Comments on: Music Critics: Snobby Jerks, Or Snobby Jerks With Actual Power?

By: nonce

nonce — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 11:10:36 +0000

Yeah, all of the hot-shit opera composers of today, while they may have name recognition for people who read Pitchfork, etc. (people like Philip Glass, Steve Reich, John Adams, Laurie Anderson*, Robert Ashley, and, uh, Tom Waits**), they're mostly not getting constant coverage.

Also: wasn't there a 15-year dryspell for Aimee Mann before critics picked her up again?

And: If Elvis Costello pimped out his band members a bit more, more people would know who Steve Nieve is in the first place.

Finally: no matter what it is, if I pick up a CD and the cover prominently lists Sting as a participant, I'm dropping that shit like a hot lute, critical praise or no.

*If you count Anderson's USA as an opera. I do.
**Worked on operas in the '90s with William Burroughs and King of Slo-Mo Robert Wilson.

By: FunkyJ

FunkyJ — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 07:16:52 +0000

I'm sick of this rubbish.

It's the same with games reviewing. "Does the press help game devs, or do they hinder the,?"

WHO CARES?

Look, lets be brutally honest here - the only reason we write reviews is we get free music/games/movies/tickets.

And the only reason other people read our work is because they're bored.

THAT IS IT.

Now move along please. There's absolutely nothing else to analyse or think about here.

By: edisdead

edisdead — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 09:01:17 +0000

dang even a casual google search shows a review also ran in NYT sister paper Boston Globe. whatever Friedman is smoking, pass it this way!

By: remarkie

remarkie — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 08:16:19 +0000

*Or*?

By: flathead

flathead — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 08:03:02 +0000

we always read what we say!

By: backseat_driver10023

backseat_driver10023 — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 06:04:51 +0000

do people even read what these critics say

By: annkpowers

annkpowers — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 05:28:41 +0000

Something bothered me about this Friedman nonsense, and now I’ve figured it out. I actually REVIEWED “Welcome to the Voice” when it was in workshop at Town Hall in New York in 2000. It was a positive review, for the NEW YORK TIMES. Didn’t that help Nieve? Did Friedman do any kind of Google search to see if the piece HAD been reviewed? And btw I don’t recall ever being serviced the recorded version. So missed opportunity there I guess. This smarty-pants show-off pop critic would have been happy to write about it.

By: Lucas Jensen

Lucas Jensen — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 05:26:30 +0000

@TheNotoriousT: Everybody knows that? That's ridiculous. If they hated it, it'd get less than a 5. Trust me, it's happened to me recently. I do think there is a bit of big bands get big scores going on there recently, though.

By: Paperboy 2000

Paperboy 2000 — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 05:25:59 +0000

YouSendIt link for the Robert Wyatt track?

By: NickEddy

NickEddy — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 05:25:07 +0000

Holy shit! Steve Nieve finally wrote an OPERA!!

Seriously! Ever since his piano on "Long Honeymoon," I've wondered why he hasn't collaborated on an opera with someone.

And he got a reunited Bronski Beat in it??

Oh.