In the last decade, no organ of music criticism has wielded as much influence as Pitchfork. It is the only publication, online or print, that can have a decisive effect on a musician or band’s career.... [W]hatever attracts people to Pitchfork, it isn’t the writing. Even writers who admire the site’s reviews almost always feel obliged to describe the prose as “uneven,” and that’s charitable. Pitchfork has a very specific scoring system that grades albums on a scale from 0.0 to 10.0, and that accounts for some of the site’s appeal, but it can’t just be the scores.... How has Pitchfork succeeded where so many other websites and magazines have not? And why is that success depressing? A lengthy history and review of
Pitchfork [Media], from an inexpensive online alternative to a music zine, to "indie" music kingmaker, and thoughts on pop music (criticism).
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Jan 24, 2012 -
109 comments
"[Punk] in itself is comedy. The whole thing is ludicrous. They were taking themselves so seriously—" he laughs—"and the great message you want to tell people forty years later is 'Put
butter on your crumpets'? What they were saying they stood for, which was sort of anti-greed, anti-establishment... At the end, they all want the check. That's the truth." Pop biographer Chris Heath - who's written some rather fascinating books on
Robbie Williams and the
Pet Shop Boys -
meets Simon Cowell.
posted by mippy
on Sep 1, 2011 -
80 comments
It was music to be heard, not listened to. It was the soundtrack to the relaxed, sophisticated, mature vision of the good life. It was music for lovers. It was upbeat, elaborately arranged, chart-toppingly popular, and yet has been almost written out of the popular music history books, dismissed as “elevator music”; soulless, toned-down, pre-chewed, limp cover-versions of popular songs for old people. So sit back, put aside the politics and angst, slip into something comfortable (preferably with someone of similar description), and allow yourself to experience
The Joy of Easy Listening [2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey
on Jun 16, 2011 -
42 comments
Smash Hits! was a UK music magazine, first published at the end of 1978. It charted the progress of pop styles, including
the rise of 2-Tone, and
included a number of freebie discs, first as
flexi discs, and later on CDs. The magazine faltered in the 1990s, and
closed shop in 2006. Since then there have been a few one-off "special editions," first
a 2009 tribute to Michael Jackson, and then
a Lady Gaga special in 2010. 30 years after the first issue went on sale,
a fan posted the first issue online. So far,
new scans have been posted fort-nightly, following the original release schedule. 73 issues are online to date, each three decades after they first were sold. (
via MetaChat)
posted by filthy light thief
on Jun 14, 2011 -
20 comments
The Music of Jacques Brel is an article by music journalist Amy Hanson about the career of pop music legend Jacques Brel and his effect on popular music in the English language. A lot of songs and covers are mentioned in the article, below the cut are links to the songs that I could find videos of online.
[more inside]
posted by Kattullus
on Aug 6, 2010 -
49 comments
I maintain that only an encyclopedic-archaeological turn can save an aging person's attachment to popular culture from descending into ridiculousness.
Against Eighties Music by Justin E.H. Smith
posted by xod
on Jul 26, 2010 -
144 comments
Janelle Monae has been busy since the release of
The Chase EP, the first of four "suites" that make up her genre-bending epic set in the distant future. She's been
"discovered" by Diddy, continued to find
inspiration in
unexpected places, founded an
artists' collective in her adopted hometown of Atlanta, and found time to
speak to Vogue about her singular sense of style. Somewhere in there, she's also recorded the next two parts of the Metropolis Suite, titled
The Archandroid (which is out today), put out a
teaser for the album, and also the video for the first single, Tightrope. [more inside]
posted by heeeraldo
on May 18, 2010 -
24 comments
Gyrations atop a giant Rubik’s cube? Check. Uber groiny, hardbodied ballet dancers in metallic bowler shoes? Check. Intimated BJ three-way with male Moschino models? Check. Glittering Mickey Mouse butt cleavage? OKAY NOW THAT’S JUST GOING TOO FAR. Coilhouse is awesome.
posted by cgc373
on May 31, 2009 -
49 comments
"Radiodiffusion Internasionaal is devoted to the evolution of popular music from Africa, the Middle East, India and Asia and the proliferation of Western influences on these non-Western cultures. The focus is primarily the music from the mid 60's to the mid 70's."
(Description from the front page of the site.) Slightly differently formatted version of the website
here. Nice set of
links, too
(scroll down to the Words and Pictures section).
posted by cog_nate
on Aug 13, 2008 -
8 comments
Tourists black out reflective retinas in snapshots before printing them, and millions of people refer to strangers they’ve never spoken to as friends, because they’ve connected through a social-networking platform. [...] It should come as no surprise, then, that singers sometimes choose to correct recorded flaws in pitch with modern software, like Antares’s Auto-Tune.Sasha Frere-Jones on auto-tuning, in The New Yorker.
[more inside]
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane
on Jun 10, 2008 -
98 comments
“We consider the 'primitive' music of blues singers such as Leadbelly to be more authentic than that of the Monkees.
But all pop musicians are fakes . . . Hugh Barker and Yuval Taylor . . . have turned out their personal record collections to produce a persuasive defence of inauthenticity as the defining characteristic of great popular music[.]” (
via)
posted by jason's_planet
on Apr 20, 2007 -
144 comments
Waaaaaah! was an early 90's indie label of with an ever-changing number of a's in it's name. The owner of the label has put the entire catalog onto his site for download in mp3 format. He indicates which songs he likes the best by putting a very, very tiny picture of a kitten next to the songs. Artists include The Field Mice, White Town, They Go Boom, BMX Bandits, Dufflecoats, The Bedfloweres and Strawberry Story. You can see pictures of the bands on the site. If you spent your youth saying things like "this is pure, perfect pop music, why isn't
this on the radio" then you've probably already clicked the link.
posted by Kattullus
on Apr 3, 2007 -
38 comments
One of the great virtues of the internet is the manifold ways in which it has revolutionised the arts. The postmodern works of contemporary artists
Pomme & Kelly (Google Video), when viewed together in context, form a striking example of a well-placed critique of popular culture, and modern living at large. The zeitgeisty meta-irony of their seemingly content-free interpretations of popular songs are only enhanced by the fact that, in a clever keeping with style,
they blog about it as well.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane
on Feb 28, 2006 -
30 comments
He was the patriarch of the
British Invasion. In 1962, he released Britain's
first blues album. Before they hit it big, the Rolling Stones opened for him. He was on the Beatles first television special. Later, he was in the memorably-named band The Hoochie Coochie Men with
Rod Stewart on lead vocals. His next band, Bluesology, featured one
Reginald Dwight, who later changed his name to honour his mentor. Moving to Canada in the 1970s he eventually settled in Vancouver, where he died today after suffering from a chest infection. Ladies and gentlemen: "
Long John" Baldry
has passed.
posted by docgonzo
on Jul 22, 2005 -
9 comments
Pop Vultures, perhaps the freshest show to grace our radio airwaves in recent years has been cancelled. Host
Kate Sullivan and a collection of friends mused on pop music and associated pop culture with passion, a strong does of "um" and "uh, like" and an always great soundtrack. You can listen (for the moment anyway) to the
archives . R.I.P.
posted by donovan
on Dec 16, 2004 -
21 comments
onehitwondercentral.com I just discovered a song that I haven't heard in twenty years over there: pac-man fever, by Buckner and Garcia. What long-lost tune do you need to remember?
posted by ashbury
on Jan 19, 2004 -
28 comments
