Simon Reynolds | The guv’ner

What I find disconcerting is how many young writers are very reasonable and sane in their approach
notes for a three-minute thesis presentation by Everett True
Has Everett True simply out-lived his purpose? WTF.
PhD research: Simon Reynolds on how taste is formed in web 2.0 environments
Web culture is driven by the impulse to differentiate oneself, so there is a lot less cultural capital to be generated from agreeing than there is from disagreeing.
PhD research: Neil Kulkarni on the role of the music critic | ESSENTIAL READING
The ability not just to make words stick to a page/screen but give them a sense of life, make them walk and talk with your own spirit – s’tricky and the best music critics have always done it.
PhD research issue #3. You write to make an impact: A tribute to Steven Wells (re-post)
Engage, argue, inform, irritate … but above all entertain.
PhD research issue #2. The role of the music critic
I regard a critic as someone who values curiosity over cultural complacency, and knows how to enable this as a practice in others
PhD research issue #1. Trolling
Trolling is a rhetorical strategy that attempts to discredit the conversation or speaker as absurd/obvious or otherwise shift the topic towards some other element of an argument than the one being addressed.