Scaruffi on rushing through your <current year> music backlog

"I get way too much music to listen to, and it’s mostly garbage, even when it’s recommended by trusted friends (and sometimes even when metacritic will show an average rating of 9/10). Hence i get very upset that those labels and musicians have wasted hours of my time, and i tend to be more critical than i should be. After all, most of these musicians are just kids, and some of them honestly spent months rehearsing and dreaming. Nonetheless, it is upsetting to read all these reviews that hail every kid as a new Mozart or Beethoven. It is also upsetting that so many people want a review “right now” of the new album. If it’s a good album, it will still be good ten years from now, right? Why do you need to listen to it “right now”? If you ask me for the review of a new album, you already told me that you are not interested in good music but in what gets promoted by the music industry. If you are interested in good music, check my lists of best albums of the 1960s, 70s, 80s,… of jazz… of classical music… There’s plenty to listen to.

The albums of the last few years are probably the ones you shouldn’t listen to. Let good music shape your brain, not promotional campaigns shape your brain [...] If we thought more highly of ourselves, we would not watch bad films and listened to bad music just because they are publicised.

[...]

Not yet. I have more than 1,000 albums sitting on my hard-disk. But when i find the time, i would like to go back and re-listen to albums of the 2000s and 1990s. So my priority is NOT to listen to the albums of the last few years. And i have lots of classical music to listen and re-listen to. And jazz. Life is too short."

-Extract from an interview he conceded to Sputnikmusic-

*****
Thoughts? Scaruffi does not seem to be particularly fond of "best of the year" lists, his approach seems 'calmer', despite the high volume of music he listens to.

Other urls found in this thread:

scaruffi.com/history/italian.html
sputnikmusic.com/blog/2016/08/25/chatting-it-up-w-piero-scaruffi/
twitter.com/AnonBabble

who cares

Sup Forums

he's right. to find good recent music you probably have to go through lots of garbage. when the hype has died down the good stuff will show more clearly

What does he like, dad rock?

I agree with him t b h

Scaruffi has a few really garbage opinions (i.e. the fact that...) but he generally seems to have an honest ethos when it come to reviewing in general. So yeah, he's basically right, though of course there's still value in certain people focusing on newer stuff (someone has to be leading the discussion on whether or not certain things should be remembered). Just don't expect everyone to.

my backlog is fucking huge - too daunting to start it all the way through but slowly I'm making progress

How can one man be so based?

His recent Trump posts are cringe-city but I cannot not love this beautiful man.

>If you ask me for the review of a new album, you already told me that you are not interested in good music but in what gets promoted by the music industry
>The albums of the last few years are probably the ones you shouldn’t listen to. Let good music shape your brain, not promotional campaigns shape your brain
What a fucking knob.

Show how though? Good stuff will only become apparent by consensus, which requires either lots of people to listen to it, or the critics to listen to it. Scaruffi's argument doesn't make sense.

t. young uncultured music listener

>Good stuff will only become apparent by consensus
the good will always rise to the top. unless someone is actively trying to hide or destroy your work, nothing that is truly good in the sense that you mean can remain hidden.

only mediocre stuff requires critics to artificially raise its status.

I want to punch this old itialian fuck

>complains about having a huge mountain of albums to listen to at the end if the year
>refuses to listen to and review albums as they come out, and instead puts it off til the end of the year
is scaruffi going senile

He's right

He is 100% right. This is a case with movies even more so.

music at least +5 years after release
movies at least +10 years after release

Hit a little too close to home?

nu metal
and obscure "groundbreaking" 60s rock

Did Scaruffi ever do a list or article solely dedicated to his homeland, Italy?

I would really need one right now.

he has a writeup on a lot of countries

scaruffi.com/history/italian.html

i care, you philistine

i'm still going through a bunch of his 7's and 8's from yesteryear so as much as i'd like reviews of newer stuff i'm not too fussed

I believe he has a best of Italian rock or Italian prog on the top albums page, and he has plenty of write-ups based on country. Loads of cool stuff in those lists that you wouldn't see elsewhere.

He prefers Autechre.

>genuinely interested in what piero "king of plebs" scaruffi has to say
>thinks he can call other people plebs

el oh el

He makes a great point, but that doesn't change the fact that new releases are exciting, and sometimes (or more often than not) it's better to live in the now rather than in the past.

ok yeah thats cool scaruffi I understand but I dont wanna wait 5 years to heard your review of Common As Light I just want it now ok thx

I like his take on Syd Barrett work.

Besides that he just want to rustle your jimmies with severe numbers given at non-existant critic over album ideology.

Imagine being someone that cannot even say 2017 without using an outdated meme

>his approach seems 'calmer', despite the high volume of music he listens to.
I'm like this too, I don't bother with keeping up with new releases much.

I don't have a problem with people who do, and think it's good somebody is bothering to pay attention to new movements, that's just not me. This is the case with movies more than music even.

i'm glad scaruffi exists. without him we'd be stuck with these retarded reviewers like christau and pitchfork handing out 10s and As to some of the worst and most borings bands/artists in the history of music. i would rather listen to twin infinitives than whatever fantano thinks is good

tldr."I can't get into varpowave"

kek

>THE
>garbage opinion
kill yourself, scouse trash

beatles are overrated

>-Extract from an interview he conceded to Sputnikmusic-

link to interview?

grow up

Even opinions on the band aside, there are straight up factual inaccuracies in that essay. It's trash and entirely driven out of his contrarianism.

you stupid faggot. "the beatles are overrated" is not out of the question at all. they've made some damn good songs but none of their albums deserve a 10 or anything higher than an 8.

Xasthur
>2000's>rockers>goths
"dream-pop for black metal"
LMAO He's so out of touch

Yeah no shit the band almost universally heralded as the greatest of all time is going to be a bit overrated. That's a completely useless and tired thing to point out now.

And the comment was especially useless since my entire point is that the Scaruffi pasta goes way farther than just saying they're overrated. It's just a bad piece of music criticism.

Tldr he's Le wrong generation fag
I thought Sup Forums hates people like these

Wow, Scaruffi defense force sure is in full force today
I really hate his drones, they are probably the biggest pseuds on this board behind RYM faggots

>Good stuff will only become apparent by consensus

Why?

>Sputnikmusic
Post the full link
sputnikmusic.com/blog/2016/08/25/chatting-it-up-w-piero-scaruffi/

The second part of your question is actually more interesting: should i write about Hitler if i am not a practicing Nazist? should i write about the Holocaust if i have not gassed a few thousand Jews? The answer is obvious, right? But surprisingly so many people criticize the critic who a) does not play/read music (i can’t even tell a C note from an E) and b) does not like what s/he is reviewing (and, alas, i don’t like 95% of what i hear in popular music), as if only someone who can play that piece of music and actually likes it should be allowed to discuss it. That’s actually a fair objection: what does it mean that you “understand” a piece of music? If you cannot play it yourself, how can you claim that you understand it? If you don’t like it, and maybe you don’t like the entire
style/movement, isn’t that a definition of “not understanding it”?

Let’s take a different discipline so we don’t yell at each other. Let’s take the visual arts. An art critic who writes a history of art is most likely going to write the same history that previous art critics have written. He will simply add a few trivia that came out from scholarly research, but it will fundamentally be the same story. If a scientist writes a history of art, s/he will come up with a completely different story. The scientist didn’t spend 10-20-30 years studying and listening to other art critics. The scientist literally doesn’t know what s/he is supposed to write, hence most likely s/he will not write it. In particular, the scientist will NOT be influenced by the museums, the art galleries and the art magazines that pretty much define what has to be considered “art”. Art critics will deride the scientist as not “competent”, but “competent” often means “very influenced by the establishment”, “very brainwashed to repeat like a parrot what the establishment wants you to say”, etc.

>1/2

I personally love to read what “incompetent” people have to say about art. In some cases it simply betrays real incompetence (e.g. the dude has no idea that there are lots of artists doing what he thinks artists are not doing) but in many cases the “incompetent” says something important that no professional critic was saying, simply because s/he doesn’t have to fear retribution from the establishment. His income comes from his scientific institution, not from the museums, art galleries and art magazines that decide what is art. In rock music this problem is even bigger. Exponentially bigger. So you do want “outsiders” to write about rock music. If you are professional rock critic, you will never dare write that most (all?) rock stars are pathetic garbage. If you are not a professional rock critic, that’s the first thing you notice about rock music.

>should i write about Hitler if i am not a practicing Nazist? should i write about the Holocaust if i have not gassed a few thousand Jews? The answer is obvious, right?
A more appropriate question is Should I be writing about Hitler/Holocaust if I haven't studied WWII.

Nice try Scruffy

>The albums of the last few years are probably the ones you shouldn’t listen to. Let good music shape your brain, not promotional campaigns shape your brain. (Incidentally, the same is true of cinema: i find that Hollywood has declined so precipitously that virtually no Hollywood film of the last 5 years deserves to be watched…why in heaven would anyone waste 2 hours to watch “Spiderman Chapter 623” or “Star Wars Episode #welostcount – The Return of the Return of the Return” when there are so many good films made in the previous 100 years that people haven’t seen yet? The last sequel that was worth watching was Godfather 2, 42 years ago, or the Road Warrior, 35 years ago). If we thought more highly of ourselves, we would not watch bad films and listened to bad music just because they are publicized.

>In a couple of decades, “publications” will not exist anymore, so it’s hard to predict what “all the publications” will mean in 2036. And the format of music will be different. The music industry is keeping alive the obsolete concepts of “single” and “album” because that’s the way they structure their business plans, but sooner or later common sense will prevail. It’s ironic that the music industry still sells “albums” but in some places there are no record stores where to buy them. What they are really selling to us is digital files, that cost $0 to make.

>Slight changes in the ratings happen all the time because i need to balance one band’s ratings with all the others, but i can’t remember a major recording where i changed my mind (“garbage” to “masterpiece” or viceversa). I certainly changed my mind on the degree of influence, e.g. i never imagined that Black Sabbath or Radiohead would become so influential (i still don’t particularly like either, btw). Unfortunately, it happens only for the very famous albums that people ask me to re-listen and re-listen (often with the result that i get more and more convinced of my initial opinion, eg Revolver, one of the worst albums i’ve ever heard no matter how many times i re-listen to it).

He is right in the fact that everyone wants a review for right now, and not even for entertainment purposes, but to legit be influenced by that review. He is right, too, in the fact that a good album will be good years from now, if not, it never was good, just trendy. He is right too in the fact that one should listen to music from any time nit just the new music. If one does that one will be pretty mind closed.

>Tldr he's Le wrong generation fag
no, you understood literally nothing of what he said

>(often with the result that i get more and more convinced of my initial opinion, eg Revolver, one of the worst albums i’ve ever heard no matter how many times i re-listen to it).
BASED

this

Isn't listening to modern music to filter the garbage the job of a critic?

It's the job of lowlevel p4k beta critics. True kings of reviewing have opinions that stay relevant on relevant albums for decades.

Examples?

Most of Scaruffi's top 100 reviews are older albums and still accurate

>hail every kid as a new Mozart or Beethoven.
Nobody fucking does this.

>Kendrick Lamar
>Kanye West
>Sufjan Stevens
>Danny Brown
>Frank Ocean
All trash artists in which I've literally seen people compare them to Mozart and Beethoven.

That pic makes it look like his pants zipper is open lol

But rise to the top how? If no-one listened to music that came out in the last decade, we'd still have the same problem just ten years down the line. People have to listen to stuff to like it, and people liking it is the only way for it to rise to the top.

Shit music doesn't just vanish. Either everyone listens to loads of music to sort the good from the crap themselves, or they rely on critics/reviews/friends/websites. Those people listed in turn have to either separate good from bad, or rely on someone else and so on.

At the end of the day someone has to be the first in the chain. Scaruffi is just passing off the responsibility and relying on others.

Bump

one day he will die and there will be no other genius to replace him ;_;

he's right

how can he be wrong gen when he was born at a time where he could listen to most of that music???