It seems to me that if rock nyc was large enough to matter, we would be out of business because we have opinions, fluid and changing opinions, and sometimes very negative opinions about the music we write about. And everybody disagrees with everybody else.
This comes to mind because Lorde, sticking up for Iggy Azalea, claimed the magazine Complex were hypocrites for putting Iggy on their cover and yet panning her album. Iggy and Grimes agreed. Lorde wrote on Tumblr “bugs me how publications like complex will profile interesting artists in order to sell copies/get clicks and then shit on their records? it happens to me all the time- pitchfork and that ilk being like “can we interview you?” after totally taking the piss out of me in a review. have a stance on an artist and stick to it. don’t act like you respect them then throw them under the bus”.
Complex’s associate editor Insanul Ahmed responded here, but let me highlight: “This issue Lorde highlights is an on-going problem in music writing, one where artists seem to think of journalists as akin to their publicists, and journalists are afraid to say anything bad about an artist for fear of losing access. An artist thinking that just because they’re interviewed by an outlet that said outlet can’t then “shit on your records” muddies the difference between music profiling and music criticism. The job of a journalist profiling an interesting artist is to bring their story to life for an audience. The job of a music critic writing a review is to put an album in the proper context for listeners and, yes, share their opinion on the album. Thinking doing one means a publication can’t do the other misses the point of each entirely”
And there you have it, Ahmed nailed it on the head: “artists seem to think of journalists as akin to their publicists, and journalists are afraid to say anything bad about an artist for fear of losing access.” That’s exactly what Creem in the 80s and NME and in 70s and Blender in the 90s were not about. It is impossible to be a rock critic if you are so beholden to publicists. Azalea wrote on Twitter: “The media will beg for free tickets to your show just so they can write about how much they hate it. I wish you could all see it. The whole things actually pretty funny.” Er, free tickets? Wow, that’s a little harsh? Writers are professionals, they go to shows to review them, it isn’t entertainment. Tickets are the tools of their trade.
I’ve never much read complex before, but I could be wrong you know.
