Clownica – Overblown Animated Gestures, Facial Contortions, Trite-Speak – NYT Music Critics

Unworthy critics. Vapid opinions. Trite comments. Useless noise. Has NYT content become (or was all along?) monkey-see / monkey-do?

Beato observation/summary: “So, songwriting, is not the best example of songwriting…” LOL: “Cork sniffers”

It sounds like a lot of double talk with no substance.

It’s some sort of SNL sketch.

This is the total personification of hubris: arrogance + ignorance + pride + elitism + lack of self awareness = morons on parade. Beyond pitiful.

This reminds me of my days in academia as a poetry professor. The ethos went from being: it’s about the poetry, not the poet, to it’s about the poet(his or her identity, story, etc.) not about the poems. In this case, for these people, the songwriters and what they represent are for more important than the songs they create.

It made me think about what Frank Zappa said about rock journalism: “People who can’t write, interviewing people who can’t talk, for people who can’t read”.

In the UK we call people like these Tossers. They come across as so immature. Well done Rick for exposing them.

Don’t forget we usually put the word “absolute” in front of every insult to drive home the point. “Absolute tossers” “Absolute pillocks” “Absolute shaft gobblers”. Because that’s all they’re doing. Gobbling each other’s shafts and feeding their own strange, self absorbed, ego driven opinions.

Wanker is the term in Austarlia

Fellow Brit here. I haven’t seen the word tosser in print in years! It perfectly describes these clueless, entitled idiots. All that education and not a lick of sense between them. I’d like to add my personal favourite insults, which are arsewipe, wanker and bellend. It’s the very least they deserve.

I think “pseuds” is a better fit.

The stunning ignorance isn’t the biggest problem with these people. The biggest problem is how proud they are of their ignorance.

Thank you Rick for exposing these musically unqualified individuals.

You can tell a man from Harvard, but you can’t tell him much. -Tom Lehrer (Great songwriter)

It is the same problem in art, architecture, photography… people with no practical background not only offering their “critique,” but also being active gatekeepers for those who make real work. Moreover, most of these people enjoy regular salaries while the artists, who actually do the work, struggle from one gig to another.

This is brilliant Rick! Why does the phrase ‘Casting Pearls before swine’ come to mind when listening to these patronising numpties !!

Speaking as the former music editor of a major national newspaper and as a professional musician, I heartily agree with your assessment. These people delivered moronic and ignorant reviews that say far more about themselves than their comments do about the songwriters.

We’ve had a similar discussion regarding music critics within the jazz community here in Sweden regarding music critics, seemingly without knowledge in this type music, writing critically about excellent musicians – which infuriated a lot of other musicians

Rick as a black man in my 30s who grew up on funk soul jazz fusion and especially hip hop, I have studied the rap game and have immense respect for the genre. Never and I mean NEVER in a million years is young thug touching a top songwriters list. I am absolutely baffled right now.

What’s even worse is that people just like this, from the same universities, are political consultants and CEOs

What I find especially frustrating is how confident these individuals are while spouting complete nonsense. Useless people

What always really annoys me, as a European, when I watch Americans on YouTube, is the exaggerated way they present themselves on camera: over-the-top behavior. Excessive hand gestures, voice inflections, and body language, as if they’re auditioning for a stage play. These guys do exactly the same thing (not you, Rick). And they’re not even wearing a baseball cap.

The level of ignorance mixed with arrogance in these people is truly staggering. The cartoon version of rich kids that become smug, entitled adults.

Old, ex-friend of mine became an acclaimed Music journalist, critic, and editor. NO musical background of any kind, no music theory education, just an articulate and well-read English major and journalist. I’ve never known a more pretentious and snobby person in my life, or who was more disrespectful of my input. Watching this reminded me of all those youthful years talking to him about music. The place he worked compared music journalism to “dancing about architecture”.

All of those people are suffering from terminal smugness. NYT is less relevant with each passing day.

It took them all of 30 seconds to bring up race and gender. Why am I not surprised?

“…spent days, talkin’ it, shoutin’ it, singin’ it all out”, says the NYT critic. “The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.” – Henry V, Shakespeare

Coincidentally, these 4 people make up the NYT’s “Top 4 sufferers of Dunning Kruger syndrome” list this year…

These are the people no one remembers.

Hey Rick. Former journalist here. The thing to remember – particularly about arts/features journalists – is that it’s rarely an exercise in imparting expertise. It makes most sense if you think of it as an extension of student journalism. It’s largely an exercise in taking a thesis (doesn’t matter what) and demonstrating your intellectual and linguistic adroitness in arguing it. On a different day they could take the exact opposite position. It doesn’t matter, it’s a performance. Combine that with the ‘marketplace of ideas’ and you find that newsrooms are often people sitting round asking ‘what’s the prevailing view on this and how can I be contrarian’ – whence comes “Why Taylor Swift is bad for women in music” or “Why Zohran Mamdani is the ultimate capitalist”. All that is sort of amusing and interesting when you come at it with a sort of dilettante graduate mindset, especially when the stakes are so low – as in this case. But it’s also quite tiresome when those arguments become the foundation for strident views and are used to batter others. Therein lie the roots of some wider problems.

It’s cringeworthy. They are utterly lost to themselves. Their virtue signaling rings so hollow, it is nothing but a celebration of egoic delusion. Thank you Rick Beato — for your integrity and for keeping the focus on the music.

Another Zappa quote I’ve heard is “writing about music is like dancing about architecture”. It’s mostly pointless.

“Some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals believe them.” George Orwell

Rule #1. Ignore the NYT. It is an utterly failed institution.

Remember this: the New York Times ceased being relevant decades ago. As did the Grammy Awards and Rolling Stone magazine. What a bunch of buffoons.

Brad Mehldau’s Substack “Jon Caramanica is a bad cliché” nails this. I encourage everyone to read it.

As a musician, and after 32 years producing and mixing records, I can confidently say: If every music critic on earth vanished tomorrow, it would be six months before anyone besides their families noticed.

The only cultural contribution the Times has made in the last 30 years is Wordle.

This is why nobody reads the NYT.

I’m a longtime and still am a regular New York Times reader in addition to being a longtime member of the New York jazz community as a recording engineer. Music critics at the Times used to be very influential in this world as infuriating as they could be but still were mostly respected by the musicians. When Jon Pareles took over as chief critic, jazz coverage almost completely disappeared and he hired writers such as the ones depicted in the video. The Times now eagerly chases trends in pop music and has abandoned covering music in genres that are native to NYC like jazz and classical. This songwriter list is the culmination of the ever increasing irrelevance of Times music writing. There are pretty good writers now who contribute to the paper occasionally but the New York Times does not carry any real weight in the community anymore. I would love to see Pareles gone but I fear his replacement won’t be any better.