Thou sayest

My faculty collaborator has given me a couple questions to chew on this weekend, perhaps to decrease the time I spend thinking about font colors for the blog, but also to think more seriously about the critical underpinnings of this research. We meet weekly to discuss these and other issues, and writing weekly reflections on what I've been doing and thinking about is good practice for me, not simply from a writing perspective, but as a way of allowing myself to risk a path that might yield thorny, less-than-tidy answers—or more likely—thorny, less-than-tidy questions. I prefer being right.

I'd value your reflections on these questions as well (and I promise not to plagiarize from your comments). I'll add my own reflection here, too.

1. What do you think is the purpose of the art(s) critic in this cultural context?
2. What do you think should be the purpose of the art(s) critic in this cultural context?

If you infer from those questions a kind of good critic vs. bad critic dichotomy, feel free to explore that a bit. I'm all for judgment: as a kid, I would line up the 150+ nativity sets that my father collected, conducting an elaborate, points-based pageant to determine which Baby Jesus et familia had the most artistic integrity.

A quick read

Michael Agger's article for slate.com, Lazy Bastards, contributes directly to our conversation. As writing moves online, turns out that who reads it and why is impacted by how it is written. Think bullet points, bolding, and links to more information (for Type As only). We may need to refer to his directions in evaluating effective online writing. Obvious question: can good criticism be good online?

Work vs. Leisure

As I begin this project, my desk is the table on my front porch. My dog sits, mostly quietly, beside me; planters are blooming color and lushness, the breeze is pleasant, my coffee is hot. I am being funded to research: to read, to write, to surf the net, to think. For the next ten weeks I will be exploring the role of the blogosphere on arts criticism in our society (you can learn more by reading a synopsis of my funding proposal here). Today, as I prepare to think about the intersection of technology, traditional media, music, society, and consumers of art, I'm interruped (read: annoyed) by the radio from a car parked in front of my home. It's blasting some kind of heavy metal rock music, disturbing my peace, and more importantly, my Work. My very important work.

Across the street from my condo is a new building project; the source of the loud music is from the car of a construction guy, on break (at 9:30am he was already on break, having arrived for work around 6; I was just settling in to my aforementioned important work).

Music is a leisure time activity, available to all, free. But we pay, depending on our interest and ability to do so: for opera tickets, or subscriptions to the symphony; for large venue rock concerts, weekend bluegrass festivals, mp3 downloads, public radio memberships, and on and on. For some particularly privileged few, music can be work.

Not for the painter/bricklayer/taper/carpenter in the truck in front of my place, though. Music for him is escape from the work of the day (some might call it real work). A discussion of the place of music criticism in our society can't really take place without thinking about class and power and yes, privilege. Your thoughts on this, and related topics, are most welcome. Everyone's a critic only if everyone joins in.

Working Bibliography (updated 6/16/08)

Derfner, Joel. Swish: My Quest to Become the Gayest Person Ever. New York: Broadway Books, 2008.

Diamond, Harold J. Music Criticism: An Annotated Guide to the Literature. Metuchen, N.J.: The Scarecrow Press, 1979.

Grant, Mark N., and Eric Friedheim. Maestros of the Pen: A History of Classical Music Criticism in America. Boston, Mass.: Northeastern University Press, 1998.

Guillory, John. Cultural Capital: The Problem of Literary Canon Formation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993.

Haskell, Harry. The Attentive Listener: Three Centuries of Music Criticism. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1996.

Heintze, James R., Michael Saffle, and College Music Society. Reflections on American Music: The Twentieth Century and the New Millennium: A Collection of Essays Presented in Honor of the College Music Society. Vol. 16. New York: Pendragon Press, 2000.

Jameson, Fredric. The Cultural Turn: Selected Writings on the Postmodern, 1983-1998. London; New York: Verso, 1998.

---. Postmodernism, Or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Durham: Duke University Press, 1991.

Kramer, Lawrence. Critical Musicology and the Responsibility of Response: Selected Essays. Aldershot, England; Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2006.

Levy, Alan Howard. Radical Aesthetics and Music Criticism in America, 1930-1950. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press, 1991.

Price, Kingsley. On Criticizing Music: Five Philosophical Perspectives. Vol. 1978-1979. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1981.

Ross, Alex. The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century. 1st ed. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007.

---. "The Well-Tempered Web." New Yorker 22 October 2007: 78.

Said, Edward W. On Late Style: Music and Literature Against the Grain. 1st ed. New York: Pantheon Books, 2006.

Schick, Robert D. Classical Music Criticism: With a Chapter on Reviewing Ethnic Music. Vol. 1879. New York: Garland, 1996.

Steinberg, Michael, and Larry Rothe. For the Love of Music: Invitations to Listening. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.