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Does music criticism matter and is it still valuable? That’s a question I’ve been asking myself lately. Technology has created a big shift in the way we discover and consume music. P2P sharing, MP3 blogs and sites like Last.fm have changed the rules of the game dramatically. You already know this, but still, the question remains. What role does the music critic play and how much of it has it changed?
When I was about 16 years old, I started learning to play the guitar. I remember buying instructional books and magazines. One of the magazines I bought, and probably one of the first music magazines I owned, was Guitar World. The December, 1995 issue had Billy Corgan and James Iha on the cover, the two guitarist from the Smashing Pumpkins. The big article in the issue was on “alternative” music.
I remember vividly my mind being blown by the article. The vivid details and descriptions of all these sub-genres under the “alternative” tag were strange, but very insightful. Up to that time I’ve never heard of things like post-punk, goth or industrial. The article took you on this journey starting from the shift that the Sex Pistols created in guitar based music to a kind of full circle conclusion ending with Nirvana. From that day on I decided to buy more music magazines.
Eventually along the way I discovered Lester Bangs, the infamous music critic. I also read Let It Blurt, the biography by Jim Derogatis. Probably everyone that loves music goes through a phase of wanting to be a rock star or to be Lester Bangs. He was admired and was as famous as the bands he covered because he brought a new dimension on the way we perceive music.
Of course, those were the days of “rock n roll” myth making and in a way I’m glad it’s over. Music journalists like Lester Bang had a literary background and it was more about the written piece than the actual music covered. However, music criticism is a totally subjective field and we react to music emotionally rather than rationally.
Even though music criticism has lost its role as a primary filter, it is still very valuable. Writers like Chuck Klosterman and sites like Pitchforkmedia are the latest examples demonstrating that music “curators” still matter.
The music critic in this day and age, a day infused with techonology and rapid changes to perception of consciousness as you well noted has a definite role in how we appreciate music. The question one needs to first oneself is not whether a music critic should exist but rather how has music changed (which you did ask) and moreover how the music critic has changed.
With such music readily available to our ears and such extensive mediums of expression (the internet) it is evident that the ancient ways of music critics has expired; it has EVOLVED.
Just like the evolution of music, the music critic has also evolved. The question now becomes whether or not contemporary critics have evolved at a sufficient pace concurrent to the music. and as a personal anecdote I think not…
The contemporary music critic must resist from inputting his personal perception and merely expose the essence of the music being examined. In this regard, the music critic ceases the be one of the elites as those mention but rather an alert audience member willing to impart his or her wisdom on music.
Since music has evolved in such drastic terms compared to last centurys standards the audeince member must then too have evolved. It is the “critics” job to list these neccesary adaptations and inform the listener what he or she should note and embrace…the most neccesary part of music critics now in days is not whether music was good or bad, but rather if it was capable of striking the chords of the heart i.e. how your mind perceives the emotions attributed to said peice.
People are fickle, opinions differ. Even the way we perceive is unique. Music has an interesting capability of uniting and individualizing. People need to be aware of this. And thus, the music critic is born: he is a tool just like youtube in exposing essence.
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Thanks for commenting. You added great points to the topic.
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