Robert Christgau

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Robert Christgau (2006)

Robert Christgau (sometimes abbreviated in print to "Xgau"), born April 18, 1942, is an American essayist, music journalist, and the self-declared "Dean of American Rock Critics"^[1] His first reviews were published by Esquire in 1967. He began writing music essays and review for The Village Voice in 1969, and was a regular contributor to the Voice from 1974 to 2006. He has also written frequently for Playboy, Spin, Creem, and Rolling Stone. In music-critic circles, he was an early supporter of hip hop and the riot grrl movement, along with other music styles. 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 was fired from the Village Voice in August 2006 "for taste" shortly after the paper's acquisition by New Times Media.^[2] Two months later, he became a contributing editor at Rolling Stone.

In addition to his prolific number of published music essays (which often reach deeply into themes of sociology, multiculturalism, and politics), Christgau has written several album guides in reference-book form. As of 2005, he is an adjunct professor in the Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music at New York University (NYU).

Christgau is perhaps best known for his Consumer Guide columns, which have been published on a more-or-less monthly basis since 1969, mostly in the Village Voice but for a brief period in the New York daily newspaper Newsday. In December 2006, the column moved online to MSN Music where it is scheduled to appear every other month. In its original format, the Consumer Guide consisted of 18 to 20 single-paragraph album reviews, each of which was given a letter grade ranging from A+ to E-. "Christgau's blurbs," writes Jody Rosen, "are like no one else's—dense with ideas and allusions, first-person confessions and invective, highbrow references and slang."^[1]

In 1990, Christgau changed the format of the Consumer Guide in order to concentrate more on good albums at the expense of mediocre ones. The Consumer Guide now contains 10 to 12 reviews graded upper-B+ or higher, one "Dud of the Month" review graded B or lower, and three lists: Honorable Mention (B+ albums deemed not worthy of full-paragraph reviews), Choice Cuts (excellent tracks on un-recommended albums), and Duds. For several years, there were two annual Consumer Guide columns which strayed from this format: The Turkey Shoot (typically published the week of Thanksgiving), which consisted entirely of reviews graded B- or lower, and a Christmas-season roundup of compilations and reissues, mostly graded A or A+. Both have been discontinued. With his job at Rolling Stone, Christgau must now wait four months to include in the Consumer Guide a full review of any albums he has reviewed for the magazine.

He is well known for his vigorous opposition to violent and misogynistic material in many hip-hop songs, particularly gangsta rap. Some examples include his dismissal of such well-known hip-hop offerings as Ice Cube's Death Certificate and N.W.A.'s Straight Outta Compton, despite their tremendous influence on the genre. However he has praised other rappers reputed to be equally misogynst, such as Eminem. This is best understood in terms of Christgau's long-stated preference for humor and irony. Christgau calls Eminem's work a "satiric, cautionary fiction," entirely different from the humorlessness of much hip hop.

In 1971, Christgau inaugurated the annual Pazz & Jop music poll. The results were published in the Village Voice every February, and compiled "top ten" lists submitted by music critics across the nation. Every poll was accompanied by a lengthy Christgau essay analyzing the results, and pondering the year's overall musical output. The Voice intends to continue the feature, and though he will not be overseeing it, Christgau has announced that he will submit a list.

Jody 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 Christigauians." ^[1]