Two months ago, Condé Nast bought and folded the music site Pitchfork. For many music fans that marked the end of an era of music criticism and pop culture. Slate magazine has an oral history of the late, great Pitchfork and how it started, what made it unique, and about its demise.
In January, Condé Nast announced that it was folding Pitchfork into GQ, laying off much of the staff of the influential, independent-minded music publication. The outcry was immediate. Why was one album-review website, founded nearly three decades ago in a suburban Minnesota bedroom, loved by so many music fans—and hated by so many others? Pitchfork transformed indie rock, but did pop transform Pitchfork? And does the Condé news really mean that Pitchfork is dead?
Over the past two months, Slate spoke to more than 30 Pitchfork writers, editors, and executives, past and present—as well as critics, industry luminaries, and some of the musicians whose careers Pitchfork made and destroyed—to tell the story behind the raves, the pans, the festivals, the fights, the indie spirit, the corporate takeover, and, of course, the scores. This is the complete oral history of Pitchfork.
[...] The gutting of Pitchfork is not just a loss for writers and editors, but all music fans. Spotify's algorithm can introduce you to new music but it can't contextualise it or tell its stories. Replacing media "gatekeepers" with AI ones has not enriched the culture. There are new formats for music journalism – the YouTuber Anthony Fantano is perhaps the world's most influential music critic, while Cole Cuchna's podcast Dissect is a masterclass in analysis – but like any art form, popular music deserves a thriving critical culture in the written word. While some music websites survive, notably the defiantly left-field digital magazine, the Quietus, it is striking that the alleged dinosaurs of print, led in the UK by Mojo and Uncut, have outlasted most of their supposed successors.
Condé Nast is the media company which owns one of the highly censorious, anti-FOSS "orange sites".
(Score: 2, Informative) by hendrikboom on Thursday March 28, @01:33PM (7 children)
What are orange sites? The new black sites?
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday March 28, @02:24PM (6 children)
I have no idea where they're getting "orange site" from. Anti-FOSS is self-explanatory. Maybe they're thinking is mired in "orange man bad" syndrome?
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday March 28, @02:26PM (1 child)
ChatGPT is of no help.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2, Insightful) by HeadlineEditor on Thursday March 28, @02:48PM
I'm glad I'm not the only one. The link in the comment about orange sites has information about Reddit; perhaps that's what an orange site is? orangesite.org claims to be "Like Stormfront, but for VC" which doesn't make anything clearer.
(Score: 2) by Zinho on Thursday March 28, @02:47PM (2 children)
The link for Condé Nast points to news about the Reddit IPO, and Reddit's logo is kinda orange, so maybe they're talking about Reddit?
But then, they also said "one of", so what other sites use orange in their trade dress and are anti-FOSS?
Inquiring minds want to know!
"Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin
(Score: 3, Informative) by Freeman on Thursday March 28, @02:54PM (1 child)
Isn't Reddit's logo red?
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Zinho on Thursday March 28, @04:46PM
Yeah, I'd have said so, too, but there's some controversy. [ifunny.co]
Look, I'm stretching here to make it make sense. The puzzle pieces aren't fitting for me, either.
"Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin
(Score: 3, Interesting) by The Vocal Minority on Friday March 29, @03:20AM
My first thought was "I don't think that HN is owned by this company". Other than that i got nothin'
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 28, @06:33PM
Never heard of the publication or any of these so-called "influential" critics