Pitchfork

[D-Tes]

You've pretty much answered your own question without me having to do a thing. AllMusic Guide is a fine place to start looking around; they aren't perfect, but at-least they don't piss on music from certain eras while glorifying everything that happens to exist in a certain niche. And no, it doesn't kill someone to look through Pitchfork as long as you don't let their reviews go to your head.

In my case, my dad handed me some Pink Floyd a few years back and I just started YouTube-ing around after liking what I heard, along with spending hours just buzzing about on ITunes for obscure groups and artists which wouldn't be caught dead on radio. During those times, I forced myself to listen to stuff that didn't automatically please me in order to understand what drew others to a particular kind of music, and I found that there was actually quite a lot to like indeed.

It also helps that my uncle Dan used to do a lot of touring with various banRAB back in the 60's through the 80's. He's a killer pianist and keyboardist, so I learned to appreciate musicianship just from listening to him whenever I went to visit. Hell, he even met with Frank Zappa once, which is pretty sweet.

And yes, this forum is a great place to broaden one's musical tastes. Last.fm doesn't hurt either.

PS: I never asked to be a herald of anything, and I dislike elitism as much as anyone else. I just don't understand people's constant unwillingness to never try anything outside their worthless comfort zones and rely on the tastes of people around them to compensate for their lack of trying. I can't control what others listen to, but there's nothing wrong with showing them a door of possibilities at the very least.

It's like you are walking back to your car from grocery shopping while multiple people drive by you with their windows wide open, each and every one blaring the same ****ty gangsta-rap as the guy behind them. Ever wonder what would happen if one of them switched to classical instead?

[part of the pack]

I absolutely despise pitchfork, if an album gets a good review on it, it's almost a total guaratee that it's a total piece of ****.

[Ttynow .webs.com]

He's such a hipster that he's too hip to be called a hipster.

[wilsonsdad2003]

I don't think they're trying to prove anything. A lot of indie fans are also into hip-hop so it just kind of makes sense to include it in with indie reviews.

[Oak Tree]

THANK YOU SO MUCH

had you not brought this to my attention i would have continued regarding their highly publicized but never criticized reviews as gospel.

perchance you could start another thread as to whether or not fire is still burning hot when one's hand is placed betwixt its flames?

[jk8rumrr]

I saw them live having not heard anything by them. They were all right but didn't really grab me. Plus they were followed by Liars!

[GBlue]

Exactly. Why bother?

[Blaze C]

Half a decade or more ago, I'd agree with that, but their writing has vastly improved in the past few years. It's still stylized somewhat and obviously they're appealing to a particular crowd, but the reviews have gotten a lot more relevant and some of the articles are actually really interesting.



That's the thing... for all the talk I hear about people like that, I don't think I've ever actually met one. Anyone I've ever come across who's even given a s--t about the subject has said something more along the lines of:



Which is why Pitchfork hate (actually a lot of "hipster" hate in general) kind of strikes me as the worst sort of elitism: the presumption of some kind of automaton, trend-slave culture spoken as though the speaker were above it all. That's sort of the thing about culture--it's inevitable, we're all part of it, it just manifests differently for different people.

I dunno. I'm not accusing anyone of that (at least not anyone here--I can think of some people I know in the so-called real world)--just musing aloud (or in text, I suppose).

[JeeVee]

And then there's those who rebel against rebelling against Pitchfork. They really get me riled up.

[pbleeds99]

There are albums they've pretty much taken a dump on that I really like. Just goes to show all reviews should be taken with a grain of salt, no matter the source.