Music Appreciation 101(For Rock Crits)

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

This connects with the earlier question I read regarding a syllabus for music journalists. I'm curious what people here would consider essential listening/history that every young intrepid(fool)writer should know or at least hear once. And, also, I'm wondering if you think that it even matters if a kid writing a Modest Mouse review has ever heard Chuck Berry. I'd like to think that I'm fairly anti-canon(or at least anti-someone-someone-else's canon)and anti-rockist( I love that term),but I also know that not having a wide range of knowledge of different genres/styles/eras can make for some pretty boring writing. The bar is pretty low. Anyone with half a brain, access to a computer and a press release could write a review for R.S. or Spin without even listening to the record.So, anyway, what would you teach? Where would you start? Doesn't have to be rock.Could be Dance Music 101.

― Scott Seward, Tuesday, 25 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

easy answer here: ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING you deem relevant. the wider the ears, the more informed the opinions and/or criticism. if you're going to write about something in a specific genre, it helps to have background in that genre, of course.

― M Matos, Tuesday, 25 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I just finished this course for my Arts degree

http://www.unimelb.edu.au/HB/2002/subjects/106-057.html

― Michael Dieter, Tuesday, 25 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

It was strange because the whole course was theory-based and the lecturer insisted against 'fan-knowledge' - which kind of ended up meaning being an 'anti-ILM' stance (obsessive neurotic cataloguing, listing, referencing/cross-referencing, and so on).

As a result of this imbalance though, it was left a bit lifeless, substanceless, boring? - maybe a little.

In general, this is what kind of irritates me about most 'academic' writing on pop anyway - the material covered can often be about 5- 10 years old, does not pick out the 'naunces' of the material, let contextualize it. And I'm not a hugely into this 'objective impartiality' - like these guys never shaked their arses, or lost the plot...

― Michael Dieter, Tuesday, 25 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

- in other words, some music would be nice.

But then again, the 'rock-canon' is such an abstraction anyway. Most importantly, writing good reviews it is important to consider that music is not produced or consumed with a vaccum - it's related to all kinds of (sub)cultural practice. Learning to think critically is probably more important...

― Michael Dieter, Tuesday, 25 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

That, in fact, would have to be the title of my course:Shaking Your Ass And Losing The Plot

― Scott Seward, Tuesday, 25 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Since when is ass-shaking counterposed to objective impartiality? I imagine a room full of white-lab-coated scientests twitching to daft punk and examining one another.

― Sterling Clover, Wednesday, 26 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

― Josh, Wednesday, 26 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.