Found at Rob Duffy’s donewaiting.com: San Francisco Bay Guardian‘s Jeff Chang takes on what he believes is the overwhelmingly white / New York / rock’n’roll bias of the Da Capo Best Music Writing series and its attempts to summarize and encapsulate the state of music criticism and journalism.
(Disclaimer: I have a rock-geek love for these books, but even I have to admit that Chang’s not wrong — there definitely is an emphasis on rock over hip hop, which given the state of album and single sales today would seem to be more than a little bass-ackward.)
Best part:
“Now, as then, a generation of old white males has become comfortable in its floating world ? in this case, the one bounded by the Hudson and the East Rivers. And now, as then, a new generation of writers is creating a critical mass of writing that cries out to be read, enjoyed, and debated. Only problem is, they aren’t doing that debating in the New Yorker (nine citations of the publication in the series in the past four years), the New York Times (nine citations also), or even the Village Voice (seven citations). In the case of the latter two publications, they just aren’t being read. (And by the way, when did the New Yorker and the Times, outlets hardly bursting with alt cred, become the gold standard of music criticism anyway?) In any case, a new generation of writers goes unnoticed by white dudes lost in space (Manhattan) or time (ye olde rock paradigm).”
Go read more.
