Pitchfork's Chris Ott takes No Prisoners

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.

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 shit was heinous. also i still don't know what a collapse board is

It's amazing to see the most self-righteous indie ideology aimed at the smallest possible purview. He's fine with you working for the beast, as long as you leave music out of it (he does!). He's fine with you GIVING your work to the beast (via twitter and tumblr), as long as you don't make money from it (he doesn't!). The scope of his contempt and ire is nothing more than people who dare to make even the smallest amount of money in the fashion he attempted ten years ago. He doesn't even expand it to journalism or criticism as a whole, just fucking indie rock. How anyone can see this as anything but sour grapes is beyond me.

this fuckin guy, yeah I saw Bratmobile in 1991 also, go fuck yourself.

not a writer and didn't read the OG article, but I am just stopping in here to give props to katherine. fwiw I do purchase music writing.

katherine, you seem awesome and I think you have made some great points in this and the other threads that have been around recently.

xp I see it as sociopathy, but sour grapes is more polite

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.

katherine otm as usual

the Pelly twins are "very sharp girls"

this isn't exactly about me

didn't Henry James call Jane Austen "that clever little woman"

I'll say one thing for Ott he's never been afraid to double-down on his idiocy.

The conclusion I'm drawing from his discussion is that he actually doesn't mind capitalism, but music is uniquely holy and should be untouched by it, and that bands and writers are increasingly tainted by corporations that turn music into purely a means to sell something.

There's also the fact that despite the venom with which he promotes his stance, who he shits on and who he hits up for a chummy RT is completely irrespective of it. I get why we can't turn away (for all his talk about the entitlement of music critics, he's set himself up as their unchecked, ugliest form of id), but I don't get how anyone can take him seriously. In the long history of self-righteous macho indie, I can't think of anyone who stood for so little and so unconvincingly.

What totally pure completely non-exploitive industry is Ott actually in now btw?

I honestly think he's the most self-important deluded asshole I've ever encountered in music journalism. Kudos Ott. Everybody's paying attention to you because you've out-assholed everybody else but keep on telling yourself it's because they can't handle The Truth.

don't agree with it, but I think that a key part of his point is that music should be untouched by "brand bullies" to quote No Logo, a book I'm sure Ott worships.

"The only thing that has tainted what I’ve done is that YouTube shows ads before my videos .... All that they ask and all that they demand is that they show ads before my videos begin. I can’t reach that many people any other way."

"When your viewpoint goes up with a Converse banner behind it, you better start digging."

whereas beer or whatever, that's fine, that's a product pure and simple, so capitalism is totally fine for that.

WE ARE NOT MEANT TO PRODUCT ART OR ART COMMENTARY FOR THE AD-PR COMPLEX WE ARE MEANT TO WORK IN THEIR SALT MINES AND MAKE PURE ART ON THE WEEKENDS. THAT IS THE WHOLE OF THE LAW.

Ott places huge importance on being there and "having lived through it." Pity he wasn't born 20 years earlier so he could have screamed "PUNK IS DEAD!" in 1979

Ads on YouTube videos are not mandatory, btw. You have to opt in.

da croupier otm, i think that's basically Ott's point. I think it's a tad ridiculous

fucking entitled music writers

expecting to get paid to write a review of art

wtf

God damn if I don't find his appropriation of the term "speak truth to power" genuinely offensive here

If I want to hear about brands and counterculture without all the toxic self-regard and name-calling, Thomas Frank did it 20 years ago.

http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/f/frank-dissent.html

I agree he's a little out of his mind but dude makes a point

it's like the world's teeniest tiniest version of "fight club" - a guy giving himself a righteous ideology to explain why he made the choice he made, then going batshit trying to force that ideology on the world.

I get why we can't turn away (for all his talk about the entitlement of music critics, he's set himself up as their unchecked, ugliest form of id), but I don't get how anyone can take him seriously.

i've been semi-following this and i was gonna ask, as a britisher who's not in the NYC music crit scene, is this guy actually like...relevant to anyone, or is it just ~naming names that's provoked this conversation

he's relevant in the sense that i'm sure lots of people toil with the idea of whether it's worth it (or whether they should try harder or should have tried harder, etc), and he's pushing the envelope on the "hey maybe if i don't try to make money off my art, my art will be better" impulse to a violent, blinkered extreme.

violent, huh? missed the part where he stabbed Vampire Weekend with a machete in his video

at this point it is relevant for being relevant

His point seems to be that music writing should be a hobby for the already affluent. Or for people who live on air. Much like the pro-piracy hardliners who resent any band who expects to earn any money.

"His point seems to be that music writing should be a hobby for the already affluent."

some would call this a bug, not a feature

I really hate how he thinks he has music writers "shitting their pants" - like what people are responding to is His Great Truth instead of his poor reasoning

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 shit was heinous. also i still don't know what a collapse board is

― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Thursday, December 5, 2013 9:48 AM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

especially weird because it looks like he writes for Maura on occaission??
http://www.maura.com/451/unreal-is-here

waterface doesn't agree with ott but is powerless to resist the siren song of such percfecto online assholism

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.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/90s-punk-decries-punks-of-today,1486