Page 261 - Weiss, Jernej, ur./ed. 2024. Glasbena kritika – nekoč in danes ▪︎ Music Criticism – Yesterday and Today. Koper/Ljubljana: Založba Univerze na Primorskem in Festival Ljubljana. Studia musicologica Labacensia, 7
P. 261
doi: https://doi.org/10.26493/978-961-293-299-2.261-279
What is happening to music criticism?
Borut Smrekar
Samostojni raziskovalec
Freelance researcher
“Music criticism is in crisis.”1 “Why do we still have music criticism?”2 “Do
we still need music critics?”3 Articles and symposia with these and similarly
impactful titles have been appearing for decades. The situation is no differ-
ent in the other arts. What Happened to Art Criticism?4 is the title of a well-
known book by James Elkins, for example, and similar reflections are also
to be found in the fields of theatre, film, dance and jazz criticism. Not even
pop criticism is immune. It seems clear, then, that something is happening
with criticism in all the arts. While there may be specific differences in in-
dividual fields, in its essential features the situation is the same everywhere.
With this paper, I will try to shed some light on the problems of arts criti-
cism in general, while focusing on music criticism when specific character-
istics of the field are involved.
Signs of the changing role and importance of arts criticism can be seen
in the generalised reduction (or disappearance) of cultural content in me-
dia where such content has been a constant presence for decades. It is being
supplanted by entertainment content with an abundance of visual materi-
1 “Musikkritik,” Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, no. 1 (2019), https://musikderzeit.de/aus-
gabe/musikkritik/.
2 Title of a symposium held in Dortmund in 2006; https://www.deutschlandfunk.de
/wozu-noch-musikkritik-100.html.
3 Title of an article: FW, “Do we still need music critics?,” Artmuselondon (31 January
2020), https://artmuselondon.com/2020/01/31/do-we-still-need-music-critics/.
4 James Elkins, What Happened to Art Criticism? (Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Press,
2003).
261
What is happening to music criticism?
Borut Smrekar
Samostojni raziskovalec
Freelance researcher
“Music criticism is in crisis.”1 “Why do we still have music criticism?”2 “Do
we still need music critics?”3 Articles and symposia with these and similarly
impactful titles have been appearing for decades. The situation is no differ-
ent in the other arts. What Happened to Art Criticism?4 is the title of a well-
known book by James Elkins, for example, and similar reflections are also
to be found in the fields of theatre, film, dance and jazz criticism. Not even
pop criticism is immune. It seems clear, then, that something is happening
with criticism in all the arts. While there may be specific differences in in-
dividual fields, in its essential features the situation is the same everywhere.
With this paper, I will try to shed some light on the problems of arts criti-
cism in general, while focusing on music criticism when specific character-
istics of the field are involved.
Signs of the changing role and importance of arts criticism can be seen
in the generalised reduction (or disappearance) of cultural content in me-
dia where such content has been a constant presence for decades. It is being
supplanted by entertainment content with an abundance of visual materi-
1 “Musikkritik,” Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, no. 1 (2019), https://musikderzeit.de/aus-
gabe/musikkritik/.
2 Title of a symposium held in Dortmund in 2006; https://www.deutschlandfunk.de
/wozu-noch-musikkritik-100.html.
3 Title of an article: FW, “Do we still need music critics?,” Artmuselondon (31 January
2020), https://artmuselondon.com/2020/01/31/do-we-still-need-music-critics/.
4 James Elkins, What Happened to Art Criticism? (Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Press,
2003).
261
