Christgau killed NPR with his big fucking dick
 

ouch

oh no he didn't!

I don't know who he is, so I don't really care.

HAHAHA.

Are music critics worth listening to? I mean why not just buy the record and see it for yourself and make your own damn opinion. I hate all critics, and people trying to persuade me to doing what they think is fucking cool. So I always buy a cd or go to the movies and make my own decision, fuck listening to somebody else.

I don't really see critics as trying to "force their will" on me at all. I just read these things to find out about what's going on out there. Critics have helped me find my way to some of the best sounds I know, as well as pointing me in the direction of several "rabbit holes" to go down in terms of extended musical family trees. Once you find a music journalist whose writing you enjoy and whose taste you can more or less trust, it is a valuable resource with a personal touch.
Before easy-to-scour MP3s came into existence, these people were unbelievably helpful to me. Byron Coley, Phil McMullen, Tony Dale, Colin Hill, Enrico Ramunni, Jud Cost and a host of others are people to whom I am eternally grateful for their valuable guidance.
There are plenty of people who have good jobs writing about music who are indeed clueless hacks, but to write them all off is dismissive and silly. Just ignore the morons; it's pretty easy to figure out who they are.

I'm with Mr Drone on this one. I still buy a lot of albums because of reviews. Even with mp3s widespread proliferation, I can't always find songs by bands I'm interested in online. Not everyone has a myspace, and not everyone uploads their entire record collection for their slsk friends. In some sense I hate critics, but in others I pity them. I couldn't listen to hundreds of different records a week and keep tabs and pick out the diamonds from the dross. That's why I buy magazines, to pay whichever poor sod has already listened to lots of records. It's important that you find hacks who you know you can trust - a few of the Wire chaps are fantastic for this. For every dross album I've picked up from a Wire review, I've picked up at least five outstanding records. Furthermore, hacks are part of the promo of a record. At its worst, it's revolting and self-serving (NME). At its best (rare) it can let you know about a band you simply wouldn't find in the daily run of things, or think about investigating. I never heard SY on the radio, I picked up ATL because of a review (in the NME at that), and there are countless other bands for whom I could say the same.

Kill yr. idols...

the page wont load