my article positively or negatively, I don't really care and it doesn't really matter.
What IS interesting is that this very morning, as I headed into work on the subway, I started reading Hey Ho Let's Go by Everett True. I've had this book for two years but just started reading it this morning. I get to the office, turn on my computer, log into my blog, and I see that I'm receiving traffic from everetttrue.wordpress.com.
At the exact same time (taking into account the time difference...) that I started Evertt's book, he was reading something I wrote. I don't know about you but I think that's rather cool.
Okay, thanks for letting me share that. Carry on.
- tom w
Wow. I haven't seen so much mis-directed beef since my butcher's mincer went wonky.
ReplyDelete"Let's think about how we can prove that writers and critics don't have an 'active role' before we allege that they don't" ... eh, NO, let's not bother! Geez O'Reilly.
Web 2.NOTHING (Hi Scott!)
Scott.
ReplyDeleteI was saying that a lot of critics are creators "Drowned in Sound do it... Plan B were doing it...". My comment was suggesting that this what is happening and what probably will continue to happen. Maybe I was being a bit 'mission statement' in the way that I phrased it.
That isn't to say that old formats of criticism are invalid [or damning what has happened] either. Just that I see this happening.
So. um, I'm not sure what else to say in response.
Sorry if I made you a wee bit angry.
Whoa. As the author of the piece in question, I feel I ought to chime in here
ReplyDeleteI did it for the gas money. Guaranteed 1,500 words for gas money. That's why I took 1,500 words and not 100. I know it wouldn't net me as much money as writing yet another book picking at Kurt Cobain's corpse, but opportunities like that don't always knock, ya know?
Now as for the tone, I'm sorry that you found it dull and insufferably smug. Dullness is a matter of taste, but I admit the smugness bit stings a little. I tried my best to be even-handed and didn't write with the intent of putting anyone down. Did the anti-critic remarks rub you the wrong way? I think I've read enough rock crit over the last ten years of my fandom to know for certain that there is a lot of shitty criticism out there, lots of it done by so-called professional journalists. Purely as a fan, I have beef with much of it. Why gloss over?
Oh and thanks for the "Please tell me this isn't the future of music criticism 2.0 (whatever that is, ya bleedin' tastemaker. I would think it would be up to at least 14.0 now)" quote. I think I'll use that in something.
Cheers!
Opinionated cunts. That's what music criticism needs right now, more than ever. Where o where are the Opinionated cunts.
ReplyDeleteI'm speaking as a habitual addict of all the UK music press, hundreds of music biogs. I spend far more on reading about music than I ever have done on actual music product.Hell, i'll read ANYTHING music related except Rolling Stone.
That said, I can count the memorable reviews/articles i've read in the last few years on, well, nothing. I'm racking my brains and there aren't any. I waste entire afternoons seeing the world through Allan Jones Granary Filter. When an anecdote about hanging out with Dr Bastard Feelgood seems vaguely interesting, you know rock writings in a bad way (why DO I buy Uncut anyway?? Damn this addiction)
I'm reading "Live Through This" at the moment and I hanker for the days of everett, simon price and taylor parkes ("symbollocks"). And who was that guy that described the music of Black Grape as "a big, gaping, wet pussy, waiting to be fucked?" :-) Kulkarni. I wanna know whether it's Dogshit or Diamonds. I liked the Pumpkins, but I also loved reading them being soundly whipped by ET.
bRING ON THE CUNTS.
everett, just read bit in "Live Through This" about how you'll never forget Allan's kindness til the day you die. oh, tits
ReplyDelete