Unos cuantos links para meditar acerca de la crítica de rock y su rol social. Aquí, la teoría oficial ¿Qué es un crítico de rock?
No merece la pena leerlo, la verdad. No sé por qué me empeño en parecer formal... Para compensar, en este link, hay un artículo bastante bueno de Lester Bangs. No imaginaba que tuviese un lado tan destructivo…
(…) You will be invited to press parties for the opening of new acts in town. It helps to live in places like L.A. and New York, because they have more of them there; I know some people, in fact, who have almost literally kept themselves from starving for months at a time by eating dinner at a different press party every night. (I know other people who have made entire careers out of attending these things, but that's a different story.) The food's usually pretty good to magnificent (…)
Hace décadas que las compañías no tienen dinero para organizar saraos, fiestas y presentaciones y menos aún para ofrecer canapés o invitar a cenas… En realidad, con la política de dar empleo al más inútil, ni siquiera conocen los usos sociales.
(…) In the zealotic terms of wanting to inflict your tastes on other people. Most people start writing record reviews because they want other people to like the same kind of stuff they do (…)
El artículo es de 1974, justo cuando el mesianismo roquero vivía su mejor momento:
(…) "John Stewart Mill couldn't write rock 'n' roll, but Dylan could have written ÔAn Essay On Human Understanding.' Only he would have called it ÔLike a Rolling Stone!'" (Dave Marsh of Creem Magazine actually said that to me, and everybody else who lived with us, and everybody he talked to on the phone for the next month, once.) (…)
Lester se burla de los críticos que escriben cosas de este estilo. Otra cosa que ha cambiado:
(…) the mesmerizing Spanish chords from those four fine hollowbody Gibson guitars (…)
O de éste:
(…) the cymbals aren't miked right (…)
Ya no se escriben frases de este tipo porque los que hacen críticas hoy día no tienen ningún interés en saber cómo se graban los platos ni qué tipo de guitarra es la que suena. Y por supuesto, no les interesa nada algo tan árido como un acorde…
http://www.thesharkguys.com/reviews/how-to-be-a-rock-critic/
Un par de extractos sangrantes:
(…) Music criticism is unique in that while theater critics have studied theater, film critics have studied film, music criticism is a carrot dangled in front of ambitious fact-checkers and brown nosing interns, both of whom could easily mistake an arpeggio for something that would be served as a side order with veal Parmesan (…)
(…) Music reviews are a great way to slip turgid prose (…)
Here are some bits of useful jargon if you want to volunteer your services as a music snob-for-hire.
post-punk, unabashedly, visceral, fuzz, chugging, poignant, embrace, raspy, raunchy, pioneer, sonic exploration, (un)selfconscious, nuanced, honest, swagger, landscapes, vivid, innovators, stripped down, foot-stomping (because what better thing to stomp than one’s feet?), ghostly and overt.
These work for just about any genre.
Un poco de historia. Cómo empezó la crítica de rock en 1966:
http://rockcriticsarchives.com/interviews/paulwilliams/01.html
Y aquí, el triste final de los críticos que se atreven a adoptar el estilo de vida del rock and roll:
Algunos extractos:
(…) It won't make you rich: the highest-paying magazine in the rock press still only pays thirty bucks a review, and most of the other magazines fall way below that. So you'll never be able to make a living off of it. Nobody will come up to you in the street and say, "Hey, I recognize you! You're Jon Landau! Man, that last review was really far out!" A lot of people, in fact, will hate you and think you're a pompous asshole just for expressing your opinions, and tell you so to your face (…)
La poca consideración económica yprofesional del crítico sigue igual, en cambio, lo que ya no se estila, es lo siguiente:
La poca consideración económica yprofesional del crítico sigue igual, en cambio, lo que ya no se estila, es lo siguiente:
(…) You will be invited to press parties for the opening of new acts in town. It helps to live in places like L.A. and New York, because they have more of them there; I know some people, in fact, who have almost literally kept themselves from starving for months at a time by eating dinner at a different press party every night. (I know other people who have made entire careers out of attending these things, but that's a different story.) The food's usually pretty good to magnificent (…)
Hace décadas que las compañías no tienen dinero para organizar saraos, fiestas y presentaciones y menos aún para ofrecer canapés o invitar a cenas… En realidad, con la política de dar empleo al más inútil, ni siquiera conocen los usos sociales.
Un par de líneas en las que se explica en qué consiste la crítica de rock:
(…) In the zealotic terms of wanting to inflict your tastes on other people. Most people start writing record reviews because they want other people to like the same kind of stuff they do (…)
El artículo es de 1974, justo cuando el mesianismo roquero vivía su mejor momento:
(…) "John Stewart Mill couldn't write rock 'n' roll, but Dylan could have written ÔAn Essay On Human Understanding.' Only he would have called it ÔLike a Rolling Stone!'" (Dave Marsh of Creem Magazine actually said that to me, and everybody else who lived with us, and everybody he talked to on the phone for the next month, once.) (…)
Lester se burla de los críticos que escriben cosas de este estilo. Otra cosa que ha cambiado:
(…) the mesmerizing Spanish chords from those four fine hollowbody Gibson guitars (…)
O de éste:
(…) the cymbals aren't miked right (…)
Ya no se escriben frases de este tipo porque los que hacen críticas hoy día no tienen ningún interés en saber cómo se graban los platos ni qué tipo de guitarra es la que suena. Y por supuesto, no les interesa nada algo tan árido como un acorde…
El problema reside en que existe un cada vez más alto tanto por ciento de aficionados a la música que lo saben muy bien y les interesa mucho.
Aquí, un artículo tremendamente cruel, pero divertido:
Aquí, un artículo tremendamente cruel, pero divertido:
http://www.thesharkguys.com/reviews/how-to-be-a-rock-critic/
Un par de extractos sangrantes:
(…) Music criticism is unique in that while theater critics have studied theater, film critics have studied film, music criticism is a carrot dangled in front of ambitious fact-checkers and brown nosing interns, both of whom could easily mistake an arpeggio for something that would be served as a side order with veal Parmesan (…)
(…) Music reviews are a great way to slip turgid prose (…)
Here are some bits of useful jargon if you want to volunteer your services as a music snob-for-hire.
post-punk, unabashedly, visceral, fuzz, chugging, poignant, embrace, raspy, raunchy, pioneer, sonic exploration, (un)selfconscious, nuanced, honest, swagger, landscapes, vivid, innovators, stripped down, foot-stomping (because what better thing to stomp than one’s feet?), ghostly and overt.
These work for just about any genre.
Un poco de historia. Cómo empezó la crítica de rock en 1966:
http://rockcriticsarchives.com/interviews/paulwilliams/01.html
Y aquí, el triste final de los críticos que se atreven a adoptar el estilo de vida del rock and roll:
(To be continued)
