Pitchfork's Chris Ott takes No Prisoners

ilx is well known for irl creeps

as for taking this seriously feel free to replace all text with this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHXgdtiFRNY

A nasty hangover today and I was thinking "I haven't felt this bad since

xp perfect

whoa xp

great responses katherine, both here and on collapseboard

yeah, great stuff katherine

amazing how infuriating this is, considering the stakes.

http://tinyurl.com/pztmnkb
is several pages with the Outbursts of Everett True comic strip that Jerry Thackray named himself after. Hadn't known the source of the name until earlier today when I posted this with a longer URL.
Apparently the character had been revived in a comic catalogue earlier in the year that the once Legend had been fired from the NME and thought the pen-name too associated with that publication.

Interesting strip, possibly a bit dated but it is from the early years of the 20th century. I think it debuted in 1905.

the Tony Isabella cover version was in CBG, not a "catalogue"

I can see you, you know.

What's up failed music critic

What'd you have for breakfast today

I was eating my own words. Again.

hot stuff coming through:

http://www.imposemagazine.com/features/chris-ott-shallow-rewards-interview

I think this guy has apoint or two

I am part of an age group that was raised to believe that if you went to school and learned a particular skill, you would come out of school with a chance at turning that skill into a career.

That’s called entitlement. I’m sorry you weren’t better protected. I don’t understand how anyone can justifiably look at the world and say, “I should earn a living wage to express my deep, intense feelings about a local band.” The only way you can do that is if you let people sell ads on the back of your exuberance.

"Get a job. That’s what I did. I got a job."

will get right on that, maybe I can buy one at the grocery store, wait no I can't afford to buy groceries this month

Doesn't Ott understand that advertising is simply the way corporations give back to the community

He found his contrarianism no longer welcome in an industry that, due almost entirely to Pitchfork's rise, now rejected controversy.

ok seriously this is how the reporter frames this shit??

The writer means controversy over what bands are cool and what bands are not

Q: Bullshit—why did you start writing for the internet if you weren't vain?

A: Because I wanted to express something that wasn’t being expressed anywhere else.

okay, I'm reading on further and his more reasonable option: "I got a job as an administrative assistant at a book publisher, making twenty-two grand." oh my god this is amazing. you want to talk "fucking deluded"? I was actually interviewed for a job as an assistant at a book publisher this year. You know how many people applied for the job (they told me at the interview)? 500. Five hundred. That's a 0.2 percent chance of getting a job. Harvard has better admissions odds. Even if you assume that a large portion of the applicants are unqualified (I mean, it's entry-level, but in the 2013 job market the process of becoming qualified realistically starts in, like, middle school), only a handful of people were asked to interview. Out of 500 applicants.

It's not Ott's fault that the job market stinks, though. His point stands.

reading on even further and "political correctness" is being used as a justification for hiring women, nope

wait till you get to the Pell twins point.

"When guys find out that there are cool girls that listen to cool music, they’re going to listen to those girls more than the guys that they’re jealous of."

nope nope nope hahahahahahaha NOPE. I'm sure this is going to be dismissed automatically because it's from a Pitchfork writer (a damn good writer, too), but I think it's a better depiction of how guys react to girls who listen to music (source: I am a girl)

http://lindsayzoladz.tumblr.com/post/29966963774/dont-blame-us-four-women-talk-about-why-they-didnt

thanks, katherine. Love this part:

And then they quiz you on the artist’s entire catalog. For instance, I really like this one Mission of Burma album, but I am hesitant to bring that up to a man, because I don’t listen to ALL of their albums.
I agree that men are more likely to think their opinions are Definitive and Correct.

As per women not finding as much pleasure in solitary activities, maybe? But a lot of our lady friends love to read and to discuss books and articles and etc. I’m turned off from talking about music because I’ve encountered so many men who are mainsplain-y about it, while I haven’t had that same experience with books, because a lot of men are dismissive of, like, Jane Eyre, so we never have those convos to begin with.”

yes yes amen

Honestly I think it takes some things to have the energy to make one of those: a) some degree of narcissism to assume that literally anyone cares what albums you like b) enough self esteem to believe your choices are correct or to not care if people disagree with you or think less of you because of which albums you like c) the fastidious patience to actually complete a task that is based mainly in narcissism.

Yes!

Those are obvious points that a high schoolers know. "Wow! Did you know that writers are narcissists because they want people to read their shit? YOU DON'T SAY."

Way to ignore his main points guys. I guess you guys think music writers should be paid like kings

"I don’t want to pile on an already disadvantaged gender. I feel they deserve a little more explanation for why they bother me. A guy doesn’t deserve that."

this is a very peculiar form of logic. I don't even know what to compare it to. maybe that VICE spread about models dressed as female writers who committed suicide, in honor of their all-woman issue?

I'm not ignoring his main points, but the only logical conclusion to his main points is "destroy capitalism" because there is likely no paying job in the system that does not indirectly fund people's huge mansions. some may be more direct than others, but I don't think directness comes into his argument at all.

Did you know that writers are narcissists because they want people to read their shit?

You are way over simplifying the point. The point of that clip is male music writers are so narcissistic that they think people CARE what their ten best albums of all time are. Yes, all writers are narcissists who want to share their art with the world. It takes a particular kind of self involvement to spend the time and energy ranking your all time music, that your choices are best, etc and so forth.

well, yeah

I'll let Ann Powers know.

Fuck them for besmirching the name of DIY and punk and hardcore in the pursuit of being cool.

God

You think Ott ever went to a Warped Tour

"When guys find out that there are cool girls that listen to cool music, they’re going to listen to those girls more than the guys that they’re jealous of."

Sure, because female music writers get such a famously easy ride from male readers.

I just gave you two very successful examples. Stylus, there’s another.

You mean the music website that closed in 2007

but the only logical conclusion to his main points is "destroy capitalism" because there is likely no paying job in the system that does not indirectly fund people's huge mansions. some may be more direct than others, but I don't think directness comes into his argument at all.

No, I get this. Totally. He's hyper focused on this one area that's bugging him. I don't know.

Those are obvious points that a high schoolers know. "Wow! Did you know that writers are narcissists because they want people to read their shit? YOU DON'T SAY."

― the objections to Drake from non-REAL HIPHOP people (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, December 5, 2013 3:26 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Also, you know my quote is from the article that Lindsay Zoladz wrote, right??

Not Ott

I just gave you two very successful examples. Stylus, there’s another.

You mean the music website that closed in 2007

― 乒乓,

I dunno what he meant by this, honestly – successful b/c we were awesome by Chris Ott's lights or successful because, uh, the site's still up?

The conversation, however, felt like a cathartic scene in Steinbeck's East of Eden

Sure it did.

Do you pronounce his name 'Ott' or 'Oh-Te-Te'?

I dunno what he meant by this, honestly – successful b/c we were awesome by Chris Ott's lights or successful because, uh, the site's still up?

― the objections to Drake from non-REAL HIPHOP people (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, December 5, 2013 10:34 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

I suppose TSJ is still running strong

Really uh, lol, that when he talks about independent music pubs that don't depend on ads he fails to mention Maura Magazine which iirc is entirely based on reader subscriptions, but then later calls out Maura as not having the independence to say what she wants to say?!

that bit felt like subtle bullying. it really did

He meant she can't speak out against the industry:

Because I’m in a position to speak truth to power. I am literally one of the only people who can speak truth to power. Chris Weingarten would get fired. All these other people that you guys think are so fucking important? They’d all get fired. Maura Johnston? As much as I fucking love her? She wouldn’t be able to book a gig. They’re all trying to preserve what they have by playing nice. I have never played nice. That’s why I quit The Village Voice after two months, that’s why I quit Pitchfork, I don’t work with these fucking people. They all sell out, every fucking time.

I’m saying that particularly in the case of the Pelly twins, who are very sharp girls, I’m sort of mystified that they are continuing to plow this road of nonstop excitement and positivity and championing without questioning why they’re getting put up out front on Pitchfork and the NME, when a lot of male writers at those sites aren’t getting the same pop level promotion.

Reverse sexism at its finest. When will the young white male music writer finally catch a break in this heavily gender-biased industry??

for someone who knows so much about the publishing industry this guy doesn't seem to know how to find the masthead

"why do all these full-time reporters make A1 over the stringers???"

from a ten-minute YouTube video I posted, the entire music criticism architecture is shitting their pants.

In this respect, I’m not a person, I’m a message.

I’ve explained this all day on Twitter, and I hope you’ve taken the time to read it.

Everyone wants to always invoke riot grrrl as if it was some fucking scion of feminism—you weren’t fucking there, I was there.

They don’t know. They’ve demonstrated that they don’t know… I cannot allow that. If you’re going to start talking about things like punk and DIY, then I can’t allow that.

I am literally one of the only people who can speak truth to power.