Young Martin Cizmar update!
Regular readers have followed with perhaps varying degrees of interest PHXated’s back and forth with Young Martin Cizmar, Attitudinal Journalist™, the music editor of the Phoenix New Times.
Here’s Young Martin’s latest bit of music criticism.
It’s a blog post about, for some reason, George Strait:
As a press release I got today pointed out, Strait has accomplished what no other artist in the history of Billboard charts has — 30 years of consecutive Top 10 hits.
Cizmar, a youngster, doesn’t have the perspective on the music industry that would help him deal with the informational gold contained in press releases.
I’m here to help!
1) He could throw the press release away. Who cares what record companies say? A critic’s job is to say something interesting about art, not repeat PR talking points.
2) Press releases contain information with a negative value—i.e., information that people pay to have disseminated. (As opposed to pay to learn.) Repeating it just helps the PR departments going.
3) Press releases contain untrue and half-true information. For example, Cizmar’s account of Strait’s supposed record omits the word “country” before “Billboard charts.” The country charts are not the pop charts. The country audience is notoriously artist-friendly. Basically, once you’re a star, as long as you show up for fan day and suck up to the key radio programmers you’ll have hits until the day you die.
4) Any number of country artists have had hits for decade after decade after decade. I’ll stipulate that Strait perhaps might claim the consecutive string of “top ten” hits, but even that’s not all that impressive given how common hit-making longevity is in that world.
5) Why does popularity matter in any case? Quality is what matters, not chart performance.
6) I love the euphony of the phrase “As a press release I got today pointed out….” It’s poetry, sheer poetry.
7) Did i mention how pathetic it is to quote press releases?
Comments
Tyler Hurst Wednesday, April 14, 2010:
He's a criticizer, not a critic. He's sole job is to piss people off and get the community riled up.
I suppose being really bad at what you do is one way to get attention.
Also, why do so many journalists treat blogs as shitty first-person accounts? Can't the words and phrases they string together in a blog format be clear, concise and interesting? That's what bloggers do!
Dan Gibson Wednesday, April 14, 2010:
Bill, ignoring for a moment the quoting of press releases, why wouldn't George Strait be worthy of a blog post?
Admittedly, I wrote a feature about Strait for the New Times so my perspective is already on record, but there is something interesting about a career with the longevity and accompanying success he has achieved. After all, there are few country, pop or rock acts who have topped the charts in both the early 80's and in recent years. Obviously there's going to be some distinction between popularity and chart success, but dismissing artists offhand based on the fact that they actually have fans or radio spins ("Quality is what matters, not chart performance") seems just as lazy critically.
Martin Cizmar Wednesday, April 14, 2010:
Bill,
I talked extensively about Strait during my hour-long guest DJ slot, where I played a lot of his best songs. Also, Dan Gibson wrote a piece for us putting Strait's greatness in perspective. Also, my concert review discusses a lot of your rhetorical questions. It's not like this is the first and only thing I've ever written about him, and the questions you ask aren't answered elsewhere.
Tyler,
Still haven't heard from your lawyer! I did, however, hear from two lawyers who were quite amused by your post and our back and forth... they suggested I should actually sue you, since calling a journalist "a defaming liar" is actually defamation, in their book. Pretty funny stuff. Don't worry, though, I'm not a little bitch.
Tyler Hurst Saturday, April 17, 2010:
Hello Martin. I never claimed to be seeking a lawyer, nor did I ever threaten you with one. You see, I've found it much more prudent to research before I take action, instead of following up initial outrage with empty threats.