Headline of the day: Music critics love albums that the public hates. It doesn’t appear in the latest issue of No Shit! magazine–it’s in the Times Of London! Apparently there’s a huge difference between the stuff a bunch of people who listen to a hundred albums a week think is good and people who listen to maybe a hundred albums a year think is good! Who knew? Besides, like, everyone?
Like the rich, music journalists are different. Crucially, we hear music differently. Obviously, we shouldn’t. In an ideal world, music critics would be a simple conduit between great music and the wider public.
I can tell you from experience that this is the only way music journalists are like the rich. But this sentence reveals the secret subtext of these sorts of articles: “Music critics are snobs, but the public are sheep.” Even if the stated thesis is “Why do we let critics be critics if they’re just going to pick not-fun stuff like Captain Beefheart?”*, there’s no way this guy isn’t also saying that the public are tools when he aligns them with Meat Loaf and the Eagles.
Even if you admire the artistic intent behind Metal Machine Music, would you really want to listen to it?
Dude, I’m pretty sure 80 percent of the music critics that pitch me on Moldy Peaches records are not doing a Lester Bangs, chillin’ on Metal Machine Music, gulping cough syrup and Adderall. I’m lucky if I can find someone to write about High Places half the time.
The piece is accompanied by this list:
CRITICS’ FAVOURITES THAT THE PUBLIC HATES
1 Captain Beefheart, Trout Mask Replica
2 The Fall, Hex Enduction Hour
3 Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Tender Prey
4 The Flying Burrito Brothers, The Gilded Palace of Sin
5 Robert Wyatt, Dondestan
6 Ron Sexsmith, Other Songs
7 Lou Reed, Metal Machine Music
8 Dexy’s Midnight Runners, Don’t Stand Me Down
9 Palace Music, Viva Last Blues
10 Scott Walker, Tilt
11 Guided by Voices, Bee Thousand
12 Slint, Spiderland
13 Aimee Mann, Whatever
14 Randy Newman, Sail Away
15 Brendan Benson, Alternative to Love
16 Cardinal, Cardinal
17 Van Morrison, Astral Weeks
18 Love, Forever Changes
19 Big Star, Radio City
20 Vic Chesnutt, Is the Actor Happy?
Yeah, my mom can’t shut up about how much she hates Slint. Also, who wants to take any pointers about music from a country that considers Dexy’s Midnight Runners a “critic’s favourite”–and spells it with a “u”? That’s number one in my list of critically acclaimed vowels that America hates!
Music critics love albums that the public hates [Times of London]
* Very topical reference, BTW!
I’ve only heard of half those albums, but then again, they never mention anything I listen too, which nobody knows about either.
I’m listening to Bomb The Bass and Prick! Take that London.
Everyday I am hounded by an angry public who scream and taunt me, yelling “‘Bee Thousand’? Terrible!” Clearly, the public is foolish and like “Isolation Drills” more. Right?
As a lifetime subscriber to No Shit! magazine, I found their last cover story about Sen. John McCain being old to be a little…oh, I don’t know, obvious, I guess.
I promise, I have never dry-humped a sneeze guard.
This begs an interesting question - what would Lester have done with adderall? Also, why isn’t Orange Juice on that list?
@Clevertrousers: Or Television?
I’m a complete Randy Newman Stan, but I’m sort of under the impression that only critics over the age of 50 still champion him. Everybody else (i.e., blog critics) just dismisses him based on his Toy Story association.
You know another thing critics love that the general public couldn’t give a shit about? Making middling lists of records/movies most people didn’t pay attention to in the first place. “No Shit” Magazine indeed.
@SuperUnison: “…dry humping the sneezegaurd of the cultural buffet.”
Ha! Nice.
I doubt the average member of the general public listens to even ten albums a year in this day and age, let alone a hundred.
How the Hell is anyone who is locked into his own perspective to the point where he can’t imagine someone legitimateley enjoying these records even 1) A Journalist and 2) Writing about the arts period? Also, the public generally gets the art and the government it earns through it’s ignorance and narrowmindedness. I’m not a dick for liking what I like and trying to push it on other people who might enjoy it. Converseley, I’m not a dick for slamming something that insults my intelligence and encourages the culture to become even more toxically mediocre. That’s what we call being a discerning consumer (which, ideally, everyone is in a capitalist society) instead of just another dead eyes hog dry humping the sneezegaurd of the cultural buffet.
Times of London are dubious misquoting scoundrels.
nitpicking british reader….I see not the words ‘of London’ anywhere in The Times name. Also, why illustrate it with a picture of the Mirror (though it’s a good front page)?
On the subject of the subject, if your looking for profound musical insight from the Times then there is a bridge in London I could sell you.