Criticism

We asked the avant-garde composer and vocalist Diamanda Galas what she looks for in a critic of her music. Galas is Greek and sings many languages, so she immediately went to the etymology of the matter. Produced by Trey Kay.

Ryan Adams played in Chicago last December, and the Sun-Times’ music critic, Jim DeRogatis, panned him. Adams left a heartfelt, enraged message on the writer’s voicemail, which DeRogatis then broadcast to all of Chicago when he did his weekly radio show. Mayhem ensues. Produced by Steve Nelson.

Critics make mistakes all the time. A musicologist named Nicholas Slonimsky collected them — short-sighted, ignorant, or vitriolic reviews of what we now consider masterpieces. We set excerpts from Slonimsky’s Lexicon of Musical Invective to music. Produced by Jonathan Mitchell.

We asked two prominent book critics the question: How do you write a serious review of a book called Everybody Poops? Produced by Matt Holzman.

Kurt Andersen and music critic Greg Tate talk about why creative people feel the need to steal from each other. Greg Tate is a music critic for the Village Voice, and he leads the ensemble Burnt Sugar — an improvising big band that borrows equally from Miles Davis and Sun Ra. Tate’s books include Everything […]