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EspañolPITCHFORK MEDIA
'Pitchfork Media', usually known simply as 'Pitchfork' and occasionally shortened to 'P4K' or 'pfork',[1] is a United States-based daily Internet publication devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on independent music,[2] including indie rock. However, the range of musical genres reviewed extends to electronic, pop, hip hop, dance, folk, jazz, and experimental music.
The site, which was established in 1995, concentrates on new music, but Pitchfork journalists also review reissued albums and box sets. The site has published "best-of" lists – such as the best albums of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, and the best songs of the 1960s – as well as annual features detailing the best singles and albums of each year between 2001 and 2006. The site is reputed to have significant influence in the independent music world, although it is criticized by some for its "hipster" attitude, devotion to hype and trends, and a focus on obscure bands and musical styles.
History
An old Pitchfork logo
Pitchfork was created in Minneapolis, Minnesota in late 1995 by Ryan Schreiber, then just out of high school. Influenced by local fanzines and college radio station KUOM, Schreiber, who had no previous writing experience, aimed to provide the Internet with a regularly updated resource for independent music. At first bearing the name Turntable, the site was originally updated monthly with interviews and reviews. In May 1996, the site began publishing daily, and was renamed "Pitchfork", a reference to Tony Montana's tattoo in the 1983 film ''Scarface''.[3]
In early 1999, Schreiber uprooted Pitchfork from its Minneapolis base and relocated to Chicago, Illinois. By then, the site had expanded to four full-length album reviews daily, as well as sporadic interviews, features, and columns. It had also begun garnering a following for both its extensive coverage of underground music and its writing style, which was often unhindered by the conventions of print magazine journalism. In October of that year, the site added a daily music news section.
Size, readership and site traffic
Pitchfork now receives an audience of more than 200,000 readers per day, and more than 1.5 million unique visitors per month, making it the most popular independent-focused music publication online.[4][5]
On October 24, 2003, the author of Pitchformula.com reported that Pitchfork had published 5,575 reviews from 158 different authors, with an average length of just over 520 words. Together, the reviews featured a total of 2,901,650 words.[6] However, this data was recorded in 2003; since that point the site has continued to release reviews on an almost daily basis (excluding weekends and public holidays).
Influence
Pitchfork's opinions have gained increased cultural currency in recent years; some in the mainstream media view the site as a barometer of the independent music scene, and positive quotes from its reviews are increasingly used in press releases and affixed to the front of CDs.
Since 2004, when "indie" music experienced a popular resurgence, some publications have cited Pitchfork in having played a part in "breaking" artists such as Arcade Fire, Sufjan Stevens, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Interpol, The Go! Team, The Dismemberment Plan, Junior Boys, The Books, Broken Social Scene, Wolf Parade, and Tapes 'n Tapes, although the site's true impact on their popularity remains a source of frequent debate.
Conversely, Pitchfork has also been seen as being a negative influence on some indie artists. As suggested in a ''Washington Post'' article in April 2006, Pitchfork's reviews can have a significant influence on an album's popularity, especially if it had previously only been available to a limited audience or had been released on an independent record label. A dismissive 0.0 review of former Dismemberment Plan frontman Travis Morrison's ''Travistan'' album led to a large sales drop and a virtual college radio blacklist. On the other hand, "an endorsement from Pitchfork – which dispenses its approval one-tenth of a point at a time, up to a maximum of 10 points – is very valuable, indeed."
Examples
★ Arcade Fire is among the bands most commonly cited to have benefited from a Pitchfork review. In a 2005 ''Chicago Tribune'' article, a Merge Records employee states, "After the Pitchfork review, it went out of print for about a week because we got so many orders for the record."[7]
★ Clap Your Hands Say Yeah member Lee Sargent has discussed the impact of Pitchfork's influence on their album, saying, "The thing about a publication like Pitchfork is that they can decide when that happens. You know what I mean? They can say, 'We're going to speed up the process and this is going to happen...now!' And it was a kick in the pants for us, because we lost control of everything."[8]
★ The manager of Tapes 'n Tapes claims that the band has benefited directly from a positive review in Pitchfork, in addition to the band's live shows and a mention in ''The New York Times''.[9]
Criticism
Elitism, hype and "hipster" attitude
Along with its popularity, Pitchfork has attracted the criticism of certain music fans and rock journalists. A common complaint is that the site's journalism suffers from a narrow view of independent music, favoring lo-fi and often obscure indie rock and giving only cursory treatment to other genres.[10] Another is that the site's opinions reflect a "hipster" attitude, overly subject to changing musical trends, and that the site itself creates hype around particular scenes (such as "dance punk" or "freak folk") or acts (such as Sufjan Stevens and Arcade Fire). Some critics have suggested that the site rates albums from particular music scenes or artists more favorably in order to bolster its influence when the music becomes popular.[11]
The majority of criticism, however, is aimed at the site's album reviewing style, where there is a commonly-perceived tendency to emphasize the reviewers' own "pretentious" and self-conscious writing over the music being reviewed, sometimes not even reviewing the album and instead launching into a bombard of unfounded criticism of the artist's integrity. Some notable satires of this style include:
★ When Pitchfork asked comedian David Cross to compile a list of his favorite albums, he instead provided them with a list of "Albums to Listen to While Reading Overwrought Pitchfork Reviews". In it, he piled over-the-top praise on fictional indie-rock records.[12]
★ In 2004, comedy website Something Awful created a parody of Pitchfork's front page. Entitled "RichDork Media", the page makes reference to nonexistent, obscure-sounding indie-rock bands in its reviews, news headlines and advertisements. The rating system measures music on its proximity to the band Radiohead.[13] A similar, more light-hearted parody was also created by the official website of Sub Pop, a record label whose musical artists Pitchfork has reviewed (often favorably).
★ In 2007, the MTV comedy show Human Giant featured a skit (Clel Tickle - Indie Marketing Guru, by Aziz Ansari) lampooning Pitchfork in which Clel and his right-hand man "Hambone", a former World Fighting Champion and child arsonist (he burns children), strongarm a Pitchfork editor (the fictitious Brolin DiBiasi, played by comedian Nick Kroll) into giving Tapes n' Tapes (one of the bands Clel was pushing) a positive review, and later, to declare them "Best Band in the World".
Leaked music
In August 2006, a directory on Pitchfork's servers containing over 300 albums was compromised. A web surfer managed to discover and download the collection, which included The Decemberists' ''The Crane Wife'' and TV on the Radio's ''Return to Cookie Mountain'', both of which had previously leaked to peer-to-peer networks. Allegedly, one of the albums on the server, Joanna Newsom's ''Ys'', had not been available previously on file-sharing networks.[14]
Involvement in music festivals
Pitchfork Music Festival logo.
Intonation Music Festival
Main articles: Intonation Music Festival
In 2005, Pitchfork curated the Intonation Music Festival, attracting approximately 15,000 attendees to Chicago's Union Park for a two-day bill featuring performances by 25 acts, including Broken Social Scene, The Decemberists, The Go! Team, and a rare appearance by Les Savy Fav.
Pitchfork Music Festival
Main articles: Pitchfork Music Festival
On July 29 and 30, 2006, the publication premiered its own Pitchfork Music Festival in the same park. The event attracted over 18,000 attendees per day. More than 40 bands performed at the inaugural festival, including Spoon and Yo La Tengo, as well as a rare headlining set by reunited Tropicália band Os Mutantes.[15]
The Pitchfork Music Festival was held again in 2007. It has been expanded to three days (Friday, July 13 - Sunday, July 15), with the first day being a collaboration between Pitchfork and the British music festival All Tomorrow's Parties as part of the latter's "Don't Look Back" series, in which seminal artists perform their most legendary albums in their entirety. Performers that evening included Sonic Youth playing ''Daydream Nation'', Slint playing ''Spiderland'', and GZA/Genius playing ''Liquid Swords''. Some of the other artists who performed over the weekend included Yoko Ono, De La Soul, Cat Power, The New Pornographers, Stephen Malkmus, Clipse, Iron & Wine, Girl Talk, Of Montreal, Deerhunter, Dan Deacon, The Ponys, and The Sea and Cake.
Rating system
Pitchfork's music reviews use two different rating systems:
★ Individual track reviews were formerly ranked from 1 to 5 stars, but on January 15th, 2007 the site introduced a new system called "Forkcast." In it, instead of assigning tracks a particular rating, reviewers simply label them one of the self-explanatory categories "New Music," "Old Music," "Video," "Advanced Music," "Rising," "WTF," or the category of their most favorably regarded songs, "On Repeat." While this system significantly decreases subjectivity, on most Fridays the site compiles a list of their favorite videos and songs of the week (commonly hosted by their Imeem page, [2]) in the "Playlisted" section.
★ Album reviews are given a rating out of 10.0 specific to one decimal point.
On October 24, 2003, Pitchformula.com made a survey of the 5,575 reviews available on Pitchfork at that time, showing that:
★ 6.7 was the average rating
★ 2,339 reviews had been awarded a rating of 7.4 or higher
★ 2,362 reviews had been awarded a rating of between 5.0 and 7.3
★ 873 reviews had been awarded a rating of less than 5.0
Albums awarded a 10.0 rating
Initial release
The following albums received a 10.0 rating upon initial release:
★ ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead – ''Source Tags & Codes''
★ 12 Rods – ''gay?'' (EP)
★ Bonnie 'Prince' Billy – ''I See a Darkness''
★ The Flaming Lips – ''The Soft Bulletin''
★ Robert Pollard – ''Relaxation of the Asshole'' (In the review, this album theoretically received both a 10.0 and 0.0 rating)
★ Radiohead – ''Kid A''
★ Radiohead – ''OK Computer''
★ Amon Tobin – ''Bricolage''
★ Walt Mink – ''El Producto''
★ Wilco – ''Yankee Hotel Foxtrot''
Re-release
The following albums received a 10.0 rating upon re-release:
★ Boards of Canada – ''Music has the Right to Children''
★ Glenn Branca – ''The Ascension''
★ James Brown – ''Live at the Apollo (Expanded Edition)''
★ The Clash – ''The Essential Clash''
★ The Clash – ''London Calling: 25th Anniversary Edition''
★ John Coltrane – ''The Olatunji Concert: The Last Live Recording''
★ Elvis Costello & The Attractions – ''This Year's Model''
★ Miles Davis – ''Kind of Blue''
★ Miles Davis – ''Sketches of Spain''
★ DJ Shadow – ''Endtroducing..... (Deluxe Edition)''
★ The Fall – ''This Nation's Saving Grace''
★ Iggy & The Stooges – ''Raw Power''
★ KISS – ''Alive!''
★ Neutral Milk Hotel – ''In the Aeroplane Over the Sea''
★ Pavement – ''
★ Pavement – ''
★ Pink Floyd – ''Animals''
★ Sonic Youth – ''Daydream Nation: Deluxe Edition''
★ Bruce Springsteen – ''Born to Run: 30th Anniversary Edition''
★ Television – ''Marquee Moon''
★ The Velvet Underground – ''Loaded''
★ The Who – ''Odds and Sods''
★ Wire – ''Pink Flag''
★ Wire – ''Chairs Missing''
★ XTC – ''English Settlement''
★ Various Artists – ''
''Note:'' Occasionally, a Pitchfork reviewer awards a 10.0 rating to an album's reissue despite its initial release being awarded a lesser rating:
:- ''Music has the Right to Children'' by Boards of Canada[16] (initially awarded 8.3[17])
:- ''Endtroducing'' by DJ Shadow[18] (initially awarded 9.1[19])
:- ''In the Aeroplane Over the Sea'' by Neutral Milk Hotel[20] (initially awarded 8.7[21])
Albums awarded a 0.0 rating
The following albums received a 0.0 rating either upon initial release or re-release:
★ Bachman-Turner Overdrive – ''
★ The Flaming Lips – ''Zaireeka''1
★ John Frusciante – ''Smile from the Streets You Hold''
★ Jet – ''Shine On''²
★ Francisco López – ''Untitled #104''
★ Travis Morrison – ''Travistan''
★ KISS – ''Music From "The Elder"''
★ KISS/Peter Criss – ''Peter Criss''
★ Liz Phair – ''Liz Phair''
★ Robert Pollard – ''Relaxation of the Asshole''³
★ Sonic Youth – ''NYC Ghosts & Flowers''
★ Various Artists – ''This is Next''
:1 A feature defending the album and criticising the review was later also published on the website.[22]
:2 This album was not given a rating - the review consisted only of a video of a chimpanzee urinating into its own mouth.[23]
:3 In the review, this album theoretically received both a 10.0 and 0.0 rating.
Albums awarded a 9.9 rating
Some albums have been awarded a 9.9 upon original release or reissue:
★ Björk – ''Homogenic''
★ Miles Davis – ''Live-Evil''
★ John Lennon – ''Imagine: Digitally Remastered and Remixed''
★ Silver Jews – ''American Water''
★ Various Artists – ''
Albums awarded a 0.1 rating
Some albums have been given a 0.1 upon original release or reissue:
★ Badawi – "The Heretic of Ether"
★ MC Hellshit and DJ Carhouse – "Live!! EP"
★ Push Kings – "Feel No Fade"
Discussion relating to the 10.0 rating
The awarding of the 10.0 rating is the subject of discussion by figures both external and internal to Pitchfork Media.
Examples of such discussion include:
★ ''The Marshall Mathers LP'' by Eminem:
:In a review of the album "The Eminem Show" by Eminem[24], there is a passing reference to another of that artist's releases (The Marshall Mathers LP) hypothetically being awarded a 10.0 rating.
★ ''Bee Thousand'' by Guided By Voices:
:In the review of ''[25] (the expanded version of Guided by Voices' 1994 release ''Bee Thousand'') the reviewer, Eric Carr, states how the original version is worthy of the 10.0 rating:
:
★ ''Source Tags & Codes'' by ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead:
:In Nick Sylvester's review of the album "Worlds Apart" by the same artist[26], the reviewer questions whether "Source Tags & Codes" merited its 10.0 rating:
:
★ ''Relaxation of the Asshole'' by Robert Pollard:
:In Eric Carr's review[27] this album was in theory given both a 0.0 and a 10.0 rating:
:
★ ''Imagine: Digitally Remastered and Remixed'' by John Lennon:
:Reviewer Brent DiCrescenzo:
:
See also
★ Internet Underground Music Archive
★ Brent DiCrescenzo
Internet music journalism
★ CMJ
★ Drowned in Sound
★ I Love Music
★ Metacritic
★ PopMatters
★ Prefix Magazine
★ Stylus Magazine
★ Tiny Mix Tapes
★ Trouser Press
References
1. Eminem: The Eminem Show: Pitchfork Record Review
2. Pitchfork Media
3. Giving Indie Acts A Plug, or Pulling It Josh Freedom du Lac
4. Site Traffic Information for www.pitchforkmedia.com
5. The Pitchfork Effect
6. Statistics for the reviews database
7. Pitchfork e-zine tells indie fans what's hot and not Greg Kot
8. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah Interview
9. Blogs 'n buzz help propel Tapes 'N Tapes to music stardom Patrick Condon
10. The Pitchfork Effect Lindsey Thomas
11. Slate. "The Indie Music Site Everyone Loves to Hate". [1]
12. Albums to Listen to While Reading Overwrought Pitchfork Reviews
13. RichDork Media and Music Reviews and General Pretentiousness
14. http://www.thephoenix.com/article_ektid22637.aspx
15. Pitchfork Music Festival 2006
16. Boards of Canada Music Has the Right to Children (Reissue)
17. [http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/15569-music-has-the-right-to-children-original-review Boards of Canada Music Has the Right to Children [Original Review]
18. DJ Shadow Entroducing Deluxe Edition
19. DJ Shadow Entroducing
20. Neutral Milk Hotel: In the Aeroplane Over the Sea: Pitchfork Record Review
21. Neutral Milk Hotel: In The Aeroplane Over The Sea: Pitchfork Review
22. http://web.archive.org/web/20060502004643/http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/watw/02-06/zaireeka.shtml
23. Jet: Shine On: Pitchfork Record Review
24. [3]
25. [4]
26. [5]
27. [6]
External links
Pitchfork sites
★ Pitchfork Media
★ Pitchfork Music Festival
Best-of lists
Albums
★ Top 100 albums of: the 1970s; the 1980s; the 1990s (original 1999 list); the 1990s (compiled late 2003); and 2000-2004.
★ Top 50 albums of: 2001; 2002; 2003; 2004; 2005; and 2006.
Other lists
★ Top 100 tracks of: 2006
★ Top 200 songs of the 1960s: Part One (nos. 200-151); Part Two (nos. 150-101); Part Three (nos. 100-61); Part Four (nos. 60-21) and Part Five (nos. 20-1).
★ '100 Awesome Music Videos' (compiled 06-20-06)
★ Top 25 Music Videos of 2006 (compiled 12-13-06)
Other links
★ Giving Indie Acts A Plug, or Pulling It (''The Washington Post'', 30 April 2006).
★ Listen To This (''Columbia Journalism Review'', May-June 2006).
★ Pitchfork e-zine tells indie fans what's hot and what's not (''Chicago Tribune'' reprint, published 8 May 2005).
★ The Pitchfork Effect (''City Pages'', 14 June 2006).
★ Interview with Ryan Schreiber (The Chicagoist, 10 March, 2006)
★ The Joanna Newsom Leak
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