When Music Critiques Itself

I love the song Royals by New Zealand singer Lorde. It is full of irony and wonderfully tongue in cheek.  As commentary on the state of mainstream music, it is pure brilliance in a language contemporary youth culture has forgotten.  Fun without substance has been the rhetoric of choice in pop music.  First with Adele, and now with Lorde, the steady infiltration of the singer/ songwriter back into the mainstream is apparent.  Those of us with the ears to hear are breathing a sigh of relief at what appears to be a light at the end of the tunnel for pop music. 

Royals appears to have caused an awakening from the self-congratulatory, pseudo-empowerment party/break-up songs of the past 10 or so years.  The song’s commentary on the self-indulgent and irreverent state of the pop music genre contains enough irony to get people thinking, without feeling scrutinized.

Nowadays, making direct statements about the whether or not someone has done their job well is reserved for Politics.  Rock critic Henry Owings had this to say about blogs as the emerging music criticism forums:

“My biggest gripe with online journos is their false sense of importance when they're oftentimes just regurgitating press releases and tour dates. Of course, that mindless mentality is what many labels love. Me? I just find there to be a negligible amount of talent in what passes as a blogger in this modern age. What ever happened to attitude? What ever happened to opinions? What happened to pissing off advertisers? What happened to alienating readers? What happened to having fun? Sadly, I believe that the new boss is the same as the old boss. I just wish and pray somebody would be out there stirring things up instead of following the herd of mindless sheep. But then again, when you have publicists that just needle you all day to write about their clients, it makes a blogger's job easy.”
Harsh words, but he has a point, which you can read in its entirety here.   

Unencumbered by the limits of print media, bloggers have a unique opportunity to be the most candid with the state of mainstream music, but generally remain addicted to status quo reportage. In his article Fragments of a Sociology of Rock Criticism, rock critic Simon Firth talks about the kind of “arrogance to pass judgment on a record, a thickness of skin to proclaim one’s views in print (Jones 244).”  He also describes the trend of critiquing the artist’s persona above the music as detrimental to sound music criticism (Jones 244).  Persona has widely usurped adventurous creativity and refined musicality in mainstream music. 

Any artist who critiques another are attacked, mainly by the new genre of gossip media and, pseudo-stalker fans, “stans.”  A “stan” is a term taken from the Eminem song of the same name, for a fan who follows celebrity so closely through social media, it is borderline cyber stalking.  These types are vehemently protective and defensive toward any criticism aimed at their favourite celebrities.  As a term it implies it’s okay to be stalked as long as via the Internet.  That such as a body of people exists is the perhaps the biggest indication how far we have strayed from constructive art criticism across disciplines.  Even Lorde recently came under fire for her comments about fellow pop singers Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus (whose fans actually sent out death threats to Lorde). 

This all illustrates the decline of criticism lamented by Clement Greenburg has not been limited to art.  Unabashed criticism in music has been scarce arguably since the late nineties at the peak of Bubblegum pop, Boy bands and Girl Power.  I think what many thought would be a brief reprieve from the overt melancholy and aggression that characterized Grunge and Rap music of the mid-nineties, turned into a 15 minutes too euphoric to let pass.  With the murders of Rap icons Biggie Smalls and Tupac, and the suicide of Nirvana lead, Kurt Cobain.  It seems audiences were ready for something less…. heavy.  Although, it was a tense period for mainstream music, there was contemplative defiance about culture that is gradually resurrecting.

Perhaps this because much like Rock criticism, Pop criticism is too undervalued. But audiences have always been responsive to socially conscious Pop music. This fact is widely demonstrated in the growth of Rock and Folk in the sixties and 70s and most recently the rise of Hip Hop culture. However, the more entrenched in commercialization an art form becomes the more difficult is to return to it's core values.  That is why all art needs criticism.  Jones talks about the uphill battle he faced early in his career, for Rock criticism to be viewed as relevant and credible as a part of Arts criticism (Jones 236-239).  Here is a great article on why music criticism is important, in spite of the resistance of some mainstream artists.

This is what makes Lorde and Royals so refreshing.  The song’s self-criticism brings pop music back to earth.  A voice of their own, Lorde calls out her generation for their materialistic aspirations. She subtly reaffirms that you don’t need celebrity for importance.  The lifestyle of everyday is more relevant then the irreverent opulence that media and other entertainers push in our faces.  Perhaps Lorde represents a shift we have all have been waiting for, of the beginnings of a mainstream artist community where iron truly sharpens iron.  Perhaps we’ll begin to see more artists become more considerate of the impact their music has not just on popular culture, but on music as an art form.  Maybe artist ego will finally move out of the way so music can take a look in the mirror and fix itself up a bit.  Music centered music, what a novel idea.