Pitchfork's Chris Ott takes No Prisoners

you need a certain amount of free time.

idk most of the people i know who write about music as a hobby are not affluent

that you can devote to concerns very distant from those regarding food and shelter for yourself and your family.

and you need even more time to follow what's going on more broadly and engage with it, and time on top of that to assemble thoughts and hone them.

otherwise you're not necessarily writing, you're just putting letters on a screen.

you certainly don't need to be in the 1%. but you do need secure employment, of the sort where you only have one job, probably.

writing about music as a hobby is less time and money intensive than being an amateur musician, and if you want to argue that you have to be affluent to be an amateur musician, then i would say you need to get out more.

writing about music as a hobby is less time and money intensive than being an amateur musician, and if you want to argue that you have to be affluent to be an amateur musician, then i would say you need to get out more.
--sarahell

Someone post that Cord Jefferson article about middle class privledge and media jobs, I'm on my phone

with an IMPORTANT CLIENT

Being an amateur musician is easy

Learn three chords on the guitar and you're basically done

I'm not saying that it would be a level playing field in terms of "success" -- or that writers should write for free -- but only that if one wants to write about music but cannot support oneself with the meager wages that "playing the game" gets you, it is something one can do as a hobby. Lots of people do it, just like there are lots of people who are amateur musicians. It isn't like writing a review of an Arcade Fire album or a think piece on slut-shaming in pop music requires the level of resources as writing a doctoral dissertation.

same thing with being an amateur music critic too. three words (angular, ethereal, visceral) and off you go. xp

Again, I am not agreeing with Ott's Randian premise of the cream will always rise to the top in terms of talent. Not at all.

it's so absurd because every moderately successful artist knows at least one other artist, and often several, who he thinks of as much better than himself but whose work never finds its audience. dude is kidding himself if he thinks charisma & biz savvy aren't utterly crucial to any level of success

― combination hair (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned),

Basically this is the truth, and it's really just a matter of how the artist wants to deal with it -- play the game or be a hobbyist or quit entirely

i have successfully avoided everything about this for several days, but something compelled me to click on the video today, and i had to stop at "the ceo of complex media, he lives in an almost million dollar apartment in turtle bay."

that's like complaining that "the editor of my website, he spent almost five dollars on a beer."

the CEO of Shallow Rewards, Inc. doesn't live so lavishly, i'll have you know. he won't even take a vacation on a cruise line unless he can get somebody else to foot the bill.

today's historic inequality doesn't at all impact music/criticism imho. and even if it does, it's boring and not worth talking about, because it's not like there've ever been any songs about social justice

it's germane to Ott's claims that are at the root of this discussion, but i won't say that's "worth talking about" itself really, so point taken

Take a poorly composed potshot at Cop Shoot Cop and pay the price.

Ott Shoot Ott

noooooooo

sorry

xp to Sarahell. It depends what you mean by music journalism. Sure, album reviews and thinkpieces can easily be done in your spare time but anything that involves reporting can't. I don't want to read nothing but opinion pieces and that's what you get if anyone has to work for free.

Angry Ott is angry.

https://twitter.com/shallowrewards/status/441615906679291904

is he angry because a woman is making music, or because a woman is writing about it, this time?

both obv, although not in the tweet Ned linked, just this one

https://twitter.com/shallowrewards/status/441301111207505920

apparently he's mad at ilx c---s

this guy is so pathetic and sad

it's kind of awesome to watch someone completely bury themselves so publicly imo. a few years ago he still had a vague air of legitimacy to people who hadn't seen his ILM antics, twitter is so magical.

it's hilarious that he won't type cunt

why won't he type cunt

κ↑ℵζ φ∩ς⌊Ξ ‏@shallowrewards 53m
.@natepatrin Subscribing to outmoded definitions of information legitimacy and hierarchy also comes to mind.

κ↑ℵζ φ∩ς⌊Ξ ‏@shallowrewards 53m
@natepatrin You will never be more than that to me.

^^^ shit got real

Does he respond to everything by singing the Malcolm in the Middle theme song? Sure seems like it.

why are we bumping this thread tho

what all is on the master list of subjects that require ott's input

well, we do subscribe to outmoded definitions of info legitimacy, lex

good idea. i say we get in any closing comments we have by 1pm EST and then let the thread go dormant again. (xp)

^^^ shit got real

there is nothing real about this shit whatsoever

it's kind of awesome to watch someone completely bury themselves so publicly imo

i think he's only increasing his brand/worth with this stuff

cool

is c---s a type of furry? if not Ott whiffed at a massive opportunity in this twatbeef imho.

ott beefs are really fun, i hope this blows up more

the guy is super entertaining however much of an asshole he is

i approve

kind of hard to follow tho-- did Ott coin "Night Bus"?

no but i think he put together a series of mixtapes based on the themes patrin talks about in his paper?

sorry, just still getting this straight, Ott is mad that he wasn't interviewed by Nate Patrin about some mixtapes he made a few years ago?

dude must have some heavy duty google alerts set up to find shit that obscure to get cheesed about

can we change this thread title to Chris Ott gets Cheesed

you better interview me about it if you do!

better yet get Nate Patrin to interview me about it... OR ELSE you ILXOR CUNTS

Hipinion invented night bus, thought out its tenets, and made mixtapes, all of which Ott was crucial in. It didn't have a fraction of the legs as "seapunk" and didn't make any actual waves beyond being half-jokingly referenced in a few e-zine interviews with Tumblr-core musicians.

Nate Patrin is basically doing an academic paper on a message board thread.

This Night Bus mixtape by Hipinion poster CFCF has 6 Facebook Likes: https://www.thefader.com/2011/11/01/cfcf-night-bus-ii-mix-mp3/

Hipinion invented night bus, thought out its tenets

http://stmedia.startribune.com/images/mnmusicfan_1332456363_John-Goodman_.png

"I mean, say what you will about the tenants of Night Bus, Dude, at least it was an ethos!"

People were allowed to have legit meltdowns on here when someone suggested turning ILX into a book, but Ott basically gets a message board thread hijacked and you guys are pointing and laughing?