Back in the 1980s, when the Village Voice music review pages were all powerful, I was a freelance contributor to their pages and, of course, a voten on their annual round up of music critics from around the country happily voting for their fave albums.
It really is a tradition, if they have it this year it will be their 40th, but will they?
I've been speaking to various rock critics and they haven't received their poll yet and they should have. Last year Rob Harvilla was fired as editor of the music pages, and last month Maura Johnston was given the boot. The latest in a long line *(after having Robert Christgau for literally decades) , The latest edition is Brian McManus: "McManus is a former music editor at Philadelphia Weekly. He has written for Rolling Stone, Spin, SF Weekly, the Chicago Reader and others including the Houston Press, where he had a nightlife column"
Yeah, well I liked Rob's writing but wasn't convinced of him as an editor. And Maura failed to impress me very much either. So I don't think this guy will necessrily be any worse. but as Bill Holdship recently noted, the Alt weeklies will be dead within 5 years.
And the first step will be killing the yearly round up.
As a special favor to out faithful reader (you know who you are, don't be coy), here is the top five Pazz And Jop albums for 2012. No, don't thank me: 1- Frank Ocean, 2 – Bob dylan, 3 – Lemarr Kendrick, 4 – Leonard Cohen, 5 – Fiona Apple -No, dont thank me