Posts tagged "criticism"

The New Moon OST has all the touchstones of what is considered, by many who consider themselves cognoscenti, “good” music— from Yorke to Grizzly Bear to the more populist Death Cab, Killers, and Muse— but it uses its tastefulness to solidify the borders of what is acceptable, not to broaden them.

-Marc Hogan at Pitchfork

Not yet sure what to say about this, but it seems important.

1
Music Indie Rock Criticism
Oct 26

Annie – I Don’t Like Your Band Like Girls Aloud with their appallingly self-conscious mainfesto, Annie strokes the egos of some nerds on the Internet by repeating their prejudices, instructing the object of this song that he needs to ditch the guitars and cop some sequencers and Giorgio Moroder sounds, as if a petulant renunciation of the common discourse on authenticity makes for music that is smart or interesting or even enjoyable. If the fella with the boring band follows Annie’s advice, by the sound of this, he’ll end up with a musical backdrop truly worthy of the “tinnitus-inducing” description Ed Okulicz gave to Britney Spears’s “3″, and a melody recycled from “Chewing Gum.” Annie thinks this song is chocolate, but oh no…[3] Jukebox says [6.60]. I seem to be causing a minor stir in the comment box…

Annie – I Don’t Like Your Band

Like Girls Aloud with their appallingly self-conscious mainfesto, Annie strokes the egos of some nerds on the Internet by repeating their prejudices, instructing the object of this song that he needs to ditch the guitars and cop some sequencers and Giorgio Moroder sounds, as if a petulant renunciation of the common discourse on authenticity makes for music that is smart or interesting or even enjoyable. If the fella with the boring band follows Annie’s advice, by the sound of this, he’ll end up with a musical backdrop truly worthy of the “tinnitus-inducing” description Ed Okulicz gave to Britney Spears’s “3″, and a melody recycled from “Chewing Gum.” Annie thinks this song is chocolate, but oh no…
[3]

Jukebox says [6.60]. I seem to be causing a minor stir in the comment box…

Singles Jukebox Music Criticism Pop
Nov 17

It’s The New Hip-Hop Wars! | FreakyTrigger

It’s The New Hip-Hop Wars! | FreakyTrigger

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Hip-hop Music Criticism
Nov 26

The Rap Against Rockism

Old I know, but Kelefa Sanneh is my favorite music writer in existence, and this is one of the best pieces of music writing ever. If you know, you know; if you don’t, read.

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Music Criticism
Nov 29

Imagine if the internet as we know it now was around in 1988, and a bunch of (mostly) out-of-touch cranks got together to viciously rip on "Teenage Riot."

tomewing:

perpetua:

This Singles Jukebox post is kinda like that, and it is the even-more-embarrassing flipside of this.

Lex is an in-touch crank. He would also have absolutely hated “Teenage Riot”, I grant you.

Lex’s predictable disgust with anything that falls outside his tightly-regulated world view of acceptable music (very roughly, any combination of pop, black, modern, “authentic,” female: yes; pop, white, guitars, male, self-awareness: no) does get tiresome, but Perpetua’s furious policing of the canon is even more wearing. Yes, many critics adore Animal Collective (I, for the most part, am not one of them), and yes, the Jukebox has an occasional tendency to be dubious about objects of indie rock hype. Not being impressed by mood, detachment and willful obscurantism, however, is not “embarrassing,” and if a kneejerk response to a “collective” with a two-listenable-songs-per-album average is the price of, say, treating Taylor Swift seriously, I’m happy riding for them.

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Indie Rock Music Singles Jukebox Taylor Swift Criticism
Dec 03

Music Stylus The Stylus Decade Criticism
Dec 10

emo. emo. fuckin’ a. remember back in the day, when critics would label any heart-on-sleeve record with halfway literary vocals as emo (see also: pre-”our generation’s dylan” bright eyes)?
Ibid.
Music Criticism Emo
Dec 10

These are feelings and feelings are more real and basic than anything. Right? No. I’ll tell you what I think was the unconscious socioreasoning process that underlay my ‘spontaneous’ ‘gut-level’ feelings.
Frank Kogan, Real Punks Wear Black, quoting himself in the comments here.
Criticism Music
Dec 12

I’ve always hated the Fleshtones for turning ‘fun’ into a genre. Fun becomes a style rather than an experience. Whether I or anyone actually has fun is irrelevant - it has nothing to do with the Fleshtones’ being designated a fun band.

Ibid, emphasis original

Also, this (you should read the whole thing):

Once the significance is understood, a reverse process takes over, and the performers imagine capital-S Significance for themselves that they don’t in fact have, and sell this imaginary significance, which the audience buys.

So I was saying that significance becomes a mere signifier. “Certain effects of music are reduced to symbols: E.g., a type of music symbolizes rebellion rather than provoking rebellion, symbolizes outrageousness rather than being an outrage, symbolizes fun, symbolizes intelligence, symbolizes protest.” And so the symbol stands in for the event, which doesn’t actually happen.

Music Criticism
Dec 12

PSA

cureforbedbugs:

My Top 20:

4. Taylor Swift - Fearless

I know I’m a jerk for doing this, but I just have to:

November 11 2008

There was plenty of time to fall in love with this album last year, critics. If you slept, you slept. But this wasn’t a 2009 album, as all these people knew.

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Music Criticism
Dec 16


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