Chris Weingarten: Twitter & the Death of Rock Criticism
First off, props to my good friend Chris Riebschlager (of the816.com) for this link.
Secondly, this whole rant by Chris Weingarten hits me with the force of a gut punch. As a former hack freelance music critic, I like to think that I wrote from a place that harbored a genuine love for music that goes back to my earliest memories. Currently as a digital marketing strategist, I realize that I’m part of the problem that he’s describing.
While I don’t agree with everything he’s saying, there’s about 90% of it that is a dead solid perfect bullseye. And I’m left speechless. Stunned. And a little sad too. Hit me with your take on the other side. It’s about a 10 minute viewing but very much worth your time if you care anything about music criticism, good writing and the twisted gyrations of the analog to digital conversion currently rocking the world of print media.
Too true, Patch. Here’s what I wrote April 23 at There Stands the Glass:
“I shudder to think that I can be as big of a geek as Christopher R. Weingarten. Still, I concur with almost all of his damning assertions in this commentary.”
Shit. I missed it on your blog, Haps. I need to make the rounds more often. Still, it’s the definition of mixed emotions for me.
“Firsties!”
I identified with this, too, John. I especially appreciated his take on AOL Spinner’s mass recruitment of SXSW reporters and the terrible but search-engine-dominating content their little ploy produced.
But this guy is pretty savvy about playing the same game he’s deriding. As I told you via Twitter, this is the same guy who tweets out 140-character album reviews by the hundred at http://twitter.com/1000timesyes.
Jason, I think that’s just a classic example of “don’t hate the player, hate the game.” And while I agree with the guy, something tells me that if there wasn’t this game to hate, he’d quickly find another one.
But I like how he’s putting some intrigue into those Twitter reviews. They’re somewhere between a tweet and a haiku, putting the onus on the reader to seek out the music for him/herself. Well played, sir. Well played.