Idolator

Wilson specifically chose Dion because he doesn't like her music. As I understand it, it's a book about taste. 'Good', 'bad', how we determine our personal aesthetics, the fine line between loving something and hating something, etc etc. For my money, Carl is one of the best music writers alive, and of all the 33.3 books, this is easily the one I'm most amped to read.

Alec Baldwin to Stereogum:

"This is boring. I'm bored now."

BLOG WAR! BLOG WAR, EVERYBODY!

IT'S GOING DOWN!

SHIT IS GOING DOWN!

I expect one hell of a charticle in response, in between posts about the smell of Hillary Duff's latest fart and how Jared Leto did something unbecoming of a gentleman!

Why does Sterogum hate melody?

I was going to make a comment about this but decided it would be a complete waste of bytes.

And anyway, how is this even news when's there are so many more important things to talk about like OMGZ PITCHFORK'S RYAN SCHREIBER MOVED TO PARK SLOPE, FOR REALZZZ!!!!

SterEogum, that is. Sterogum sounds like the horrible mutant offspring of Stereogum and Jim DeRogatis.

"Why does Sterogum hate melody?"

That's ALWAYS funny.

Actually, this might be an interesting read. The "Aeroplane Over the Sea" one (the only one I've read) was mind-numbing in its total fawning. It'd be interesting to see what's to be said about such a clearly manufactured product (especially if the author is looking at it with a somewhat disapproving eye).

PS: H&O = teh awesome!!11!

man, i'm getting sick about people griping about this title. if someone's going to write about, you know, Pet Sounds, or Blonde on Blonde — I already know where that book is going to go. This, to me, is totally intriguing. What is he going to have to say about this?

Carl's been hinting around at the direction he's going to take it for awhile on his blog, Zoilus.com. He's a fantastic writer and thinker; his presentation on Celine at the Pop Conference last year was really smart. And god yes this should prove a more interesting book than a lot of the more fawning stuff in the series (including my own, I'm sure).

Here's the summary. Tell me this doesn't sound completely awesome:

"Non-fans regard Céline Dion as ersatz and plastic, yet to those who love her, no one could be more real, with her impoverished childhood, her (creepy) manager-husband's struggle with cancer, her knack for howling out raw emotion. There's nothing cool about Céline Dion, and nothing clever. That's part of her appeal as an object of love or hatred - with most critics and committed music fans taking pleasure (or at least geeky solace) in their lofty contempt. This book documents Carl Wilson's brave and unprecedented year-long quest to find his inner Céline Dion fan, and explores how we define ourselves in the light of what we call good and bad, what we love and what we hate."

actually, I think they posted about H2O's awesomeness some time around when Yacht Rock broke out.

but, uh, did you guys just admit to liking Celine Dion?

I wasn't sure. But now I know I like you Idolator. -dm

i know that today they tried to talk shit on Joanna Newsom calling her EP "and the Ys Street Band"

i really don't know how you CANT like that title

Celine Dion has a great voice but a perverse sense of how to use it (i.e. as a club with which to bludgeon songs to death).

Which isn't to say that I don't like "My Heart Will Go On, cuz I totally do, and anyone who says they don't is a liar.

In the nearly five years that I've been reading Stereogum, the site has never EVER copped the sort of "holier than thou" attitude that you're accusing them of here. And when you factor in the fact that making fun of Celine Dion has been culturally acceptable since her late `90s assault on our collective conscience, this post feels like haterade for the sake of haterade to me. C'mon Idolator, I know you're better than this...

In the nearly five years that I've been reading Stereogum, the site has never EVER copped the sort of "holier than thou" attitude that you're accusing them of here. And when you factor in the fact that making fun of Celine Dion has been culturally acceptable since her late `90s assault on our collective conscience, this post feels like haterade for the sake of haterade to me.

@blobby: I honestly don't like that song. I've never heard it the whole way through; I have no opinion. Her fame sort of sprouted up without my knowing it was happening, like the Pussy Cat Dolls or the OC. I do like that "touch me like that" song, because it reminds me of Meatloaf.

@Uncle Grambo: Grambo, maybe you've missed Stereogum's "It's Okay to Like..." series of posts. The moment they began to hand down edicts of acceptability for certain artists, whether they be guilty pleasures or what have you, is the moment Stereogum turned a corner from which they can not come back.

I think anyone who reads the site regularly knows that we generally don't attack people just for the sake of doing so (and I hope they'd also realize that I'm a long-time Stereogum fan who's frustrated with its recent direction). The Dion post was snobby and ill-informed, and the fact that it appeared on an influential music sitemakes it worthy of discussion (or criticism).

Speaking of the eighth grade school bus, the "tip" was a year late and came in the form of a livejournal post.

This just in: Stereogum saw a myspace bulletin that says Stephin Merrit is racist. Jessica Hopper said so!

I wonder if that book will talk about her songs in French. She partnered up with one of the best (if not the best) French songwriters for her French albums. She developed a more interesting and soulful persona through those songs (while still kind of cheesy -she's Céline Dion, after all), and even if you can tell that the wonderful lyrics had a lot to do with it, she certainly had it in her to transmit those feelings and let her powerful lungs be just another tool to build the song.

This is why I love Idolator. The fact that this book is written from an "outsider" perspective totally ruins it and goes against the point of having a book about something. Same goes for the 33 1/3 book on GNR's "Use Your Illusion" albums -- it was written from the point of view of a holier-than-thou music snob, and as such wasn't of much value to anyone who was actually a fan of those albums. It would be like if I decided to write a retrospective on the Arcade Fire.

@Brian Raftery: From the looks of it, this site has been heavily invested in Stereogum bashing since Day One. I guess the one thing we can agree on here is that snobbiness is in the eye of the beholder.

Grambo, I think you're missing the point a bit. Brian didn't write that the site never hates on Stereogum. His point is that Idolator doesn't hate on Stereogum for the sake of hate, but rather because Stereogum's direction in the past year or so has been rather disappointing.

It's like being a long-time fan of a band whose last few albums have sucked. It's frustrating because you know how good they can be.