Written by Tom Valcanis. His third essay in our collaborative series. One of the ironies of “critical rock journalism,” writes cultural studies theorist Andy Brown is “that it is operated in a hegemonic fashion across the popular music market in…
Studies in Criticism… or books versus trade
This essay looks at whether book learning or trade learning is better for a critic. Actually, it turns out that neither of the two is what makes a critic great. When I was an undergraduate at uni, from 1999 until 2002,…
REBLOGGED: The Graduate School of Rock: Scholars sculpting rock into art
Written by Tom Valcanis. Here’s his second essay in our collaborative essay project. On November 9, 1967, Jann Wenner’s first editorial appeared in the inaugural edition of Rolling Stone magazine. It read: “We have begun a new publication…sort of a…
Using the Force… or not. The place of publicity in contemporary music criticism
What happens when young critics receive – or do not receive – publicity materials? And are they necessary? Let’s find out. If you’ve ever worked as a journalist in the music industry, you would know exactly what I’m talking about…
REBLOGGED: Push-Button Professionalism: The origin and evolution of the role of professional music critics
Written by Tom Valcanis. Here’s a snippet from Tom’s first essay in our collaborative essay project. If you write on the internet, you’re blogging. There’s an indissoluble link between the two terms – if you have an opinion and have the…