Robert Christgau: Dean of American Rock Critics

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And It Don't Stop on Substack

Robert Christgau's newsletter And It Don't Stop appears three (or four) times a month on Substack. Subscribe here.

Robert Christgau's Big-Hearted Theory of Pop

Book Reports features reviews of not only the pop-music tomes you'd predict but also literary fiction, Marxist-adjacent cultural commentary, feminist debates over pornography, and even books about the past decade's financial crisis. It follows a collection that Christgau published last year, Is It Still Good to Ya? Fifty Years of Rock Criticism, 1967-2017, which includes Christgau's takes on, among many other things, classic rock, Kanye West, the music of Desert Storm, Lollapalooza, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, and so-called guilty pleasures--a category that Christgau rejects, since, for rock critics, as he puts it, "pleasure is where meaning begins." Together, these collections make the sneaky case that Christgau is not just the Dean of American Rock Critics, his self-awarded and perhaps slightly off-putting nickname, but one of America's sharper public intellectuals of the past half century, and certainly one of its most influential--not to mention one of the better stylists in that cohort. Fun is a big part of why.

--David Cantwell, The New Yorker

News

Rock & Roll &: Brag Like That

New Rock & Roll & column at Barnes & Noble Review:

Also, new on MSN Music News:

[posted by Webmaster on 2011-09-19]
This Week in Expert Witness

New posts this week in Robert Christgau's Expert Witness blog:

[posted by Webmaster on 2011-09-16]
This Week in Expert Witness

New posts this week in Robert Christgau's Expert Witness blog:

  • Jay-Z:
    • Jay-Z: Reasonable Doubt (Roc-A-Fella/Priority '96) A-
    • Jay-Z: The Black Album (Roc-A-Fella '03) A
  • Gilberto Gil:
    • Gilberto Gil: Gilberto Gil (Universal '98) A-
    • Gilberto Gil: Expresso 2222 (Universal '93) B+
[posted by Webmaster on 2011-09-09]
This Week in Expert Witness

New posts this week in Robert Christgau's Expert Witness blog:

  • Louis Armstrong/King Oliver:
    • Louis Armstrong: The Complete Town Hall Concert 1947 (Fresh Sound '04) A
    • King Oliver: Off the Record: The Complete 1923 Jazz Band Recordings (Off the Record '06) A-
  • Terakaft/Tinariwen:
    • Terakaft: Aratan N Azawad (World Village) A-
    • Tinariwen: Tassili (Anti-) A-
[posted by Webmaster on 2011-09-02]
This Week in Expert Witness

New posts this week in Robert Christgau's Expert Witness blog:

[posted by Webmaster on 2011-08-26]
This Week in Expert Witness

New posts this week in Robert Christgau's Expert Witness blog:

  • Fountains of Wayne:
    • Fountains of Wayne: Fountains of Wayne (TAG/Atlantic '96) A-
    • Fountains of Wayne: Utopia Parkway (Atlantic '99) A-
  • Withered Hand/Lykke Li:
    • Withered Hand: Good News (Absolutely Kosher) A-
    • Lykke Li: Wounded Rhymes (Atlantic) A-
[posted by Webmaster on 2011-08-19]
Rock & Roll &: Not Fade Away

New Rock & Roll & column at Barnes & Noble Review:

[posted by Webmaster on 2011-08-17]
MSN Music: Fountains of Wayne: Tender Behind the Tartness
[posted by Webmaster on 2011-08-13]
This Week in Expert Witness

New posts this week in Robert Christgau's Expert Witness blog:

  • Mamani Keita:
    • Mamani Keita: Gagner l'Argent Français (No Format) B+
    • Mamani Keita: Yelema (No Format '06) A-
  • Steve Cropper/The 5 Royales:
    • Steve Cropper: Dedicated: A Salute to the 5 Royales (429) A-
    • The 5 Royales: The Very Best of the 5 Royales (Collectables '04) A-
[posted by Webmaster on 2011-08-12]
This Week in Expert Witness

New posts this week in Robert Christgau's Expert Witness blog:

  • SebastiAn/Skrillex:
    • SebastiAn: Total (Big Beat/Atlantic/Ed Banger) A-
    • Skrillex: Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites (Big Beat/Atlantic) B+
  • Neil Young/David Bowie:
    • Neil Young International Harvesters: A Treasure (Reprise) A-
    • David Bowie: Station to Station (Special Edition) (EMI) A-
[posted by Webmaster on 2011-08-05]
Perfect Sound Forever

Robert Christgau wrote an introduction, Writing Personally, to three papers written by his student at NYU, and published on Perfect Sound Forever.

[posted by Webmaster on 2011-08-02]
This Week in Expert Witness

New posts this week in Robert Christgau's Expert Witness blog:

  • The Staple Singers:
    • The Staple Singers: Freedom Highway (Columbia/Legacy '91) A
    • The Staple Singers: Stax Profiles (Stax '06) A-
  • Lobi Traore/Sorry Bamba:
    • Lobi Traore: Bwati Kono "In the Club" (Kanaga System Krush) A-
    • Sorry Bamba: Volume One 1970-1979 (Thrill Jockey) A-
[posted by Webmaster on 2011-07-29]
MSN Music: Tom Zé Live: An Elfin Triumph
[posted by Webmaster on 2011-07-25]
This Week in Expert Witness

New posts this week in Robert Christgau's Expert Witness blog:

  • Serengeti:
    • Serengeti: Noticeably Negro (Audio 8 '06) A-
    • Serengeti: Family & Friends (Anticon) A-
  • Jill Scott/Dave Alvin:
    • Jill Scott: The Light of the Sun (Blues Babe/Warner Bros.) A-
    • Dave Alvin: Eleven Eleven (Yep Roc) A-
[posted by Webmaster on 2011-07-22]
Rock & Roll &: Making Out Like Gangsters

New Rock & Roll & column at Barnes & Noble Review:

[posted by Webmaster on 2011-07-20]
This Week in Expert Witness

New posts this week in Robert Christgau's Expert Witness blog:

[posted by Webmaster on 2011-07-15]
This Week in Expert Witness

New posts this week in Robert Christgau's Expert Witness blog:

  • Shabazz Palaces:
    • Shabazz Palaces: Of Light (Switchblade Music/Templar) A-
    • Shabazz Palaces: Shabazz Palaces (Switchblade Music/Templar) A-
  • Teddybears/Russian Futurists:
    • Teddybears: Devil's Music (Big Beat/Atlantic) A
    • The Russian Futurists: The Weight's on the Wheels (Upper Class) A-
[posted by Webmaster on 2011-07-08]
This Week in Expert Witness

New posts this week in Robert Christgau's Expert Witness blog:

  • Ofori Amponsah/Nigeria 70:
    • Ofori Amponsah: Odwo (Supermusic '07) A-
    • Nigeria 70: Sweet Times: Afro-Funk, Highlife & Juju From 1970s Lagos (Strut) A-
  • The Real Bahamas/Fania Records 1964-1980:
    • The Real Bahamas, Volumes I & II (Nonesuch Explorer Series '98) A
    • Fania Records 1964-1980: The Original Sound of Latin New York (Strut) B+
[posted by Webmaster on 2011-07-01]
Hüsker Dü's Propulsive Liberation

New York Times Book Review: Hüsker Dü's Propulsive Liberation:

  • Bob Mould with Michael Azerrad: The Trail of Rage and Melody (Little, Brown & Company)
  • Andrew Earles: Hüsker Dü: The Story of the Noise-Pop Pioneers Who Launched Modern Rock (Voyageur Press)
[posted by Webmaster on 2011-06-24]
This Week in Expert Witness

New posts this week in Robert Christgau's Expert Witness blog:

  • Jerry Lee Lewis/Wire:
    • Jerry Lee Lewis: "Live" at the Star Club, Hamburg (Rhino '92) A
    • Wire: 14 September 2002, Metro, Chicago (pinkflag.com) A-
  • Lady Gaga/Pink:
    • Lady Gaga: Born This Way (Streamline/Interscope/KonLive) A-
    • Pink: Greatest Hits . . . So Far!!! (LaFace/Jive) A-
[posted by Webmaster on 2011-06-24]

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