More great reporting on this problem. I've been looking at the scene with an eye to solutions and one thing I've noticed is, that where copy still exists, for example in NZ Musician or on Music 101, it's usually boring copy. Musicians (my area, dunno about the rest) aren't being outrageous or saying outrageous things as often. I don't mean taking sides on the issues of the day, even taking the wrong side is usually still boring, I mean being interestingly controversial in their approach to life and ideas about their art. Possibly the inhibitions of online surveillance culture, possibly the jazz school training and generally more privileged backgrounds of those who get careers today, possibly the cookie cutter ideas of identity politics and therapy speak displacing hard-won originality, or - quite possibly - critics and interviewers have stopped asking the right questions for fear of exposing an artist or offending their readers.
That's an interesting point. But are they not saying interesting things anymore, or are they not getting in front of the kind of journalists who can spur that kind of conversation on? It can take a long time - sometimes several previous interviews - to build up enough trust to inspire those kinds of conversations. And for the musician to know that their comments will be handled in the right way. Interesting thought!
I absolutely will! I love foisting my music opinions upon others. And yeah I agree that finding great music through friends is amazing but i personally have had a lot of luck with the algorithms (at least on Spotify). But i also love going on blogs and newsletters to find stuff. I’ll really miss pitchfork if it turns to shit and i really appreciate what you’re doing here, so please don’t stop.
Me and my mates found this cool thing recently called Music League which is an app where you get a group of mates together and start a ‘league'. Each week every person submits a couple songs on a theme (e.g. best songs of 2023, best covers of all time, greatest kiwi classics etc (but it could be anything)), then the app puts them all into a Spotify playlist and distributes it to everyone and they all vote on the best tracks. It’s so fun! I’ve found a bunch of great music that way.
Perhaps what we need is a letterboxd style app/website that’s focused on music? I can’t see the editorial model returning where a small number of institutions/people hold the keys on media critique.
I haven’t read any deep analysis on whether the letterboxd model is a good or a bad one but when i was on there reading the reviews of saltburn recently i was having a rollicking good time. I would love to see the same for music critique. I think providing the space for considered opinions to flourish regarding music would help push the focus away from the cookie cutter, ai/algorithm driven, background noise nonsense that is starting to proliferate. Allowing humans to speak on albums, singles, live performances and hidden gems - and to build a community around that. That would be so cool.
Update: I’ve done a search and something like this does exist, called Musicboard. It looks pretty good. I guess it just depends on whether something like this could generate the network effects required to garner an audience full of the irreverence, joy and self-perpetuating energy that letterboxd has.
I know all of this isn’t very NZ-centric. But i still think it would be helpful.
Hi Simon! I really love this idea. Letterboxd is going off, so it would be great to see someone do something similar for music. Personally, I find the algorithms terrible, and honestly I get the best recs from friends and family. I'm trying to do something about it here - I actually have a Friday post planned about exactly this, where we all dive in and admit to what we're listening to. I hope you join in :)
I’ve played Music League through my office too - great fun. Although my picks were a little ... shall we say ... more mature than my younger team mates :)
More great reporting on this problem. I've been looking at the scene with an eye to solutions and one thing I've noticed is, that where copy still exists, for example in NZ Musician or on Music 101, it's usually boring copy. Musicians (my area, dunno about the rest) aren't being outrageous or saying outrageous things as often. I don't mean taking sides on the issues of the day, even taking the wrong side is usually still boring, I mean being interestingly controversial in their approach to life and ideas about their art. Possibly the inhibitions of online surveillance culture, possibly the jazz school training and generally more privileged backgrounds of those who get careers today, possibly the cookie cutter ideas of identity politics and therapy speak displacing hard-won originality, or - quite possibly - critics and interviewers have stopped asking the right questions for fear of exposing an artist or offending their readers.
That's an interesting point. But are they not saying interesting things anymore, or are they not getting in front of the kind of journalists who can spur that kind of conversation on? It can take a long time - sometimes several previous interviews - to build up enough trust to inspire those kinds of conversations. And for the musician to know that their comments will be handled in the right way. Interesting thought!
I absolutely will! I love foisting my music opinions upon others. And yeah I agree that finding great music through friends is amazing but i personally have had a lot of luck with the algorithms (at least on Spotify). But i also love going on blogs and newsletters to find stuff. I’ll really miss pitchfork if it turns to shit and i really appreciate what you’re doing here, so please don’t stop.
Me and my mates found this cool thing recently called Music League which is an app where you get a group of mates together and start a ‘league'. Each week every person submits a couple songs on a theme (e.g. best songs of 2023, best covers of all time, greatest kiwi classics etc (but it could be anything)), then the app puts them all into a Spotify playlist and distributes it to everyone and they all vote on the best tracks. It’s so fun! I’ve found a bunch of great music that way.
Perhaps what we need is a letterboxd style app/website that’s focused on music? I can’t see the editorial model returning where a small number of institutions/people hold the keys on media critique.
I haven’t read any deep analysis on whether the letterboxd model is a good or a bad one but when i was on there reading the reviews of saltburn recently i was having a rollicking good time. I would love to see the same for music critique. I think providing the space for considered opinions to flourish regarding music would help push the focus away from the cookie cutter, ai/algorithm driven, background noise nonsense that is starting to proliferate. Allowing humans to speak on albums, singles, live performances and hidden gems - and to build a community around that. That would be so cool.
Update: I’ve done a search and something like this does exist, called Musicboard. It looks pretty good. I guess it just depends on whether something like this could generate the network effects required to garner an audience full of the irreverence, joy and self-perpetuating energy that letterboxd has.
I know all of this isn’t very NZ-centric. But i still think it would be helpful.
Hi Simon! I really love this idea. Letterboxd is going off, so it would be great to see someone do something similar for music. Personally, I find the algorithms terrible, and honestly I get the best recs from friends and family. I'm trying to do something about it here - I actually have a Friday post planned about exactly this, where we all dive in and admit to what we're listening to. I hope you join in :)
I’ve played Music League through my office too - great fun. Although my picks were a little ... shall we say ... more mature than my younger team mates :)