The relevance of music, arts critics
I’VE BEEN in two minds in deciding if and how to write my column this week. You see the subject matter is one that most prominently affects my self-interest and could potentially disrupt my monthly income, tax return, free entrance to most gigs and parties as well as being able to download the newest music releases before the rest of the proletariat.
It also, I suppose, debates the idea of my self-worth and how I define who I am and the point of what I spend a good chunk of my time doing – namely, what is the relevance of the arts and entertainment critic in the modern digital world?
I have been a voracious consumer of music magazines since a pre-teen. The most exciting time of the week was when my international subscription to the NME and Rolling Stone would arrive in the post and I could gouge my appetite slurping up the latest news, features, interviews and photos of the ‘’it’’ bands of the moment. After South Africa became a global importer/exporter post-apartheid more overseas music magazines like Mojo, Q, Spin, Billboard, Uncut, Kerrang, The Vibe, The Source and even The Face started appearing on the shelves of news agents.
My friends and I were devoted to knowing the most up to date information about popular and new band and artist releases, what was good and what was shite. We felt well informed and part of the global taste making conversation.
With the popularity of the internet, more and more digital blogs took over from the zine culture and new names in music journalism started popping up.
As the internet and digital space has grown bigger and as the need for click bait being the only means for advertisers to determine if they are reaching a maximum market of readership, websites and blogs opened up their comments section to the public.
Where before a well written repose to a reviewer’s column from a magazine would hopefully be printed in the next week or month’s issue, it all now happens in a matter of seconds online sparking pages and pages of every man’s claim to know what is truly gold and whom should be turned into a public villain. One only needs to remember the hell Lana del Rey went through in her first few years as a recording artist to see how fast a public swell of disinformation turned opinion could nearly suffocate a new artist.
We are in a vortex of opinion based information overload. Reviewing others hard slogged work is everyone’s guilty pleasure and the nastier and or inflammatory your judgement is the better for the site’s bottom line. Technology is expanding at a rapid rate with what was new cool digital tools to market your band via blogs, forums and social media during the early 2000’s seems like aeons compared to the social manipulation by critical trolls whose passion is their 15 seconds of online fame.
No longer does the music journalist, bring the music to life on the page exploring the subtle themes of the songs or the patois of the writer, he or she must now be able to wrap up what is sometimes years of work by an artist in a 140 characters space. It’s so much easier to just be manipulated into scribbling a snarky comment.
Music and arts critiques are now seemingly only relevant to the artists themselves. The public is unable to delve through the myriad of online sites purporting to review releases and the professional opinion is lost in the junkyard of the masses Facebooking, Tweeting and 4Channing appraisals, let’s not even mention the rise of the social media and blogging bots.
Is there still a need for the arts and entertainment reviewer? Are those whom are passionate and informed of a certain creative discipline still necessary in guiding opinions or are we just heading for cultural mediocrity?