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Music Critics Converge
I could make the same kind of list for every art. A film critic who reviews a new Robert Altman picture without having seen Altman’s earlier films isn’t much help to the serious moviegoer. A music critic should know not only his Bach and Palestrina, his Mozart and Beethoven, but his Schoenberg and Ives and Philip Glass—the theoreticians and maveric
... See moreWilliam Zinsser • On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction
Criticism is a serious intellectual act. It tries to evaluate serious works of art and to place them in the context of what has been done before in that medium or by that artist. This doesn’t mean that critics must limit themselves to work that aims high; they may select some commercial product like Law & Order to make a point about American so
... See moreWilliam Zinsser • On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction
“Why can’t the music speak for itself?”
Angela Myles Beeching • Beyond Talent: Creating a Successful Career in Music
He believes specialists are the people who galvanize history. Music critics have almost no impact on what music is popular at any given time, but they’re extraordinarily well positioned to dictate what music is reintroduced after its popularity has waned.
Chuck Klosterman • But What If We're Wrong?: Thinking About the Present As If It Were the Past
At its best, cultural criticism is love and art that exists to give love to other expressions of art. It's beautiful in its indulgence.
Yancey Strickler • The prestige recession
Agalia Tan and added
Gary Tomlinson, a musicologist at Yale University, points out that a human culture devoid of music “simply doesn’t exist.”
Adriana Barton • Wired for Music: A Search for Health and Joy Through the Science of Sound
As a writer and culture critic, I operate at the intersection between these corporations and the mass audience. My influence is limited, but if I don’t play a part in trying to revitalize and refresh our artistic idioms, I will have wasted much of the potential of my vocation.
This is why, for example, I listen to so much new music and read so many ... See more
This is why, for example, I listen to so much new music and read so many ... See more
Ted Gioia • My 12 Favorite Problems
Emily Li added
There is so much freedom to play and experiment in these shared non-monetized spaces, but the music industry is deeply broken and it is making music matter less, not at its core, but the consequence of diminishing its monetary value while placing the burden of popularity on broke artists means the whole thing feels like a demoralizing shakedown. An... See more