The industry is in crisis, again. How do we rescue it? Perhaps with a renewed belief that the form is capable of more than being a slobbery cheerleader for artists
Refreshing perspective! I think we are way overdue for a critical assessment of the poptimism. I totally subscribe to the thematic way of writing about records. Giving additional contexts and deepening the analysis is the only way our profession can survive above being just another marketing tool.
thank you, Paweł, for reading and saying so. it matters a lot to me that music journalists do journalism, and not marketing on behalf of labels, artists and streaming companies.
On the face of it, yes. I suppose that goes back to what I was saying about negative reviews being easier to write when the subject is persona non grata. I dunno if you read the Pitchfork review of that record but imo that was an excellent example of a negative review that speaks to that "complexity of affect" I was talking about. I'm assuming that most other reviews would have listed all the outrages he's committed ("slavery is a choice," etc) as a way to fill out the context of the music in question. But the P4k review, to more persuasive effect, talks about the sheer sloppiness of his recent work; the fact that, hey, actually, some of the music on the album *is* good; and that that is undermined by the artlessness of his edgelord persona. Reading between the lines of that review, I think, is an idea that the absence of life in Kanye's music comes from a place of his being a bored rich guy who has Dr Manhattened his way from humanity and public life. And that's really interesting to think about.
Lots of interesting points! I will be chewing on this for a while.
I’ve often thought about some critical writing trends that would help me as a music fan. For example, I’d love to know a critic’s tendencies in their reviews, like a critical review of the reviewer. Kind of like how I know a 4.1 rating for a restaurant on Yelp means something very different than a 4.1 on Google. Or that a 3.4 rating for a Chinese restaurant in the U.S. often means the food is authentic and spicy and delicious, while a 4.7 often means it’s bland and designed for the masses.
You perfectly captured my fear about music writing - the value of reading a review before the public hears the music is gone now with instant distribution. Now music critique is being democratized (to put it romantically) by social outlets and deeply thought out writing is not considered valuable on those platforms. I’m a fan, not a critic, but I’d still feel the loss of critical music writing if it disappeared.
Hey Dave! Thanks for taking the time to comment – really appreciate it. Moreso because it's actually rare to speak to someone online with no stake in the professional side of this argument.
I agree about how restaurant scores are coded. I like that Pitchfork run little bios of music critics that write for them regularly, and I don't see the harm in a more expansive version of that on other websites.
Some music publications have actually done away with scores in the past few years, so maybe films suffer most from audiences' dependence on star ratings.
The Roisin Murphy review I linked to is a nice example of where that score feels incidental to the writing.
There's more to say, but my daughter is calling. :)
thanks for the shoutout :)
thanks for reading and stopping by :)
Refreshing perspective! I think we are way overdue for a critical assessment of the poptimism. I totally subscribe to the thematic way of writing about records. Giving additional contexts and deepening the analysis is the only way our profession can survive above being just another marketing tool.
thank you, Paweł, for reading and saying so. it matters a lot to me that music journalists do journalism, and not marketing on behalf of labels, artists and streaming companies.
Plenty of negative reviews for the new Kanye, I guess it’s easy to punch down on him?
On the face of it, yes. I suppose that goes back to what I was saying about negative reviews being easier to write when the subject is persona non grata. I dunno if you read the Pitchfork review of that record but imo that was an excellent example of a negative review that speaks to that "complexity of affect" I was talking about. I'm assuming that most other reviews would have listed all the outrages he's committed ("slavery is a choice," etc) as a way to fill out the context of the music in question. But the P4k review, to more persuasive effect, talks about the sheer sloppiness of his recent work; the fact that, hey, actually, some of the music on the album *is* good; and that that is undermined by the artlessness of his edgelord persona. Reading between the lines of that review, I think, is an idea that the absence of life in Kanye's music comes from a place of his being a bored rich guy who has Dr Manhattened his way from humanity and public life. And that's really interesting to think about.
Lots of interesting points! I will be chewing on this for a while.
I’ve often thought about some critical writing trends that would help me as a music fan. For example, I’d love to know a critic’s tendencies in their reviews, like a critical review of the reviewer. Kind of like how I know a 4.1 rating for a restaurant on Yelp means something very different than a 4.1 on Google. Or that a 3.4 rating for a Chinese restaurant in the U.S. often means the food is authentic and spicy and delicious, while a 4.7 often means it’s bland and designed for the masses.
You perfectly captured my fear about music writing - the value of reading a review before the public hears the music is gone now with instant distribution. Now music critique is being democratized (to put it romantically) by social outlets and deeply thought out writing is not considered valuable on those platforms. I’m a fan, not a critic, but I’d still feel the loss of critical music writing if it disappeared.
Hey Dave! Thanks for taking the time to comment – really appreciate it. Moreso because it's actually rare to speak to someone online with no stake in the professional side of this argument.
I agree about how restaurant scores are coded. I like that Pitchfork run little bios of music critics that write for them regularly, and I don't see the harm in a more expansive version of that on other websites.
Some music publications have actually done away with scores in the past few years, so maybe films suffer most from audiences' dependence on star ratings.
The Roisin Murphy review I linked to is a nice example of where that score feels incidental to the writing.
There's more to say, but my daughter is calling. :)