The Decade In Pop

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

My enormous Pitchfork piece on "The Decade In Pop" is up: http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/7703-the-decade-in-pop/

Spotify playlist to go with it here: http://open.spotify.com/user/freakytrigger/playlist/6cudPLlniOyOrpX5M5Dnnz

Comments

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Key distinction here, though, is that the pop-auteur critics, many of whom frequent here, don't want the context of the artist -- a kind of extended intentional fallacy. We're looking for it in the music. This is why Nelly Furtado, say, is such a problematic star for me -- I really think she seems plain dumb in her output, yet so much beauty has been produced with her at the center, it means I have to grapple with the dumbness and process the beauty simultaneously. Not so for more controversial stars -- Paris Hilton, Hilary Duff, Lindsay Lohan -- whose beauty seems, to me, self-evident regardless of how dumb-shit they may appear in whatever reality is reality.

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

that should be "daily life context," as in Twitters, interviews, etc. These things are certainly interesting -- I'm so glad I had the chance to actually engage with Brie Larson as an intelligent person, not just as an idea -- but they don't necessarily play a role in the music's ultimate effectiveness.