Reykjavík Grapevine - 06.05.2011, Page 4

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4
Letters
Sour grapes
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Give us your worst: letters@grapevine.is
MOST AWESOME LETTER:
Dear Grapevine Music Staff
Thank you for covering the Reykjavik Music
Mess. I have followed your paper's musical cov-
erage with interest for a while now and I hope I
am not out of line making a few suggestions on
things to keep in mind. I don't mean to moan
about styles of individual writers on your staff
but to make my point there are a few quotes.
They are complete arbitrary and aimed at dem-
onstrating how your writing can be of more
use to readers and musicians.
Your articles tend lack focus, direction and
are often full of patronizing generalization...
"Beds are, by default, more comfortable
that concert venues"
...and pointless hipster prose.
"Music enthusiast and frequent concert-
goer Davíð Roach Gunnarsson says, “They are
a rockier version of Beach House. Good, but
not great.” I think they were something like
gooreat!"
Good critique evaluates the artists success/fail-
ure in realizing his goals, ability to have impact
on his surroundings and many many other
things.... not how the artist lived up to the crit-
ics personal expectations nor preconceptions
of behavioral patterns of musicians or how
music should look like.
"These guys came all the way from the United
States and looked so not excited to be here!
Damn, they looked so fucking bored and
aloof!"
Compare yourself to Neytendasamtökin:
When writing an article about the price of
fuel don't tell us why you tanked up in the first
place, where you are headed or how the smell of
gasoline in the morning makes you feel.
"At points, I yearned for him to jump out of
his matching baby blue shoes and hat and give
his voice some substance and power."
A good critic educates his readers. The
musicians want to -and probably will read your
article. A well written critique is useful to mu-
sicians. It may point out qualities the musician
was unaware of. It enhances the listeners joy of
music, often by pointing out subtleties or inter-
esting facts.
"There is something inherently impres-
sive about a horn section. Yes, it's true, human
eyes widen with wonder at the sight anything
shiny"
This requires a bit of effort but has the po-
tential to improve the music scene. It may even
spark a new trend or raise the standard of excel-
lence! This should be your aim at all times.
"Mind you though, perhaps they should
undergo what can be the ultimate Eastern
party band test by performing with four large
bottles of vodka on stage while someone shoots
live ammunition over their heads. Now THAT
is something I wouldn’t mind paying to see."
A critic as an essential part of the music scene
and should conduct his work accordingly. Part
your job is knowing if something sucks and
when to write about it. When that day comes
you want to be sure you have kept standard and
maintained credibility. Else nobody will listen
to you and quality of life on Earth will dimin-
ish.
May your writings be inspired and inspiring
Róbert Reynisson
Dear Róbert,
We have for long enjoyed your work with such
bands as Borko, Benni Hemm Hemm and the
like. And it is heartening to receive such a letter
from a musician that we truly admire (we re-
ally do). It’s nice to know we’re being read, and
it’s doubly nice to learn that people are putting
serious effort into engaging in a dialogue with
what we write. Certainly our various music
criticisms are not beyond criticism (that was a
really fun sentence to write).
However, comparing music writing to
consumer reporting (“reporting the price of
gas”—THE NEW BUBBI ALBUM IS PRICED
AT 3.499 ISK BUT IT IS ACTUALLY ONLY
WORTH 2.499 ISK BECAUSE UH REPETE-
TIVENESS AND CRAP LYRICS) is odd (the
fact is: we are indeed writing about where we
are headed and how the smell of music makes
us feel in the morning). You furthermore seem
to foster teleological ideas on music (entailing
that it can somehow be ‘perfected’ and that it
is the musician’s and music critic’s job to col-
laborate so that such a plateau may one day be
reached).
Such a mode of thinking seems fairly ab-
surd; why can’t writing about music (or any-
thing, really) be considered just as creative an
act as performing it (that also means that music
writing can and should be critiqued and dis-
cussed—WAIT, THAT’S WHAT WE’RE DO-
ING RIGHT NOW). Why shouldn’t the artist
be critiqued in light of the writer’s (or anyone’s)
expectations? Concerts usually consist of noth-
ing but people and their expectations (and the
band’s parents sometimes).
It is not our job to tell you how to make bet-
ter music. It is our job to tell you how your mu-
sic resonates with us as human beings. Right?
Anyway. This has been a fun exchange.
And you will get your prize, this is a promise.
But! There’s more! Grapevine music writer
(and music lover, and music thinker, and music
feel-er, and music smeller) Bob Cluness wished
to respond, too. Read our next reader letter for
more!
Dear Robert
Thanks for the letter. We actually do like it
when we get bits of mail about music writing,
even when they are of the "you suck/ don't
know what you're talking about/ hate Icelandic
music, etc" kind. So when we get a response
like yours, we always welcome it.
Some of the points you made about music
criticism are certainly valid ones, such as the
ability to convey to readers what is happening
and the musician’s impact on his or her sur-
roundings, about how we should avoid lazy
generalisations and how we should try to main-
tain some form of credibility. Having said that,
there are a few points that i very much (but po-
litely) disagree with you on
- Your letter talks about the idea that
there we should attain to a "standard of ex-
cellence". The fact is that music journalism
is probably one of the most subjective forms
of writing there is, mostly due to the fact that
music means many different things to many
different people. There is no real "standard
of excellence" of which you speak of, just tips
and pointers for those who first start out.
Most people who write about music (even the
famous ones) often develop very idiosyncratic
styles and tastes in music that probably would
not fit an agreed standard, and attracts fans
as well as detractors. Also, because people's
tastes and methods of critiquing are different,
knowing what is good and bad in music wildly
changes with each person. If the majority of
music writers in Iceland award 4 or 5 stars for
an album (which they usually do), but I only
think that it's worth two at best, does this mean
that I don't know what is a good or bad album?
Or does this mean that i am the only voice of
reason? As long as I try to convey clearly my
reasons, it's up to the reader to decide.
- When you compare music criticism to
Neytendasamtökin (Petrol Prices), you’re com-
pletely missing the point. That sort of writing
is set to convey basic facts that people need
on the subject, and that is all. This would be
good for reviewing stuff like stereo equipment
(that have a lot of technical features), but mu-
sic works on people in many ways that be can't
just described with facts alone. We also need to
remind ourselves that we also have to entertain
the reader, and how we say something is just as
important as what we’re say.
- It's not the music critic’s job to represent
or change the music scene; just to report on
what is happening as it relates to him or herself
and try to determine whether he thinks it's any
good or not. We should also really keep musi-
cians at an arm’s length to keep an objective
distance (except for those exclusive interviews
of course!). Admittedly due to the close, almost
incestuous, nature of the Icelandic music
scene this is a near impossibility, but still, we
need to try.
In the end no matter what you write, people
will be divided on whether it's any good or not.
For every person who says you're full of crap,
you get another saying how brilliant it was. We
will always try to do the best we can in an hon-
est way Robert, and I hope that you will find
stuff in this newspaper that you agree with and
like in the future.
Cheers
Bob Cluness
PS - I loved your second to last sentence. Ow,
bitchy! Have you ever considered writing about
music for the Grapevine? The pay is terrible,
but free coffee at the office though!
Dear Bob Cluness,
Who said that coffee was free?