Mainstream Rock Criticism: Few Students and Fewer Explorers

I was at a birthday party a couple of weeks ago, talking about rock music. A big surprise, huh? As the discussion flowed, me and a friend got to talking about critics. And my friend mentioned Greg Kot, rock critic for the Chicago Tribune. Specifically, he said, "You agree with him most of the time, don't you?" I reflexively said no, but before I could really explain why, something interrupted our discussion. It might have been one of the bands onstage.

Because this was not an ordinary birthday party. My pal Paul put this shindig together in honor of his 40th birthday. Since college, Paul has been playing in the band Prairie Town (prairietown.net), a rocking heartland bar band that has put out a few discs. For his party, he got his friends and family into the act, so attendees heard everything from a Ramones tribute by The Hungries, to some nice acoustic music to some fusion jazz. There were two clear highlights.

First, there was Paul's father-in-law, Hank Greenholdt. He's a swell crooner who has entertained folks at retirement homes and county fairs. He sang some Sinatra, Dean Martin and the King's "In the Ghetto", mixing fine singing with a strong sense of humor. His best line? "I've sung before Mass, but tonight I'm singing before Crapalanche!" He was referring to a band that included two of Paul's friends, Josh and Cat. They learned how to play their instruments just for the occasion, which is so cool. How did they do? Well, they sounded like Crapalanche. All things considered, it was A-OK, and it was certainly the first time I heard a band finish a set (three songs!) with the audience yelling "More Crap!" over and over.

Enough of my digression, which doubled as a device to mention Crapalanche (http://hometown.aol.com/crapalancherock/index.html) in my column. Back to the issue at hand. Why did I blanch when someone put forward the notion that I might be in agreement with a mainstream critic? It's not that bad, is it?

Well, yes and no. Certainly, there are some prominent critics who write for large publications who are doing a lot more good than harm. Taking Kot as an example, he, along with newspaper rival/broadcasting partner Jim DeRogatis, have certainly done a lot to tout some music that was not getting enough exposure. Exhibit A would be the Flaming Lips, who they have championed for years.

And I certainly don't begrudge mainstream critics for covering so much crap. Working for larger publications and media outlets ties their hands quite a bit. So they actually have to review the new Britney Spears. They have to write about things their readers know about.

I guess where I find the big critics lacking is in how limited they seem to be. By that, I mean that they don't seem like they are truly exploring music. Every year, the figures show that well over 30,000 compact discs are released, and I think those numbers are conservative. Of course, most of that output is substandard.

Yet, among those thousands of discs, you will find some gems. In fact, the sheer mass of new releases that cross the desk of any critic means that things will be missed. No one person can find all the great stuff out there. But that doesn't excuse the fact that so few critics with large audiences seem to bother finding any hidden gems.

From my viewpoint, it appears that most critics won't bother writing about an artist or a disc until it has generated sufficient buzz to do so. This buzz might come from the concert circuit, college radio or overseas. And though I understand that critics for larger papers are required to cover artists who are in the news, can't they find some space for a few artists (not just local artists) who haven't benefitted from some advance pub? Let's face it -- to the average reader of the entertainment section, writing about RockFour isn't much different than writing about The Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

The thing is, I don't think that mainstream critics avoid these records primarily due to these priorities. I think they do so because they just don't find them relevant. I don't know if I call it jaded, but I do think that once you get into the mainstream, you play by the rules. One of those rules is that you write about what's important. And what's important? What everyone is writing about. Now, I don't know how much of that mindset is an adaptive characteristic. Those who can work for major papers and magazines have a good gig. They can actually make a living writing music. So I'm not sure if they develop this kind of tunnel vision as a response to the environment, or if it's just a predisposition.

Whatever the reason, in this climate, where there is so much music out there, I just find it depressing that folks who actually make a living writing about music don't seem to find the time to listen to and/or write about records that come out of nowhere and affect them. If they do take the time to at least listen, I don't see it show through in what they write about. You're either in or you're out.

To my mind, any competent critic is a student and an explorer. The job of a critic is not to show off how much he or she knows, as that should be obvious from the work. A rock music critic should be able to explain what they like and what they don't like, and do it in a way that allows the reader to decide if it's worth fifteen bucks, even if the critic doesn't like it. Moreover, a critic should strive to capture what the effective power of music is, rather than just categorize and list. While I think many critics fulfill these goals to an extent, when it comes to mainstream critics, I see fewer students and almost no explorers.

There are some other points where I would personally differentiate what I do from what the big boys and girls do, but that's my main bone of contention. Of course, if the choice were between aligning myself with Greg Kot or a writer at Pitchfork.com, I'd definitely move next to Kot.

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