never Miss a beat

Dear Will Hodgkinson,

I write this letter with the utmost respect, really I do. I wouldn’t go out and buy The Times every Saturday if I didn’t maintain that the quality of its journalism is undoubtedly outstanding. I have one bugbear; something that sits across the music press but which is highlighted by your review of Rihanna’s Talk That Talk this week.

More people are accessing more music in more varieties from more sources than ever before. It’s a thrilling age for music fans; a vastly increasing demographic whose tastes have become highly unpredictable. Beyond this, in the digital age music lovers are accessing previews of records online, reading widely around them via the blogosphere and are making their minds up before the music press goes to print. The quality of these blogs aside, it’s clear that the people behind them are getting the point of music releases; they’re exciting. The fact that the blogosphere is conveying a text-speak written but nevertheless enthusiastic zeal for music (and one that comes free of charge) makes it a constant threat to intelligent and informed music journalism.

Before you assume this a gripe about the need to be EXCITED! ABOUT! ALL! MAINSTREAM! AND! POPULAR! RELEASES! REGARDLESS! OF! REAL! OPINION! ALL! THE! TIME!, please bear with me. Plenty people won’t be won over by the Rihanna album. To that effect, it’s a 3-star album. Those who enjoy that sort of thing will, but those who don’t won’t. Fine.

Not fine. Those unaffected by the Rihanna release aren’t going to be really interested in what journos have to say, are they? Those most likely to read the review are the listeners anticipating the release, who may have heard some of it and await a professional’s entertaining and argued assessment. To me, there is one key ingredient lacking across the board of music titles and newspaper sections, which has nothing to do with star ratings. I am filled with dread by the concept of five star rating systems; the amount of 3-star film reviews I’ve written in the past year is embarrassing. This is about the reviews themselves, and more importantly, the reviewers commissioned to write.

I’ve seen it time and again – people reviewing artists outwith their comfort zone. The reviews may as well write themselves. Alexis Petridis wrote the Rihanna live review recently for The Guardian. Why?! What is the point of Alexis, a highly esteemed writer but someone who blatantly doesn’t want to embrace Rihanna’s Grace Jones-indebted pop shtick, writing that review? I don’t want to assume too much about you. If it is the case that you are a relentless pop junkie like me and await the next of Sean Rowley’s Guilty Pleasures nights with enormous glee then please let me know. I’d love to go out clubbing and bend your ear about all the tricks of the trade. It’s just that reading your review of Rihanna’s album, I can’t help but get the sense that you’re not enjoying yourself and you’ve missed the point.

Sometimes I feel the music press is in danger of becoming a Hacienda-nostalgiac version of the House of Lords, incapable of being in touch with current society. There is no harm in dissenting opinion. The Florence & The Machine backlash and the split opinion on Coldplay’s Mylo Xyloto represent that art and culture is about debate. I personally believe Florence Welch’s album is ridiculously bombastic, but – for me – the purpose of rock music is to be as over the top as possible. So let’s celebrate Florence! Bring on the next Muse album! On the Coldplay front, were someone to swap Guy Berryman with Take That’s Howard Donald for the day many people would be oblivious… the two “bands” slowly but surely edging closer to residing on the same euphoric electro-pop platform. Which – as a Depeche Mode fan – makes me very happy. What bothers me is the opposite of that controversy; it’s a lack of enthusiasm and a sense of being divorced from the bigger picture.

I will be the first to admit that “normal” people (ie, people that can’t name every Beatles record in order of release, people who don’t get angry when iTunes imports an album as the wrong genre) think I’m a culture snob. I take ENORMOUS pleasure in rechristening my friends’ favourite film series “Twishite”, for instance. If anyone ever asked me to write anything on the latest installment of the Twishite saga I’d politely decline. It wouldn’t be fair on me – I’d be in a world of pain. More to the point, it would be a travesty for Twilight fans who read that publication. “Oh here’s killjoy with her narrowed eyes and her big heartbreaker words, come to make me feel stupid about spending £7.50 at the Odeon last night. FOR THE FOURTH TIME.” I have no passion to write that piece and I know that no reader has a passion to see it. But someone does have that passion. They should be the person to assess whether, from a consumer’s perspective, that form of entertainment is good or bad.

Where are all the new up-and-coming music journalists? Why is it so hard to get a break? Why are there so few females writing about pop? Music is not something only listened to by middle-class, middle-aged, white men (sorry). Of course, there isn’t an equal level of excitement displayed among music journalists about different releases… there isn’t a diverse enough group of people writing about them.

It’s not the fact that you don’t give Rihanna’s album a glowing review that gets my goat. It’s the fact that you probably wanted to listen to something else the entire time you reviewed it. I agree – her manager’s comment that it’s not enough for Rihanna to release an album every three years puts too much pressure on a recording artist, and given that this is “a surprisingly coherent piece of work”. What I don’t agree with is your dismissal of her music as “lightweight”. I find it strange that you haven’t made reference to the fact that Rihanna’s continued a growing trend of blurring the lines between indie and pop by sampling Mercury Prize winners The xx on the album; something many music fans would be intrigued to learn. I find it weird that you speak of “lyrics devoid of meaning, character or anything really” and fail to discuss what is already a talking point; the refrain on Cockiness: “Suck my cockiness, lick my persuasion.” Sure it’s not a cryptic puzzler, it doesn’t show the poetic flair of a Laura Marling, but it’s a strong and humorous assertion by an intriguing female superstar; something people generally may find “controversial”. You seem to punish the album for being little beyond “energising”. Would you do the same with Zomby’s upcoming release of similarly effective “dancefloor bangers” or last year’s Plastikman Arkives reissue? It’s becoming more dangerous to assume which types of music deserve proper critical assessment and which don’t. Correct me if I’m wrong but it seems you wanted to find a reason not to like Talk That Talk before you pressed Play.

I will reassert that I mean no disrespect. It’s quite the opposite. I’ve spent a week on the Saturday Times floor – some of my copy made it through to what was then the Playlist supplement. If I could choose a publication to write for, I’d be extremely proud to work at The Times. I merely consider it imperative that more entertainment titles recruit younger writers so that we can have a music press that challenges the blogosphere by being intelligent, informed and excited, not alienating.

When I was a young piano student I got so caught up in the seriousness of sitting grade exams, I forgot what I was doing it for. On finishing ten years of learning, my piano teacher gave me a card, which read: “Good luck with everything and remember Eve, MUSIC IS FOR FUN.” So Rihanna’s voice has little depth, her music is a non-stop glucose shot to the brain. In your review you ask what the point of a record like this is. As a young writer eagerly awaiting its release, I’ll tell you; the point of a Rihanna record is to rave your face off to it.

Kind Regards,

Eve

 

Eve Barlow, Deputy Production Editor, Q/MOJO/Empire/FHM

Eve.Barlow@qthemusic.com

@eve_barlow