pitchfork is dumb (#34985859340293849494 in a series.)

I think the real tell in the piece is

Another fan, Jose, made the three-hour drive down to Long Beach from Bakersfield to see Morrissey perform alongside more contemporary favorites. “Every artist is pretty problematic in their own way,” he said. “Everybody’s going to be supporting them, so it doesn’t matter.”

Jose’s friend, Diana, said that they try their best to separate the art from the artist, especially when it’s someone they loved from a young age like Morrissey. “It doesn’t mean we agree with everything,” she said, “but the music is good.”

otm

even for someone as completely online as me, enjoying certain artists is an act of compartmentalization

or reinterpreting the work through my own lens so i can disentangle it from the shittiness of the artist (never entirely successfully, but it happens)

i think the main problem w/ the piece is his assumptions that latinx people share some kind of common political or politicized identity or a shared experience of being marginalized & oppressed

^^^ my problem, among many, with political reporters aghast that Cubans are so damn conservative. What did you expect?

Is the mental exercise Brand New for you or have you had to do this for awhile?

xp

i think the main problem w/ the piece is his assumptions that latinx people share some kind of common political or politicized identity or a shared experience of being marginalized & oppressed

^^^ my problem, among many, with political reporters aghast that Cubans are so damn conservative. What did you expect?

― I like queer. You like queer, senator? (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, November 8, 2018 12:21 PM (three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I feel like ilxors are guilty of this too. Most talk about what certain demographics do or should think based on the particular perspective of well read people who spend most of their day on liberal politics forums.

Is the mental exercise Brand New for you or have you had to do this for awhile?

xp

― Evan, Thursday, November 8, 2018 10:25 AM (four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh god no i still can't listen to brand new at all

i was thinking more like... lou reed

pumpkins being the prime example - at least for me

but honestly the only angst there for me is how shitty he treats his fans. Still.

I feel like ilxors are guilty of this too. Most talk about what certain demographics do or should think based on the particular perspective of well read people who spend most of their day on liberal politics forums.

Yes, and living in the US tends to exacerbate this problem for obvious reasons.

twin sister album was a disappointment

― flopson, Tuesday, November 6, 2018 7:13 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

listen harder

― princess of hell (BradNelson), Thursday, November 8, 2018 7:40 AM (eleven hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yah, i'm gonna keep trying. i don't dislike it but my expectations were high

https://pitchfork.com/tv/15-docs/how-apple-created-musics-best-device-and-then-ruined-it/

so bad

I felt like this video is for people who miss the feeling of authenticity clicking on M*gaupload links gave them

totally, it was a brand new physical sensation

Frank Ocean's Instagram Is Now Public

Starting to sound like headlines written by a pitchfork specific neural network

What Paul Dano is Listening to Right Now

omg, that can't be real

oh it's very real

Paul Dano might be the reason you first heard Sufjan Stevens. While making the 2006 indie hit Little Miss Sunshine, the actor was obsessed with Stevens’ album Michigan and played it for his co-stars as well as the film’s directors. “Everybody got super into it, and then we went to see him while we were filming,” Dano tells me over the phone.

unknown musician Sufjan Stevens scuffling along anonymously after the release of Michigan, Seven Swans, and Illinois.

funny that that's published on pitchfork dot com, the reason i first heard sufjan stevens

Frank Ocean's Instagram Is Now Public

i thought this was a joke, too. that is so weird.

i really like pitchfork, still. i scan the reviews almost every day, if there's a feature that seems interesting i'll probably check it out, and a decent amount of the news is newsy enough to keep on the site, i think.

i really wish there was a way to filter out whatever category of "news" paul dano and the status of frank ocean's instagram privacy settings is, though. take that out, get rid of the classic album explainered in 5 minutes (all featuring that terrible forgettable bland animation style and the voiceover robot guy), delete october...there would be less "content" but you might be able to scroll through it all without getting irritable

maybe move away from the state of the art 2014-16 internet design style of an endless series of boxes on a grid, too

Until they drop or reduce the reviews I’m ok with what they do for clicks in the other parts of the site

IMO, online music news should be heavy on -- X artist is in the studio, X artist announces tour dates, X album release date announced, etc. Plus a sprinkling of legal/police blotter stuff as appropriate (though not overboard on that).

Pfork could be much heavier on those nuts & bolts than they are, I guess b/c they're understaffed?

I mean, they're basically more a "fluffy features + reviews (+bits of news)" site rather than "music news + reviews," and I guess that's fine if that's what brings the clicks, but I think they could be doing so much more.

Imagine if they were telling us Lucy Dacus was in the studio. The things we're missing.

Yeah - imagine being a music fan and wanting to read music news, what must that be like?

not remotely scalable in an economy built solely on gaming google and facebook?

Not sure what that means, but I understand that they won't do it if it's not viable. I'd think they could even pay one person to keep up a "newsfeed" column or something, make the site a little more useful as a regular destination, drive a little more traffic, I dunno. I'm no Conde Naste exec.

(Maybe most music fans follow 1,000 artists on social media, making "nuts & bolts" music news obsolete, and all they really do need to be told that Frank Ocean's Insta is now public.)

now they follow 1,001

Feel like Pitchfork (and a lot of other internet publications, I guess) are trying to drive the narrative that Frank Ocean is like THE MOST IMPORTANT ARTISTIC GENIUS OF HIS GENERATION (his music is good, but he doesn't deserve that level of adulation just yet imo), and posting idiotic tidbits like his Instagram being public, are part of them trying to be like WE PLAYED A PART IN THAT, MAN. WE WERE THERE WHEN THE WORLD SHOOK AT THE FEET OF FRANK OCEAN, AND WE DOCUMENTED THAT SHIT IN REAL TIME. There was also a recent article about people who were re-selling the merchandise he was giving away for free during the elections. Who gives a fuck?

I know I'm yelling into a void here, but I just can't get past the "we won't even try to challenge the concept of celebrity being as valuable as, or more important than music, and by they way, we're very woke" thing that Pitchfork has been doing with increased frequency since the Conde sale, and I really shouldn't think about it as much as I do.

“Who gives a fuck?” is my reaction to 90% of Pitchfork posts (but I guess I chalk it up to me being old / out of touch / not target audience / etc.)

Frank Ocean had an incredible impact on music tbh

Beach House Are the Chainsmokers’ Type of Thing, and I Kind of Want to Die

Everything You Never Wanted to Know About Those Annoying Age Gates

Hot Sugar, Accused of Abuse, Sued Ricky Eat Acid and Fish Narc for Defamation

(I LOL’d for reals at this one, purely b/c I’ve never heard these names. I’m sure it’s a sobering tale.)

https://uproxx.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/yahoo-serious-festival.jpg

I keep wading through the garbage/fluffy news items about mumble rappers and EDM acts to hopefully get to the Massive Attack + Elizabeth Fraser expanded U.S. tour dates in my neck of the woods. Today, all I remember is something about smoke bombs at a Lil Pump concert. That is not what I wanted to read about.

https://pitchfork.com/features/overtones/are-we-having-fun-yet-on-pops-morose-new-normal/
It was time for someone on staff to run the “why is pop music sad now” thinkpiece obstacle course, and Jayson Greene acquits himself alright, I guess

"so-and-so expands tour dates" may not be a viable way to run a website, but i have really come to appreciate Brooklyn Vegan's efforts on that front.

Frank Ocean had an incredible impact on music tbh
I don't buy this

he became the poster boy for a lot of changes that would have happened without him

I have zero understanding why somebody could possibly think that Frank Ocean is anything but one of the most important current working artists... like how much better does he have to be, how much harder does he have to work to get an acknowledgement that he's A-list, I just don't get it

Beach House Are the Chainsmokers’ Type of Thing, and I Kind of Want to Die

I like Frank Ocean but I swear I can never remember any of his songs

don't want to turn this into the frank ocean thread but afaik he's released a lot of weak material (whether that was on purpose and for contractual reasons, who knows, still weak) and his live shows have been bizarre displays of nonchalance (or shyness, but then why tour if you don't want to perform)

when he's good (Blonde, Channel Orange) it just sounds like rnb to me, I don't get what sets it apart, and surely that genre has a ton of hardworking singers

he has a good voice though

“SNL”’s Ruth Bader Ginsburg Rap Parody Could Be Way Better

Until they drop or reduce the reviews I’m ok with what they do for clicks in the other parts of the site

― President Keyes, Friday, November 16, 2018 11:47 AM (three days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

IMO, online music news should be heavy on -- X artist is in the studio, X artist announces tour dates, X album release date announced, etc. Plus a sprinkling of legal/police blotter stuff as appropriate (though not overboard on that).

Pfork could be much heavier on those nuts & bolts than they are, I guess b/c they're understaffed?

― verlaine & rambo (morrisp), Friday, November 16, 2018 3:36 PM (three days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I mean, they're basically more a "fluffy features + reviews (+bits of news)" site rather than "music news + reviews," and I guess that's fine if that's what brings the clicks, but I think they could be doing so much more.

― verlaine & rambo (morrisp), Friday, November 16, 2018 3:38 PM (three days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

cut/pasting because this trio of posts pretty much covers my own feelings

Pete Davidson Releases Powerful Statement About Bullying and Mental Health

wow, no.