OK, is this the worst piece of music writing ever?

this thread overnight has been even worse than the annoying and completely ignorable blog

Sorry, or Lex

What rankles me slightly wrt that blog is that usually writers do that with kids, maybe the blog is satire?

Threads are ignorable too iirc!

Hot new contender. Toxic levels of rockism and rongness.

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/culture/Julian_Casablancas_Is_Riding_Forth_To_Rescue_Rock_Again?click=feed

But was it good? That’s hard to say.

Wait. Julian Casablancas' new band is called The Voidz? For real? Um.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/03/18/music-criticism-has-degenerated-into-lifestyle-reporting.html

No real mentions in that article of specifics to support his point.

lol under daily beast headings

POLITICS ENTERTAINMENT WORLD NEWS TECH+HEALTH FASHION GREAT ESCAPES WOMEN BOOKS

lol, i was just coming by to roll that url into the room, shut the door and run

the dry rot in the ilxor party wall

this is a beautiful bit of work noodle vague

'The Strokes saved rock'n'roll' is my least favourite common misconception in music revisionism. Is this an American thing? I guess I've heard the same case made for the Libertines, but it never felt that way to me.

it's a fucking british thing

"Technical knowledge of the art form has disappeared from its discourse."

"I’ve just spent a very depressing afternoon looking through the leading music periodicals."

"And I read some reviews of albums, and got told by “‘critics” (I use that term loosely) that they were “badass,” “hot,” “sexy,” “tripped-out,” and “freaky.”"

Kind of reads like an editorial from the Onion.

'The Strokes saved rock'n'roll' is my least favourite common misconception in music revisionism. Is this an American thing

lol iirc this was almost 100% a british music press thing, it reeks of it

xp waterface yes

hi 5 marcos

pretty sure british publications have a cover template that has an empty photo slot and insert-band-name spot that reads "____ Are Here to Save Rock n' Roll!!!"

disappointed that ted gioia doesn't know that totally shredding is a v. precise term of praise, though he was supposed to be a discerning critic

He IS a discerning critic: he read several music publications lying on his coffee table

Serious question: Have you guys heard of Ted Gioia before today?

"the leading music periodicals"

http://www.neh.gov/files/imagecache/neh_large/divisions/preservation/images/papersbg.jpg

I follow him on Twitter. He's fairly well-known.

I know him because of jazz stuff

know of him, I mean

x-posts but only if you really believe that "The NME" and "the British Music Press" are synonymous.

i have his history of jazz sitting on the shelf next to me

This really stuck out at me:

The pentatonic scale is a simple concept—just five notes (do, re, mi, so, la) we all learned as children.

"we all". Because yes, I learned what a pentatonic scale was, as a child, but only because my parents were wealthy enough to afford private music lessons. He's blaming the music press when he seems to omit how much musical education has been slashed from the majority of schools. (I have no idea what any of his "football" terminology means either, but hey.)

cmon public schools have pianos with black keys too

People have technical conversations about music all the time, they just use different vocabularies, values, terms, etc. Or tools for that matter. There's so much wrong about piece - but it mostly seems to stem from its belief in a singular public, a set of norms to assess best practice, a single sonic language. I mean, that article can't be serious. It's too crazy.

My public school taught us basic musical concepts, but I do have a feeling that fewer public schools do it now, and that really does pain me, a lot. But I don't think that's the or a primary reason why a review of Justin Bieber doesn't read like NYTimes Classical Music criticism.

People have technical conversations about music all the time, they just use different vocabularies, values, terms, etc. Or tools for that matter. There's so much wrong about piece - but it mostly seems to stem from its belief in a singular public, a set of norms to assess best practice, a single sonic language. I mean, that article can't be serious. It's too crazy.

― MikoMcha, Tuesday, March 18, 2014 11:26 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Right, e.g. I just randomly opened a pitchfork review just now and the term "motorik" appeared in the first paragraph -- that, in a way, is a technical musical term.

yeah to me the things gioia says about technical knowledge betray kind of a questionable assumption that it's only jazz and classical criticism that call for 'specialized' knowledge (thus dedicated musically-focused criticism). shit, what kind of music doesn't?? and the pressures from there being eight million different musics competing for attention probably have a lot more to do with the choices critical venues ended up making than straight up venality and vapidity.

Although it's never a good idea to discount the power of venality and vapidity in any avenue of human endeavor.

But I was told music is a universal language!

it's kind of funny bc pentatonic scale is abt as close to a universal musical language as we have
but it's arrant madness to think "we all" were taught wtf a pentatonic scale is in school. I was in fucking BAND (alto sax) for most of grade school and high school and no one ever told us that, prob because there are no pianos in band.

he didn't say we were all taught what a pentatonic scale was, he said we all learned those notes

i was only taught what pentatonic was in a backhand way, because the music composed with it was apparently either primitive or pop

man that Casablancas article is horrible

i was only taught what pentatonic was in a backhand way

you mean backfingered way

Guitarists tend to know what a pentatonic scale is because it's the easiest way to solo over most rock songs. Others probably have no particular reason to learn it if they're not studying seriously.

in my elementary school music class we learned about it when we played with xylophones

What's so bad about that last article? I only had time to read the first few paragraphs.

lots of hype on the Voidz, I know they are opening for Fear and TSOL at a pizza place in the OC at the end of the month

Man up, it's only the bland old pentatonic scale, not something genuinely exotic like a Hungarian Minor, for instance. Plus, HC Jr. is not only about the melody and harmony but also that rhythmic element you guys love so much: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yD3iaURppQw&feature=youtu.be

"For most people living in the world, circa 1920, music was embedded into their life, not chosen as a lifestyle accessory. But gradually, over the next several decades, music’s value as a pathway of personal definition came to the forefront of our culture. Sometimes the shift was barely perceptible, but in retrospect we can gauge its profound impact. For example, people in rural America didn’t choose country music during the early decades of the 20th century, but were literally born into its ethos; yet by the ’70s, country music had evolved into a lifestyle choice, a posture adopted by millions who never roped a steer or herded cattle, but still wanted to affiliate themselves with the values espoused by the songs."

Ah, remember the good old days when you'd rope your own steer!

lol most old country singers were singers because they were lazy and didn't want to work! which is smart if you ask me

america, with its rich history of being born into things

I think maybe it was Peter Guralnick who pointed out (to me, anyway), that country music came to prominence precisely when Americans were LEAVING the countryside in droves.