For those who don't know RC is a very prominent and important rock music critic (he did Consumer's guide for the Village Voice)
I HATE HATE HATE Robert Christgau (or at least I thought I did, or at least I hated the idea of Robert Christgau, or at least his reviews still can REALLY get under my skin) - Anyway This interview was great, and I agree with almost everything he says:
http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reports/article/102822/Concision-and-Clarity.aspx
Some cool highlights:
I: So why should publishers publish criticism if people don't buy the publications to read criticism? RC: Because they care about good writing. I work for the Barnes & Noble Review these days, and Barnes & Noble used to be a bête noire among book lovers because they were killing the independent bookstore. I'm a socialist. But does that mean I think capitalism is bad? No.
I always tell my socialist friends rock 'n' roll would not have happened without capitalism. It is a capitalist form, and it's [one of] the best things about capitalism. Being socialist doesn't mean there's nothing good about capitalism, far from it. But I will tell you one thing I really like about capitalism: The people who make things and really care about what they make.
And the guy who owns Barnes & Noble cares about books. Similarly, the people who own magazines and newspapers should care about words.
(on Rock and Roll being good only for young artists):
It's not the music of youth. In fact, for various formal reasons, good records by people under 30 are becoming more and more unusual. That's because, I think, the creative part of that subculture is caught in the contrarian mindset to which I referred before, and is making stuff that isn't something else. And that's a much harder way to make something good. Not impossible, but harder. Not a good place to start, with the negative
Aesthetics:
I always did what I believe artists should do. Why is popular culture good? Is it good because the formulas are good? Well, sometimes the formulas are useful. However, formulas tend to be deadening. What usually happens in the best art is that somebody pushes the formula in some way, the envelope, as is now the cliché. I always kept my eye on people who I felt were working within the form but stretching the form. I thought that was the ideal for myself as well. Push the formula.
Twitter:
Twitter is not a rewriter's medium. It's a place where people say stupid things.
The Market
I: The market should not get what it wants? RC: No, the market exists to be fucked with. When I say push the envelope, when I say push the parameters, when I say pop forms are good for people, that's the market, right
Still a couple things I hate (he wouldn't be Christgau if he didn't say something that wouldn't piss me off): like the whole moralizing aspect of criticism....still though good stuff.
And probably a cool voice to listen to from the whole "rock is dead" perspective.
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"As in a kaleidoscope, the constellation of forces operating in the system as a whole is ever changing." - Ludwig Lachmann
"When A Man Dies A World Goes Out of Existence" - GLS Shackle