I’d argue that everyone’s getting more press then they ever could have dreamed of “back in the day.” Someone needs to cut through the dreck and the hype to find the really good, really interesting stories. And the NYT Mag no longer fills that job. It used to, but not anymore.

And I mean, not for nothing but all the artists covered have fine promotional infrastructures that are chugging along very nicely! Just look at any daily paper, or, shit, the tons of press releases that I’ve received about all of them. Don’t confuse “appealing to you personally” with “authentic” — any pretense of that goes out the window once a publicist gets hired.

I was wondering why there was an article on Stuart Murdoch. That God Help the Girl album has been out for a while (it’s not that great either) so I’m wondering if they were scraping the bottom of the barrel article-wise.

However, in light of that, all would be forgiven if they did a story on the Feelies. Seriously.

Not sure we need more articles about Lady Gaga or Kanye West, that’s all. It’s nice to see big outlets expose people to music that doesn’t sell as much. Yeah Neko Case sells A LOT in comparison to say Mt. Eerie, but it’s no lady gaga and I’m not even a fan of Neko Case, but I think the disdain for the coverage is more about what seems to be displeasure at a style of palatable indie rock that gets coverage that you don’t like—when in reality, those artists could use the exposure 10 x more than any of the big radio pop stars.

@EugeneLangley: Seriously. The system has never provided me the option to change my password. Fortunately, I’ve got it saved in KeepPass. Also, I would be a lot happier if the login would keep me on the page of the article that I actually want to comment on, instead of taking me to my profile page.

Here’s the thing — there was a time when I’m pretty sure that I was the NYT magazine’s target demographic. That was about 5-10 years ago. But I’ve changed and my interests have changed, and their editorial quality has also changed. There’s a lot of factors that have contributed to the shift in my reading habits.

I keep up with what’s in the magazine, sure. But I rarely read it. I kind of half-read that Rock Band article and thought the Neko Case profile was pretty nice. The thing is, I was kind of into Andrew Bird and Neko Case years ago. I’m not saying this to show off, I’m saying this to point out that I’m not their target audience anymore. I don’t need to read a 10 page profile of an artist whose career I’ve followed for over a decade. So, though I keep up with what’s written there, I kind of don’t bother even cracking open a link or reading over someone’s shoulder on the subway. I am not their target audience. And I feel I’m perfectly within my rights to say, hey, you know what? This isn’t for me. And I don’t think that the person editing the publication has very interesting or broad taste. And the data is there to back me up. I certanly don’t think that makes me bitter.

@maura You know, after reading my comment again, I’m not 100% sure what my rambling point was — it was late and I was doing a bunch of coding and my brain was kind of mushy! But yeah, my point was: you have this huge audience looking to you as a tastemaker. Even if, in the case of Marzorati, you’re not a household name — it’s still your responsibility as a journalist (be it in print or radio or on the internet) to expose people to things that they wouldn’t hear/see otherwise. And sure, you can argue that for the NYT mag reader who doesn’t listen to NPR or include Pitchfork or Stereogum in their daily reads, these articles are probably somewhat interesting and are exposing them to things they wouldn’t know about otherwise.

Anyway, I’m not sure I’m chiding the magazine for the same reasons you are — I’d be happier, on the whole if they had just more interesting and varied coverage of music in general. But, like I said, I don’t feel like the stories they chase on any subject are all that interesting these days.