The best music critics, according to music critics
22 top music journalists name the best critics, editors, publications, and the advice they’d give to aspiring music writers.
This is part two of media_gossip’s special two-part series about the state of music criticism. Read the second part, The Best music critics, according to music critics, here.
Using my prerogative as editor here to highlight a few names: Ellen Willis (my professor at NYU, who convinced me, an overly serious young man, that pop culture was worth taking seriously, but not too seriously) among the greatest, and always worth reading now: Molly Mary O’Brien, Marissa R. Moss and Natalie Weiner, and Alex Pappademas (who is obligated to blog more about music, now that I’ve written this). —Nick
PS: Thank you to all the critics for their thoughtful responses, and thanks as well to those who weighed in on Part 1 yesterday. Comments are open on today’s post!
Where is the best place to read music criticism? Who is the best critic working now? Who is the best critic in history?
Robert Christgau, Dean of American Rock Critics: Mine. Me. Me.
Grayson Haver Currin, writer: These kinds of superlative questions don’t interest me. I will just say that I generally do not get along with folks who see Robert Christgau as a north star, though two of my favorite critics are exceptions, so who fucking knows?
Rob Harvilla, writer and podcaster at The Ringer: Bob Christgau is kinda indisputable in terms of scale, intensity, longevity, and ludicrously high quality; Ann Powers at NPR, Craig Jenkins at Vulture, Jon Caramanica at the NYT, and Chris Richards formerly of The Washington Post (great Substack now) are all must-reads for me or anyone else for that matter. Best Critic in History is a funny idea but Greg Tate gets my vote for style + devotion, and Hanif Abdurraqib brings me the same joy + awe now.
Danyel Smith, author, contributing writer at The New York Times Magazine, and creator/host of Black Girl Songbook: Few of us talk enough about Greg Tate.
Music journalist turned content executive/creator at a digital service provider: TikTok is probably the best place, and the NY Times is second. The best critic right now working at a high level is probably Jon Caramanica. Danyel Smith is still amazing when she focuses on music. The best ever is Greg Tate.
Tom Breihan, senior editor at Stereogum: My all-time favorite critic is Charles Aaron, but if we’re going capital-B Best, I guess it’s gotta be Greg Tate. I firmly believe that the best place to read criticism now is Stereogum, but I am hopelessly biased there. Otherwise, I think it’s smaller subscription sites: POW MAG, Hearing Things, various Substacks. The critic working now who impresses me the most consistently is Eli Enis. He’s found a real voice covering emerging or semi-underground genres that don’t always get attention, and he’s done it mostly on his own without pulling punches.
Jason King, dean at the USC Thornton School of Music: Substack. Best is tough because different writers have different impact. Ann Powers? Daphne Brooks? Wesley Morris? Piotr Orlov? Dan Charnas? Craig Jenkins? Ned Sublette? Ashley Kahn? Margo Jefferson? Kelefa Sanneh? Vivien Goldman? Danyel Smith? Carol Cooper? Best critic in history: for me that might be Greg Tate.
Mano Sundaresan, editor at Pitchfork: Pitchfork. Current: Alphonse Pierre/ Paul Thompson/Kieran Press-Reynolds. All-time: Greg Tate/Meaghan Garvey.
Dylan “CineMasai” Green, founder, writer, and editor at Hearing Things: Pitchfork is still the place for music criticism, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Hearing Things’s critical coverage or that of various independent newsletters, from andrejgee’s to Eli Schoop’s Constantly Hating. Craig Jenkins at Vulture and Sheldon Pearce at NPR are, my opinion, the best critics working. The best critic in history just might be Greg Tate.
Steven Hyden, writer at Evil Speakers: Of people working right now I’d say: josh terry, Grace Robins-Somerville, Miranda Reinert, Eli Enis, Jonathan Bernstein, Bob Mehr, Erin Osmon, Ian Cohen, Larry Fitzmaurice, and Monia Ali. All-time: Greil Marcus, Ellen Willis, Nick Kent, Lester Bangs, Nelson George, Kurt Loder, Jancee Dunn, and Chuck Klosterman.
Matt Mitchell, editor-in-chief at Paste: There is no greatest working critic, because the best profiler, best reviewer, and best essayist/scene reporter are not the same person. Best critic ever? I dunno. Greg Tate, probably.
Kieran Press-Reynolds, columnist at Pitchfork: I’d be fake if I didn’t say Pitchfork, whose editors have been the toughest on me compared to any other music editors. Passion of the Weiss, the FADER, Sammy’s World, FRANKA, Tone Glow. I like going back to the Tiny Mix Tapes archive. When I started doing my first reviews for my college newspaper, besides my dad [Simon Reynolds], I was really inspired by Alphonse Pierre. I remember being struck by how funny and real his takedown of Comethazine was in 2018.
Frazier Tharpe, GQ senior writer: It’s still Pitchfork. You may disagree with the score, or even the whole take, but they’re still employing some of the best writers out and covering the widest range. Whatever Craig Jenkins deigns to bring out his pen for is always going to be a great read. And my guys at Passion of the Weiss are putting up great stuff on all the conversations we’re all having and things that don’t get as big a spotlight as they should.
Mark Richardson, rock and pop critic for The Wall Street Journal: Still Pitchfork. It’s the only major publication where music criticism is central to the mission, and it seems like people who write for it (and edit it) take that very seriously. The review section shrank after the layoffs, but it’s grown since they launched subscriptions.
Steffanee Wang, editorial director at The FADER: Maybe Pitchfork. Rarely NYTimes. Mostly Reddit, now. I have to shout out Shaad D’Souza for always having the guts to Go There. IDK about history but I feel like I got the best schooling on music criticism from my former colleague Rawiya Kameir.
Chuck Eddy, author and former Village Voice music editor: Right now, my favorite place to read music criticism is Dave Moore’s The Other Dave Moore. He is tireless when it comes to tracking down new pop music (especially music outside the English speaking world, which pretty clearly is no longer where the action is), and he’s basically the last person I’m aware of who consistently comes up with fresh and interesting *ideas* about this stuff, week after week. Beyond Dave, the pickings these days strike me as depressingly slim. Brad Luen’s Semipop Life substack is the best of many frequently sycophantic substitutes I’ve seen for Robert Christgau’s Consumer Guide (which incredibly is still operating in its own right, as was Greil Marcus’s Real Life Top 10 last time I checked.) I also look at Country Universe, the experimental music magazine The Wire (which my wife got me an expensive subscription to for Christmas), Daddy B. Nice’s wonderfully homemade-looking Southern soul page (he is the only critic I’ve ever seen who always draws pictures of the performers he writes about!), Alfred Soto’s Humanizing the Vacuum. Until recently I would have included The New York Times, which I subscribe to in physical form, but over the past couple years it’s been really disappointing in its awkward attempts for its music writing to read as “journalistic” or whatever. Favorite critics ever, alphabetical order: Lester Bangs, Christgau, Phil Dellio, Simon Frith, Rick Johnson, Leroi Jones, Frank Kogan, Marcus, Richard Meltzer, Metal Mike Saunders, Scott Seward, etc.
Sasha Frere-Jones, writer and musician: This is the kind of thinking that made me stop writing music criticism. I have spiritual beef with celebrity and genius, two teleological ends that criticism cannot divest from. The industry is a pedophilic sewer and the good artists either burn out, go crazy, or stop. Also it’s all access journalism now. Nobody really defeats the “please fluff this release calendar” directive.
Is there an editor who has significantly guided or improved your work?
Sasha Frere-Jones: All of them bc editors are angels.
Steven Hyden, writer at Evil Speakers: Guided or improved—not really? Websites are like foxholes, in my experience. “If you’re a writer who needs your hand held, you seem like a pain in the ass” is the message that’s been or less communicated to me. To me, the best editors gave me space to do what I wanted to do, and the moral support I needed when I was lacking confidence.
Tom Breihan: In virtually my entire time writing about music on the internet, 20+ years now, I have had very little editorial oversight. But Chris DeVille, while he never overhauls my stuff, asks very good questions and makes crucial tweaks.
Grayson Haver Currin: So many editors have taught me so many things—Caryn Ganz [OnlyGanz], Mark Richardson, Jayson Greene, and Danny Eccleston have all made my work and me better. But I would be full of shit if I did not pay a special debt of gratitude to the editors I had at The Independent Weekly, where I spent my 20s: Lisa Sorg, Kirk Ross, Richard Hart, and Jen Strom. If what you follow is music writing, you might not know these folks, but they gave me permission and space to fail while I learned, alongside a small paycheck.
Mark Richardson: I like to single out Ryan Dombal, formerly of Pitchfork, as a gifted editor who made so many of my pieces better.
Mano Sundaresan: Jeff Weiss
Kieran Press-Reynolds: Mano Sundaresan has really pushed me to trim down my profiles and columns. Knowing what great details to sacrifice—for the sake of flow or reader fatigue—for an even better overall story is a lovely skill.
Matt Mitchell: The best editor I’ve ever worked with is Anna Gaca [of Pitchfork and formerly Spin].
Dylan “CineMasai” Green: As a Black writer, I have to give special shout outs to the Black editors who’ve shaped my pen, from Jerry Barrow and Jada Gomez to Clover Hope and Will Ketchum.
Jason King: Three come to mind: Robert Christgau. Richard Goldstein. Elizabeth Mendez Berry.
Chuck Eddy: Christgau, who also taught me how to edit.
Robert Christgau: Joe Levy has helped keep my work fresh for decades now, in both a literary and a historical sense.
Danyel Smith: At the beginning, it was Tommy Tompkins at The San Francisco Bay Guardian. Most recently, it was Niela Orr at The New York Times Magazine. And in between, several more extremely smart and patient editors and teammates over the course of my career.
Steffanee Wang: Ruth Saxelby; Myles Tanzer
DSP content executive: Benjamin Meadows-Ingram
Rob Harvilla: Both my primary editors at The Ringer have been invaluable to me—Amanda Dobbins helped me at least attempt to reach an audience beyond fellow rock critics, and Justin Sayles somehow turned me into a podcaster.
Frazier Tharpe: Damien Scott and Ross Scarano were overseeing music coverage at Complex around the time I started covering music, so some of my first pieces and assignments with the biggest stakes and responsibility came across their desks. Editing is deeper than suggestion mode, it’s giving game and explaining the suggestions, and I’d be a lesser writer if Dame or Ross didn’t take time to point me in the right direction. But I also enjoyed being edited by GQ legends like Geoff Gagnon, Chris Gayomali, and Dan Riley when I came here. I’m really always seeking to learn and strengthen with each piece I file.
What is your advice to someone who says they want to make a career covering (not necessarily writing about) music as a critic?
Mano Sundaresan: Do it for the love, be ready to be uncomfortable/unstable.
Mark Richardson: I pretty much say “don’t,” but that pertains to the “career” part of it. You can make money with criticism, but the number of people making a living from music criticism alone is probably, what, fewer than a 100 people in the United States? Maybe less than that? (I am not one of them.) And probably 70 percent of those are YouTubers. So I tell them it’s enjoyable and fulfilling and can be a way to earn money, but it’s almost never a way to support yourself.
Scott Lapatine, founder, editor, owner, and Instagrammer at Stereogum: Traditional criticism is not a growth area, obviously. If someone’s interested in covering music professionally, I would tell them to think broadly about newsletters, podcasts, TikTok, community-building, etc.
Steven Hyden: You must convince editors that they want “you.” Your voice, your perspective, your set of skills and opinions. Also: “I work for [Publication X]” is not an identity. Because you won’t work at that place forever, and when you leave, what will you have?
Frazier Tharpe: Stay true to your taste and your perspective, and the audience will find you and the subjects will respond in kind.
Kieran Press-Reynolds: Don’t just hop on trends and cover what everyone else is on. Especially if you’re a video creator, avoid spamming clips for clicks and engagement.
I’ve benefited from carving out a “lane” as the brainrot-underground-music whatever, but it only works because I genuinely love (or at least am sociologically fascinated by) this stuff and struggle to make nanocultures coherent to the uninitiated. You either need to find freaky and revealing new ways of covering megastars like the Drake/Taylor Swift/Morgan Wallens or pick a deep niche and explain how it informs the wider world.
While there’s been such a primacy placed on “voice” and “taste” in recent years (as a response to the flattening algorithm and overperfect AI sterility), we might be heading the other way, or at least in need of technical expertise more than experimental prose. You can find plenty of bloggers with quirked up review styles but fewer who wield it with keen musical/theoretical/historical knowledge.
Steffanee Wang: Make a TikTok account, and don’t pigeonhole yourself to a single medium.
Jeremy D. Larson, deputy director at Pitchfork: Start a band, learn how to actually DJ, learn how to produce music, download a cracked version of FL Studio, download Koala, write bad songs, borrow a guitar, go on tour with a band, do press for your friend’s band, put out secret albums no one knows about. You will learn so much more about music by being *of* it than writing about it.
Chuck Eddy: Find another line of work. Which more and more I wish I had myself, especially since so far I’ve had no luck landing a job at a book or record store. If you insist on such a sad career choice, get ahold of old Creem magazines from the ’70s and ’80s and study them closely.
Rob Harvilla: I feel so dumb + old + feeble + useless trying to answer this question—as a child of alt-weeklies I feel like I was born and raised on a different planet and actual young people shouldn’t listen to any advice I have about anything. Nonetheless, my standard response to any Advice For Young Aspiring Critics question is that if you know how dire the landscape is and you’re still trying to do it anyway, than I recognize and (now more than ever!) eternally respect that monomaniacal drive. I’m pretty sure you’ll figure it out, and you already know way more than I do about how, exactly, you’ll figure it out.
Danyel Smith: Before advice, I offer a welcome: Thank you for taking music seriously. Thank you for being here. We need you. The culture needs you.
Gratified to be mentioned!
As someone who reads (and, honestly, watches) a ton of culture criticism across music, TV, film, and books, I find it startling that no one here mentioned Steven Hyden. He manages to carry his core tenets of being insightful, hilarious, and thought-provoking across multiple mediums: columns, books, newsletters, and music docs. He's also one of the most prolific forces in the game. He's been my #1 for many moons now.