Paradoxically for a writer best known as a minimalist, Christgau began as one of the New Journalists, arriving with 1965's 'Beth Ann And Macrobiotics' in New York Magazine . The New Journalism . Being a reporter was another path I could have gone down, but the kind of journalism New Journalism requires is not only powers of observation but the ability to hang around people for hours and hours . . . Instead, Christgau became part of a holy trinity of rock writing alongside Greil Marcus and Lester Bangs. Where Marcus's reputation rests on a rarefied Californian academic cool and the late Bangs was pure Detroit gonzo, Christgau is the master of the snappy New York retort.
Popular music is a democratic cornucopia, the great equaliser.
Nothing else compares. And one of the great pleasures of music is its fun element, and writing on it shouldn't be too serious either. With Cameron Crowe's recent movie Almost Famous canonising Bangs, I wondered if Christgau felt he was also going to be pronounced a mythic figure of American letters. It and 1998's Grown Up All Wrong . He's working on a history of popular music from ancient Egypt to today.