It's the simple fact that the immediate availability of music cuts off criticism from gatekeeping. Why read a long review when you can make up your own mind quickly?
I think it's more important than ever that a critic knows who their audience is: something we've touched on before, the sheer volume of everything which is readily available, means that to a dilettante audience for whom music is important but not a priority, critics are still as necessary as they were - not to gatekeep but to sift, to reduce the volume to a manageable level for non-music geeks. Of course all your points still apply!
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2007-05-15 09:40 am (UTC)I think it's more important than ever that a critic knows who their audience is: something we've touched on before, the sheer volume of everything which is readily available, means that to a dilettante audience for whom music is important but not a priority, critics are still as necessary as they were - not to gatekeep but to sift, to reduce the volume to a manageable level for non-music geeks. Of course all your points still apply!