Comments on: The “Raconteurs Model”: Is It Aimed At Preventing Leaks Or Muzzling Music Critics? (Or Both?)

By: Jan74

Jan74 — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 10:14:06 +0000

Those were the days, man.

By: Chris Molanphy

Chris Molanphy — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 09:38:11 +0000

@lukaskaiser: If music criticism still mattered, Daughtry and Groban wouldn't be our country's top selling artists

Oh, yeah! Remember, back in the '80s, how the Smiths and the Replacements were the big sellers across the country, and Whitney Houston and Bon Jovi languished in obscurity?

Ah, critics were so much more important then...

By: Charles A. Hohman

Charles A. Hohman — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 08:47:56 +0000

Let us not forget that Jack White owes his career and fame to the very critics/music journalists he’s allegedly trying to kill/inconvenience. Critics were all over “White Blood Cells” nearly a year before the general public/V2 came around to it. (Also responsible: Michel Gondry/Legoanimation). So if anybody knows the benefits to be gained from a long-gestating buzz, rather than the dominant write it up/release it/shelve it/forget it cycle, it would be him.

By: lukaskaiser

lukaskaiser — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 08:31:26 +0000

i think this move proves that they just don’t give a fuck about music critics. It’s not on their radar… they have a fanbase, JW has a fanbase and if they get a single out there, they’ll sell a few more records to boot. If music criticism still mattered, Daughtry and Groban wouldn’t be our country’s top selling artists, hands down. Maybe it could go the way of film criticism and take a populist turn to try to remain relevant… yeah, right, like music snobs will ever do that. PS Meg White has huge boobs.

By: SneakingThroughTheAlleyWithLalley

SneakingThroughTheAlleyWithLalley — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 08:20:35 +0000

@Maria T Sciarrino: Oh yeh. What's not to like there?

By: scott pgwp

scott pgwp — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 08:11:07 +0000

@bcapirigi: Perhaps not in a print mag. But surely there's potential for a critical back-and-forth online - whether in comments sections, blog-to-blog, webzine-to-webzine, or any variation therein. Not to say it doesn't already happen - it does - but I think erasing the long lead time would help things along even more.

By: drjimmy11

drjimmy11 — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 06:53:40 +0000

Well, it’s either this or make interesting music someone might care about on its own merits.

By: bcapirigi

bcapirigi — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 06:52:39 +0000

@scott pgwp: Maybe? Is a review in a print magazine (or online one, or even on a blog) meant to be a conversation, though?

By: Vince Neilstein

Vince Neilstein — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 06:25:38 +0000

Please — the reviewers-getting-music-way-in-advance model is geared towards beefing first week sales. No reason that, for a band who says they aren’t concerned about first week sales, an article in a print rag that comes out a month after street date can’t continue to drive sales even then. The Guardian article just reads like a holier-than-thou critic upset he’s lost his privilege of getting something ahead of everyone else.

By: jetsetjunta

jetsetjunta — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 06:10:07 +0000

Yeah I mean it’s a very cool idea to flatten out the conversation between critics and the public, to extend discussions about albums over the course of months rather than days or hours. But try explaining that to time-peg-obsessed assigning editors and ahead-of-time-peg-obsessed bloggers, who I don’t think will be swayed to change their worldviews in three shakes of Jack White’s tail. But it’s nice to think of a world where that kind of looseness would be okay. Jeez, I mean you might even get to review two albums with tons of resonance which just happen to come out on different dates. Fancy that!