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Kevin Alexander's avatar

I think what bothers me the most about Pitchfork's article is that it does open the door to revising/erasing history. Yeah music's subjective, and tastes change. That's universally understood--it should be by Pitchfork's audience, anyway.

This is like the kid that hates a record, the record goes huge, and suddenly they liked it all along (or vice versa). Putting a record review in print is a commitment. And it's okay for tastes to change, or for a reviewer to miss the mark. What is not okay is the ability to permanently alter that record to reflect the zeitgeist.

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Drew Austin's avatar

Yeah exactly. It's such a slippery slope - you'll never be able to keep up if you start revising in this way. As I alluded in the post, it feels like a misunderstanding of a critic's role - you can't expect all your opinions to stand the test of time and remain current and it's ridiculous to think that's even possible. A sign of hubris in my opinion - believing one site like Pitchfork can remain authoritative not just in the present but in the past.

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