Music criticism as music education?
This bit by Joe Tangeri from Pitchfork’s top singles of the 90s list made me wonder exactly who that list was supposed to be for, and how it was supposed to work:
Quick, what was Melody Maker’s album of the year in 1993? No, it wasn’t Suede’s self-titled debut or Blur’s Modern Life Is Rubbish; it was Tindersticks’ debut, a brave and spot-on choice.
…because, man, quick or not, I had no idea what Melody Maker’s album of the year in 1993 would be before he mentioned the candidates. I didn’t even have the kind of contextual knowledge that would’ve allowed me to come up with those albums, and I didn’t know why it mattered that it was Melody Maker.
Sorry to crop the rest of this rather good post (you should read the whole thing!) — but I’m taking a moment to remark upon my experience reading this: I have a former friend (oh, the drama!) who worked for Melody Maker during this period, and all I could think was “OMG, that was so [name redacted]’s doing!”
Naturally, I hadn’t listened to Tindersticks in ages because, though I don’t often ditch listening to certain kinds of music because of relationships or friendships gone awry, this person and another from my past (both Tindersticks superfans) have pretty much tainted my love of this band with their sociopathic lifestyles.
Anyway, the funny thing is, I would have totally suspected Suede or Blur to have taken top honors that year in Melody Maker! Because, obviously, I listen to both of those records way more than I listen to the first Tindersticks album. It’s kind of not an easy thing to do, you definitely need to be in the right mood for it.
So, of course, after I read this the other day, I thought ‘Oh what the hell, it’s time to put all that baggage behind me! I’m gonna listen to Tindersticks again!’ And — this is really embarrassing — I’d completely forgotten that The National pretty much cribbed a whole lot of their moves from Tindersticks’ playbook — at least in the early days of their career. Which I wish Tangeri had mentioned, actually. Not in that “Oh, The National, so derivative!” But for the kids, the ones reading this list who’d never heard of Tindersticks until that very moment. Which I suppose does come back to the didactic qualities of good music journalism. There’s a very fine line between this-thing-sounds-like-that-thing and true efforts to expand a reader’s knowledge through references to other bands — but this would have been a good place for the latter, I think — even given the space constraints.
