NPR’s Steve Inskeep speaks with Kelefa Sanneh, a music critic writing for The New Yorker, about his essay “How Music Criticism Misplaced Its Edge.”
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
This is an irony of this second. Some folks say essentially the most outrageous issues. however when critics write about leisure, they grow to be extra well mannered over time. The author Kelefa Sanneh says critics appear to be muffling their opinions of music.
KELEFA SANNEH: I at all times get aggravated when folks say that music brings us collectively as a result of one of many issues it might probably do is give us methods to distinguish ourselves.
INSKEEP: Sanneh wrote a bit historical past of music criticism in The New Yorker. And he says critics have misplaced their edge in comparison with critics of the Sixties and ’70s.
SANNEH: There was this man named Robert Christgau who known as himself the dean of American rock criticism, who actually gave letter grades to albums within the Village Voice. So Donny Hathaway he described as, quote, “supper-club melodrama and homogenized jazz,” and gave that album a D-minus.
INSKEEP: Wow.
SANNEH: George Harrison, “Darkish Horse.” He known as him a, quote, “horse dork,” C-minus.
INSKEEP: (Laughter).
SANNEH: There’s this well-known evaluate in Rolling Stone by Greil Marcus of Bob Dylan’s “Self Portrait” album, which started, what is that this [expletive]?
INSKEEP: (Laughter).
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “COPPER KETTLE”)
BOB DYLAN: (Singing) My daddy, he made whiskey. My granddaddy, he did, too.
SANNEH: So there was this concept that rock critics particularly had been going to combat about music, had been going to have robust and fierce opinions. And to me, as a child, as I began to learn a few of these older articles, that appeared like a part of the enjoyable.
INSKEEP: A part of the story you inform is that individuals had been entertained by these criticisms and possibly did not take them totally significantly. You could possibly be a fan of George Harrison and browse the horrible evaluate of George Harrison and nonetheless sort of take pleasure in it.
SANNEH: Yeah. I imply, in professional wrestling, they name it kayfabe, proper? The concept you are sort of staying in character and that the viewers likes combat. And likewise, there was this concept that, nicely, rock ‘n’ roll was this newish music that was sort of impolite. So the critics had been going to be sort of impolite, too.
INSKEEP: Effectively, what then started to occur because the years went on to music criticism?
SANNEH: There was this concept – I wrote about it in 2004 – of this factor known as rockism, the concept that critics had been possibly a bit too dedicated to a number of the myths of rock ‘n’ roll, and so they had been lacking another sorts of music. They had been possibly not listening fastidiously sufficient to pop music or R&B or nation music. And other people began to speak about one thing known as poptimism. The concept was, as a substitute of being rockist, as a substitute of being centered on loud guitars and sweaty guys in leather-based jackets, we had been going to possibly have fun pop music. And so as a substitute of claiming, oh, this boy band is only a bunch of sellouts making music to generate profits, they mentioned, no, truly, this hit single is fairly good. And that motion turned more and more influential in music criticism.
INSKEEP: I am realizing that one of many belongings you’re describing then is what was occurring within the broader society. As a substitute of getting one narrative, one set of values, we grow to be extra multicultural. And other people aren’t so certain of their values and attempt to perceive different folks’s factors of view.
SANNEH: That is precisely proper. I imply, anybody who has this bizarre job of being a music critic faces individuals who ask them, who the hell are you to inform me what music to love? And that is an affordable feeling to have, however it may be sort of deadly to the enterprise of criticism.
INSKEEP: Was there one other issue right here? Social media gave followers the flexibility to push again on critics.
SANNEH: Effectively, yeah, followers did not used to essentially have a voice, proper? Musicians would make the data, critics would say what they thought, and that was sort of the tip of it. However with social media, the dialog began to go in all kinds of various instructions.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO”)
TAYLOR SWIFT: (Singing) Oh, look what you made me do.
INSKEEP: Taylor Swift is within the information the previous few days, in case you missed it. What function did Taylor Swift play on this transition?
SANNEH: Effectively, Taylor Swift was somebody, on the one hand, whose followers had been and are ferocious. And critics generally complain that in the event that they mentioned one thing damaging about Taylor Swift, they bought reprisals from her followers. At one level, the journal Paste revealed a evaluate of the Taylor Swift album “Tortured Poets.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “THE SMALLEST MAN WHO EVER LIVED”)
SWIFT: (Singing) And I might’ve died on your sins. As a substitute, I simply died inside. And also you deserve jail, however you will not get time.
SANNEH: And the evaluate was sort of damaging, and it was revealed with no byline. And the concept was that this is able to possibly assist preserve the critic protected from any backlash from Taylor Swift’s followers.
INSKEEP: Witness safety program. OK.
SANNEH: Precisely proper, the critic with a brown paper bag over our head. And, you realize, it is sort of humorous, nevertheless it’s an actual sense of the strain that critics generally felt.
INSKEEP: I really feel that you’ve once more touched on broader tendencies in society. We’ve raised…
SANNEH: Yeah.
INSKEEP: …The price of inconvenient or rude speech.
SANNEH: Sure, and whereas additionally giving folks extra freedom. One of many issues I seen was that generally it appeared just like the actually harsh evaluations of albums had been coming from on a regular basis customers on-line, on social media. After which while you learn an expert critic, you’d learn one thing extra considerate, extra well mannered.
INSKEEP: What’s an instance of what you are speaking about?
SANNEH: One instance is the singer Lorde put out a report in 2021 known as “Photo voltaic Energy.” And it bought well mannered evaluations. Rolling Stone gave it 3 1/2 stars.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “SOLAR POWER”)
LORDE: (Singing) My cheeks in excessive colour, overripe peaches. No shirt, no sneakers, solely my toes. Simply my boy behind me, he is taking footage.
SANNEH: The truth is, one of the vital damaging evaluations of the album got here from Lorde herself. Later in an interview, she mentioned that the album was her try to be chill and sort of wafty. And he or she remembers considering, truly, I do not suppose that is me. So that you had this weird scenario the place skilled critics had been kinder to Lorde than she herself was. You generally hear it mentioned that an artist is her personal worst critic. However I do not suppose we would like that to be actually true.
INSKEEP: (Laughter).
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “SOLAR POWER”)
LORDE: (Singing) Are you coming, my child?
INSKEEP: Why, if in any respect, does it matter if criticism has grow to be rather more well mannered?
SANNEH: (Laughter) You are asking a barely extra well mannered model of the query, who cares? One reply is that for a few of us, it is enjoyable to learn barely unhinged criticism. And it displays one thing true about what it is wish to be an individual to hearken to music. For those who’re speaking to your pal about music, you will most likely hear some extraordinarily robust and categorical opinions, proper? Whether or not it is I hate steel, whether or not it is hip-hop hasn’t been good since 2005, folks are inclined to have actually robust views. So I get a bit skeptical when the important evaluations do not appear that robust. If we won’t have a frank change of views about Taylor Swift, possibly we’re dropping our means a bit bit to have frank exchanges of views about the whole lot else.
INSKEEP: Kelefa Sanneh writes for The New Yorker. His newest article is known as “How Music Criticism Misplaced Its Edge.” Thanks a lot.
SANNEH: Thanks.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “SOLAR POWER”)
LORDE: (Singing) That so…
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