Music journalism

Music journalism is writing and talking about music topics. It includes popular music, classical music, and traditional music. People have been writing about music since the 1700s, especially about classical music at first.

In the 1960s, music journalism started to focus more on popular music like rock and pop, especially after the Beatles became famous. With the internet growing in the 2000s, music journalism moved online too. Today, it includes reviews of songs, albums, and concerts, stories about recording artists, and news about music events.

Origins in classical music criticism

Music journalism started with writing about classical music. People have been writing about music since the 1700s, sharing their thoughts on songs and performances like symphonies and concertos.

Back then, music news appeared in special music magazines or in general newspapers. Over time, more people became interested in music, leading to more writers sharing their ideas about performances and compositions. Today, music journalism continues in serious newspapers and magazines.

Classical

In the early 1980s, newspapers and magazines started to write less about classical music. By the early 1990s, many places stopped having special writers for classical music because fewer young people were interested in it.

When writing about music from different cultures, such as Indian ragas or traditional Japanese works, critics were encouraged to explain the music in ways that readers could understand. They were also advised to respect the performers and learn about the music’s cultural background.

A study in 2005 found that most classical music critics in America were older white men with advanced education. Some people thought this did not represent everyone well. In 2007, The New York Times noted that many newspapers were changing how they covered classical music, but some still had full-time critics, including the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Boston Globe.

Popular

See also: Rockism and poptimism

20th century rock criticism

Music writers began talking about pop and rock music more seriously in 1964, after the Beatles became popular. One early British music magazine, Melody Maker, complained in 1967 that newspapers and magazines were always criticizing pop music. From 1964, Melody Maker led other magazines by treating music and musicians as a serious subject instead of just entertainment. Staff writers like Chris Welch and Ray Coleman looked at music with a perspective usually saved for jazz artists, helping to start rock criticism. In Britain, pop music got attention in the arts section of The Times when William Mann, the paper’s classical music writer, praised the Beatles in 1963. In early 1965, The Observer, a Sunday newspaper, showed a change in how people thought about pop music by hiring George Melly as its “critic of pop culture”. Later, The Guardian became the first daily newspaper to hire a rock critic, Geoffrey Cannon, in 1968.

Melody Maker’s writers supported new pop music styles in the late 1960s. By 1999, major newspapers regularly reviewed pop music concerts and albums, which helped keep pop music in the public eye. As more pop music critics wrote, this made pop music seem like art, changing newspaper coverage from seeing pop as a social trend to seeing it as real music.

In the United States, serious rock writing began in 1966, starting with Robert Shelton, a folk music writer for The New York Times, who praised the Beatles and Bob Dylan. Paul Williams, an eighteen-year-old student, started the pop journal Crawdaddy! in February 1966. In June, Richard Goldstein, a recent graduate, began his “Pop Eye” column in The Village Voice, which was described as the first regular rock column in a well-known cultural publication. Rock journalist Clinton Heylin said that Crawdaddy! was the true start of rock criticism. Author Bernard Gendron noted that while Williams is often called the first American rock critic, he still looked to England for ideas.

Goldstein’s important early work included a “manifesto” on rock music and a review of the Beatles’ Revolver album. This review was the first big rock review of one album in a magazine that wasn’t just about rock. While Williams wrote for a publication that already liked rock, Goldstein had to convince more serious readers to appreciate modern pop music. Both writers became well-known and were featured in profile articles in Newsweek.

Rock journalism grew along with efforts to place rock music, especially the Beatles’ work, in American culture. This was helped by respectful coverage in big magazines like Newsweek, Time, and Life in the months before and after the Beatles released their album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in June 1967. In this discussion, Richard Meltzer challenged the serious view of rock in an essay for Crawdaddy!, and Goldstein’s mixed review of Sgt. Pepper in The New York Times led to debate among music experts.

Other young American writers who became pop columnists after Goldstein included Robert Christgau (at Esquire, from June 1967), Ellen Willis (The New Yorker, March 1968), and Ellen Sander (Saturday Review, October 1968). Christgau started the “consumer guide” way of reviewing pop music, helping readers decide if they should buy a new album.

Music reference books like The Rolling Stone Record Guide and Christgau's Record Guide helped make rock critics important in the music industry. These books set standards for what was good in music, influencing collectors and fans.

In rock music, as in classical music, critics haven’t always been respected by the artists. Frank Zappa once said, “Most rock journalism is people who can’t write, interviewing people who can’t talk, for people who can’t read.” In a Guns N' Roses song, Axl Rose criticized reviewers who gave the band bad reviews for their stage actions.

Conservative Christian criticisms of rock music

Rock music faced a lot of criticism from conservative Christian groups in the United States, especially in the 1960s and 70s. Critics like David A. Noebel, Bob Larson, and Frank Garlock weren’t professional music critics, but they talked about rock music a lot. They argued that rock music was bad for the body and soul, and tried to explain what made music “good” versus “bad”. Larson said rock beats could cause rebellion in young people because of their hypnotic influence.

Early Christian criticism of rock music also had racist ideas. Most white conservative Christians thought rock music started with black communities and worried what its success meant for segregation and racial equality. Christian critics often used racist language to describe rock music, calling it “primitive” and linking it to Africa. For example, a New Jersey group called the American Tract Society made a booklet titled “Jungle to Jukebox” that used racist ideas to warn white young people about rock music.

Critical trends of the 21st century

2000s

In the 2000s, online music bloggers started to take over some of the role of printed music journalists. In 2006, Martin Edlund of the New York Sun said that while the Internet made music criticism more open, it also spread a lot of unfair praise.

Carl Wilson talked about a rise in liking pop music among critics in the early 2000s. He said a new group of critics began to question why rock was always seen as the best kind of popular music. Writer Jody Rosen for Slate magazine wrote about these changes in his article “The Perils of Poptimism”. He explained that many debates were about whether rock critics treated rock as the only important type of music. At a 2006 meeting of pop critics, people talked about “guilty pop pleasures” and artists like Tiny Tim, Dan Fogelberg, and Phil Collins that rock critics had often ignored. Rosen said this new way of thinking was called “popism” or “poptimism”, which means that pop music, especially hip-hop, is just as important as rock, and enjoying pop music shouldn’t be seen as shameful.

In 2008, Ann Powers from the Los Angeles Times said that pop music critics have always been bold because pop music criticism began as a challenge to traditional ideas about taste. She said that insults, disagreements, and strong opinions are part of pop criticism, but the best criticism also shows deep love and understanding of how music connects with our everyday lives. She noted that pop criticism started as a reaction against older publications like Rolling Stone and Creem, and that newer critics, called “poptimists”, argued that fans of underground rock were being snobby by not accepting more mainstream, multicultural music. Powers compared these debates among critics to a rugby scrum, where everyone pushes against each other but moves forward together.

2010s

Music critic and indie pop musician Scott Miller, in his 2010 book Music: What Happened?, talked about problems in pop music criticism. He said that many important pop songs are made by young artists who like to shock, and it’s unhelpful when older critics act like they have to always love these artists. Miller suggested that critics should be able to praise a young artist’s talent while also criticizing their lyrics if needed.

Jezebel writer Tracy Moore, in 2014, said that one good thing about writing about how music makes you feel, instead of comparing it to other artists, is that it includes readers who don’t know a lot about music. But Miller thought that readers who like details would appreciate some musical analysis to back up a critic’s opinion. For example, he said critics should point out specific parts of a song that make a melody catchy, just like musicians do.

Stevie Chick, a writer who teaches music journalism at City University London, said that music journalism has a strong creative writing side.

Tris McCall from the Newark Star-Ledger said in a 2010 interview that most critics start writing about music because they love it and can’t wait to tell others about what they’re hearing. He said this excitement never goes away, even after many years of writing. McCall also said he likes to explore why people react the way they do to music, even if he isn’t always right, and he hopes his writing is always thought-provoking.

In the 2010s, some people pointed out and criticized the fact that there weren’t many negative reviews in music journalism. Saul Austerlitz from the New York Times Magazine said that because music is now free, critics’ old job of telling people what to buy doesn’t matter as much anymore. He said this, along with the need to get clicks, makes critics act more like supporters of popular stars.

The 2010s also saw more music critics using YouTube and social media to share their thoughts. In 2016, Vice magazine’s Larry Fitzmaurice said that Twitter (X) is one of the last places where people can freely write about music criticism. In 2020, The New York Times called YouTuber Anthony Fantano “probably the most popular music critic left standing.” Fantano’s channel, The Needle Drop, is his main way to share reviews, but he also streams music talk on Twitch and posts on X.

2020s

In a 2024 article, Bloomberg News columnist Jessica Karl said that the way we review music is broken. She argued that today’s fast-paced release schedule, especially with big albums like Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department (2024), creates unhealthy pressure for critics. She said some reviews are rushed and poorly written, like the Paste review that made unfair jokes about Swift, while others, like the Rolling Stone review that called the album a classic after just one day, were too quick to praise. Karl also criticized reviews from big names like Time and The Philadelphia Inquirer for focusing on gossip and fan reactions instead of serious analysis of the music.