For all of a month or so, a while back I gave them a chance and bought a few records at their recommendation. I can't help but notice that the bands they tend to champion have a very limited shelf-life. A serious problem with printed music media is that they are always so keen to break news about the best new band in the world and somehow it has also happened at Pitchfork. I don't really understand why it is necessary to pile massive acclaim on a band with one album, especially since those kind of bands tend to buckle later down the line under the weight of expectation. Bands with one album are fragile. You don't know where they are going to go next. You don't know if that album you insisted was amazing for all of three months is going to age particularly well. Then when you realise you've dropped it from your iPod six months down the line, it's too late. A hundred thousand white-belted, septum-pierced teenagers have already made that band huge. Then, as corporate hegemony inevitably kicks in, the major labels come in and sign five piss weak clones of a band that wasn't very good in the first place on the grounds that "this is what the kids must be listening to these days". We all suffer the blandness of these bands and the inevitable accusations of 'elitism' for daring to think that a band with one hyped record isn't going to explode the universe. All the while, great music goes relatively unnoticed.
Bit of a tangent, but this is basically why I stopped trying to catch up with what's considered good music right now. Especially for a person as inexperienced as myself, it just doesn't make sense for me to try to get to know all the hipster bands of the now rather than getting to know important music from before.
I hope these aren't bad examples, but take bands like...The Gossip, or Glass Candy, or maybe even more recently, Vampire Weekend. When I listened to their music it seemed nice enough but there's no way to tell if it will be significant enough to matter in some years until, well, years have passed. If they really are important to spend time listening to, then I don't care if I end up getting into them in ten years as opposed to right now. Seriously. I don't feel bad about not having listened to any albums by Animal Collective or the Flaming Lips yet, because if it's as good as people claim, it'll still be worth listening to later. In the meantime I'm listening to music that's new to me, even if it wasn't created recently. I do it slowly, but whatever.
On the other hand, I do understand the importance of supporting musicians who are making a living in the present. That's legitimate. I'm just saying that I've stopped caring about
myself as being recognized as one who knows what's hot now. Maybe eventually once my taste has been developed enough I will be able to recognize what is good, progressive music, but I can't do it now without being forced to depend on trends.
