Journalism is filled with grey space. It’s hard to turn out a story that is truly black or white. Wade into the world of entertainment journalism and things get even murkier. For my work I am, on a near weekly basis, sent free music, receive free tickets to concerts, and am allowed to watch/listen to content that hasn’t be released to the general public. This makes skirting the line between Public Relations and Criticism hard. It would be so easy to shower praise on the artists who give me free things so I can keep getting free things and start positive (if unethical) connections. I’m sure it’s the same way for movie and game critics, but the Music Journalism world (and my own world) recently had an event that blurred the line between PR and criticism. A trio of prominent musicians attacked Complex Magazine over perceived “spineless” writing and in my own, infinitely less important, experience a rapper tried to set lines between fan and critic.
To Complex first. Last year the New York based zine featured
Australian rapper Iggy Azalea on their cover. A few weeks ago they reviewed her
debut album, giving it a mediocre score. Azalea didn’t directly go after them;
instead Lorde went to her tumblr and said this:
“bugs me how publications like complex will profile
interesting artists in order to sell copies/get clicks and then shit on their
records? it happens to me all the time- pitchfork and that ilk being like “can
we interview you?” after totally taking the piss out of me in a review. have a
stance on an artist and stick to it. don’t act like you respect them then throw
them under the bus.”
Azalea bolstered Lorde’s post with these tweets:
To round out the trio, Grimes also agreed with Lorde’s and
Azalea’s sentiments.
And now to my own life. Last month I reviewed Cunninlyguists’
Strange Journey Volume 3. I thought
it was a decent release and gave it a 3/5. I called it uneven, but I also said
that some of the songs were among the best released in 2014. Hours later
Cunninlyguists producer Kno went on a twitter rant against me and my
publication. He first informed me that Strange
Journey wasn’t an album, but a mixtape, so I had reviewed it incorrectly (I
won’t get into the semantics of what is a mixtape and what isn’t, but he was
selling it for money and it’s listed as an album under rateyourmusic.com so I
stand by my review). It soon became clear that he was angrier about the review
itself rather than the mixtape argument.
So what do we take away from this? Complex did its own
excellent response to Lorde and Azalea by saying this:
“Lorde declaring “have a stance on an artist and stick to
it” is a bizarre notion for an organization like Complex, which is to say
bizarre for any media organization that claims to have any journalistic
integrity. No one should stick to their opinion when new facts (possibly in the
form of new music) are made available that can alter your views. Art and
artistry are fluid things.”
In Lorde’s defense I have seen publications, most notably
Rolling Stone, run a cover of an artist and then trash their work in the same
issue. To me that seems cheap, but Complex sums up a different issue often seen
in politics. No one likes a flip-flopper, even if there are valid reasons
behind personal views changing. The time between Azalea’s cover photo and
review was around eight months. In the cosmic sense that’s a short time, but
for journalists it might as well be an eon. Tweets, videos, and entire albums
come out in the meantime and our constant searching for new information leads
to new opinions. To quote The Guess Who “Seasons changed and so have I.” If my
musical tastes hadn’t changed I’d still be listening to Aaron Carter and the
Ba-ha men because I liked them when I was five (but my deep appreciation of
Weird Al from that time period still stands). Kno, rather ironically, went
after Lorde, Azalea, and Grimes with these tweets:
Despite this, Kno has a similar fallacy; you can’t be a
critic if you’re a fan. I find this laughable as every music journalist/critic
I’ve met has gotten into the business because they are fans. Some artist galvanized
them to pick up a pen and write (or turn on the computer and type). I am a fan
of Cunninlynguists and I continue to be a fan. A week before my review of the
new album I saw them live and gave a glowing concert recap over at
Deadendhiphop, but because I wasn’t keen on one thing they did (in a massive
catalog) I’m no longer a fan. I’m the enemy. Artists like Kno, Lorde, and other
seem to want a neutered version of the music press that acts like a PR team.
For Lorde, if you ask her for an interview you’d better give her a good review
afterwards. For Kno, fans’ can’t have changing opinions. There wouldn’t be a
point then. Every album would be a 10/10 and artists would stay in the same
lane, never changing, because there’s no one there to point out flaws.
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