Not too long ago it was reported that the music review website Pitchfork would be "folded into" the web-based content of the men's magazine GQ. This journal covers a lot of the event's aspects.
Truth to tell I didn't go there that often. In its aughts heyday Pitchfork was dedicated to reviewing and promoting music that might be well-known to hipsters or not, but which in most cases hadn't come anywhere near the mainstream. Some of it was quite interesting, although they would struggle to say anything interesting about it. Later on they dedicated more time telling you about stuff you should like because everyone else likes it and what's wrong with you, which is basically what is meant by "poptimism."
So despite my feeling for writers who are losing a gig, it's not like I'm losing a limb here. My problem is more just that there's another one down.
A few weeks ago I saw a tweet saying that (paraphrasing) it seemed okay when all the magazines started going out of print because websites would take their place, but now there are only six websites. That's only a slight exaggeration. When pixels started to replace paper the promise was that there would be even more voices heard, and now everything would be interactive. That was sort of true, to an extent, for a while. But at this point it's just kind of a bad joke. It's impossible to imagine anything like Factsheet Five publishing now because they'd have nothing to cover.
Pitchfork isn't the only institution to go all in on "diversity" that's only diverse in the most superficial sense. And it's not the only one to ultimately fall victim to the same logic. If new media doesn't keep us well-informed about anything or provide encouragement in pursuing our own unique interests, that's by design.
2 comments:
I'm old enough that when I hear The Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan, or Dionne Warwick songs being played in the Supermarket my first impression is that it's happy music and apparently that's exactly why it's being broadcast. Oops, turns out I was being manipulated after all. Still, as it says in this article many kids in college today like older music - as in when musicians played their own instruments and wrote their own lyrics. I don't listen to any contemporary music so I'm not fit to judge whether Pitchfork will be a loss other than to agree with your conclusion that 'there goes anoer one'.
You're absolutely correct that a few websites have absorbed so much that was weird and unique in the world before the internet, or when it was much younger, that it appears much has disappeared entirely. Zines were singular works written and created by dedicated eccentrics. Has everything become bland or has much that was strange simply been incorporated into the body of the web? It's true that far less thought and deliberation given to creative endeavors nowadays results in a generally shallow grasp of most subjects, but I presume that was always generally the case. Now high weirdness is just another easily ignored old fashioned concept that keeps the general public distracted from the slippery slope of cultural decline. It's difficult to find consensus in a barroom brawl.
I rather like doing my best to confound our technofeudalist overlords by being whimsical. Nevertheless, Amazon does know what items I have ordered fro them over the years. Oh well, fooled again..
Your judgment is pretty spot-on. The lyrics of Steely Dan's songs are often dark and twisted but it does sound and feel like good-time music. A sense of possession is important in music appreciation, I think. You want to feel like this music is yours, that you had some part in finding it. That's a big part of why so many young people prefer old music. Digging through the past gives them something personal, while more recent stuff doesn't, or at least not enough of the time. Younger artists have a hard time breaking through, as well. Not all of this is new but it seems to have intensified in the past few years.
What you said earlier tonight about how modern cities aren't meant to be seen up close, that you're just supposed to note them while driving through, applies to a lot of things. Our cultural archives, including a lot of what used to be magazines, are being run by people who don't really know what they're for. Now as to whether the dedicated weirdness represented by zines has just disappeared or has been integrated into the body of the web, that might be a distinction without a difference. Unique expression must be left alone to find its audience. The barroom brawl aspect is unfortunate. People are being encouraged to express hostility to their neighbors--and often family--without attempting to find understanding.
You can't control everything and you can't foresee everything. It may be too late to hope that Amazon ignores you. Nonetheless, you can ignore them.
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