Robert Christgau

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Robert Christgau : biography

April 18, 1942 –

He also uses ratings such as "neither" (denoted by a frowny face), which "may impress once or twice with consistent craft or an arresting track or two. Then it won’t" and a "choice cut" (denoted by a pair of scissors), which, as noted above, "is a good song on an album that isn’t worth your time or money."

Other ratings including 1–3 stars, being various versions of "honorable mention."

Lou Reed recorded a tirade against Christgau in his 1978 live album, Take No Prisoners: "Critics. What does Robert Christgau do in bed? I mean, is he a toe fucker? Man, anal retentive, A Consumer’s Guide to Rock, what a moron: ‘A Study’ by, y’know, Robert Christgau. Nice little boxes: B-PLUS. Can you imagine working for a fucking year, and you get a B+ from some asshole in The Village Voice?” Christgau rated the album C+ and wrote in his review, “I thank Lou for pronouncing my name right.” Similar angst came from Sonic Youth in their song "Kill Yr Idols" (at the time known as "I Killed Christgau with My Big Fucking Dick"), in which they sing "I don’t know why / You wanna impress Christgau / Ah let that shit die / And find out the new goal"; Christgau responded by saying "Idolization is for rock stars, even rock stars manqué like these impotent bohos—critics just want a little respect. So if it’s not too hypersensitive of me, I wasn’t flattered to hear my name pronounced right, not on this particular title track."http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=sonic+youth

On July 1, 2010, Christgau announced in the introduction to his Consumer Guide column that the July 2010 installment would be his last on MSN.

On November 22 of that year, Christgau launched a blog on MSN, "Expert Witness", which would only feature reviews of albums that he had graded B+ or higher, since those albums "are the gut and backbone of my musical pleasure;" the writing of reviews for which are "so rewarding psychologically that I’m happy to do it at blogger’s rates."

Pazz & Jop

In 1971, Christgau inaugurated the annual Pazz & Jop music poll. The results are published in the Village Voice every February, and compile "top ten" lists submitted by music critics across the nation. Throughout Christgau’s career at the Voice, every poll was accompanied by a lengthy Christgau essay analyzing the results, and pondering the year’s overall musical output. The Voice has continued the feature, despite Christgau’s dismissal, and although he no longer oversees the poll, Christgau continues to vote in it.

Style and tastes

Christgau names Louis Armstrong, Thelonious Monk, Chuck Berry, The Beatles, and The New York Dolls as his top five artists of all time. In music critic circles, he was an early supporter of hip hop and the riot grrrl movements. In the 1980s, Christgau was a fervent booster of Afro-pop, a stance that alienated him from some in the critical community, as he seemed insufficiently interested in American and British rock music. In the 1990s, however, Christgau’s interest in indie rock seemed to increase.

Christgau readily admits to disliking the musical genres heavy metal, art rock, progressive rock, bluegrass, gospel, Irish folk, and jazz fusion, but in rare instances has recommended albums in most of these genres.

In December 1980, Christgau provoked angry responses from Voice readers when his column approvingly quoted his wife Carola Dibbell’s reaction to the murder of John Lennon: "Why is it always Bobby Kennedy or John Lennon? Why isn’t it Richard Nixon or Paul McCartney?"

Rosen describes Christgau’s writing as "often maddening, always thought-provoking… With Pauline Kael, Christgau is arguably one of the two most important American mass-culture critics of the second half of the 20th century. … All rock critics working today, at least the ones who want to do more than rewrite PR copy, are in some sense Christgauians."