Music/Art Criticism

I don't think we have an existing thread dedicated to art criticism. In some ways, SOMB and all the successive boards have just been a collective slapdash effort at our own form of music and pop culture criticism. Or something.

Anyways, I have been really interested in Greil Marcus lately. Has anyone read Lipstick Traces? Here is a link to a good New Yorker profile, if anyone is unfamiliar and interested. The secret ingredient to successful art criticism is to get really carried away in it. It does feel like the very definition of indulgence, which is something that our contemporary culture tends to really despise.

It doesn't seem like we have a generational equivalent to Greil Marcus, which is a real shame. Pitchfork probably scratched that itch for some people but that all feels very different. I have been diving deeper into jazz (mostly post-bop quintets and avant-garde composition) as well as Classical symphony orchestras. I often lack the necessary context and knowledge to really appreciate these pieces, which means that I am reading a lot. So this will probably just end up being a space for me to talk about talking about music throughout history. But I also just really enjoy reading art criticism.

Nick, have you ever read Critchley's collected essays on David Bowie? He is another intellectual who, like Greil Marcus, taught at the New School.

It’s funny you bring up Critchley because I have that On Bowie book as it was an Xmas gift a couple years ago but haven’t read it.

Though I have read essays that are made available online. I see what you’re saying in the opening post. I think the early days of Pitchfork there were creative writers that had a deep knowledge of music history but it didn’t lend for me to necessarily think critically about an album. It made me want to get into lots of other bands though. Which I did and spent money on albums so in that way early Pitchfork writing was impactful on me.