More thinking about this, and I stress this isn't a reply to Pat K per se:
Music critics just can't be canonized, can they? (Outside music critic circles that is.) Musicians certainly can.. you don't have to be into music to know who Dylan or Pink Floyd or Michael Jackson are. But I doubt anyone on that same cursory level (which is a perfectly healthy level to have! I kinda envy it sometimes) knows a thing about Christgau, Marcus, Bangs, Meltzer, Leland, Eddy, and too many others to name.
Part of the former feeds into the latter. Some people are comfortable with certain groups remaining in each's personal throne of music... so the whole notion of a music critic must seem *disgusting* to people who have a more monarchical take on musicians. But critics just asked to be burned in such a point of view. They are The Devil. But hey, that's normal.
To people who are far more into music, technology has made it a LOT easier for one to go online and post an informed opinion in public. "Informed" is a relative term, but that's not the crux. It's the "in public" part. So basically anyone can be an Informed Music Critic for free on the net. So, to many, reading people like Christgau, Eddy, etc. certainly injects a lot of self-empowerment i.e. "Hey Christgau, looks like my site is just as accessible as yours. How you like THEM apples?" Which is fine, too.
So why am I rambling? Because there is so much history lost here. Christgau had his gig for decades until just a few years ago when Village Voice became Village Voice Media i.e. New Times, and he was laid off. Most people unsurprisingly shrugged...
...BUT -- ok, here comes the Velvet Underground analogy -- Christgau may have been known by about a few thousand readers. But most of those readers went on to be inspired and formed their own forays into music criticism and music journalism that even casual music fans know today... Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, SPIN, etc.
The history loss comes in because a lot of the institutions built by the inspirees of Christgau, Eddy, etc. have creatively and/or financially collapsed. When the music industry is dying, all the interconnected pieces fall too. If they don't fall, they *creatively* fall. (Granted, Rolling Stone and SPIN have been "falling" for quite a while, but the turnover rate in the staff might as well make these publications seem like refurbished new entities anyway.)
Music criticism has taken the worst hit as far as public opinion. I love the self empowerment and fort building that technology gives artists. That same state of affairs is poison to people who once made a living writing, whether writing very well or very poorly, about music for a living. The critic industry is in a coma.
So, it kinda saddens me when I open up a thread and it's all "GOD, Christgau is like the WORST THING ever." There's so much disconnection and so much unneeded anger, yet I can't avoid threads like this wherever I go. I'm not upset, but I'm posting this in hopes that some of you kinda get where I'm coming from... I hope?
P.S. See what happens when you're on Twitter a lot? You start posting rambling essays on the FOT board!
