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What was the name of the employer Robert Christgau work for in Sep 1972?
Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18 , 1942 ) is an American essayist and music journalist . One of the earliest professional rock critics , he spent 37 years as the chief music critic and senior editor for The Village Voice , during which time he created and oversaw the annual Pazz & Jop poll . He has also covered popular music for Esquire , Creem , Newsday , Playboy , Rolling Stone , Billboard , NPR , Blender , and MSN Music , and was a visiting arts teacher at New York University . Among the most revered and influential of music critics , he has been described by CNN senior writer Jamie Allen as the E.F . Hutton of the music world – when he talks , people listen . Christgau is best known for his terse , letter-graded capsule album reviews , composed in a concentrated , fragmented prose style featuring layered clauses , caustic wit , one-liner jokes , political digressions , and allusions ranging from common knowledge to the esoteric . Originally published in his Consumer Guide columns during his tenure at The Village Voice from 1969 to 2006 , the reviews were collected in book form across three decade-ending volumes – ( 1981 ) , ( 1990 ) , and ( 2000 ) . Multiple collections of his essays have also been published in book form , and a website published in his name since 2001 has freely hosted most of his work . In 2006 , the Voice dismissed Christgau after the papers acquisition by New Times Media . He continued to write reviews in the Consumer Guide format for MSN Music , Cuepoint , and Noisey – Vices music section – where they were published in his Expert Witness column until July 2019 . In September that year , he launched a paid-subscription newsletter called And It Dont Stop , published on the email-newsletter platform Substack and featuring a monthly Consumer Guide column , among other writings . Early life . Christgau was born in Greenwich Village on April 18 , 1942 and grew up in Queens , the son of a fireman . He has said he became a rock and roll fan when disc jockey Alan Freed moved to the city in 1954 . After attending a public school in New York City , he left New York for four years to attend Dartmouth College , graduating in 1962 with a B.A . in English . While at college his musical interests turned to jazz , but he quickly returned to rock after moving back to New York . Christgau has said that Miles Daviss 1960 album Sketches of Spain initiated in him one phase of the disillusionment with jazz that resulted in my return to rock and roll . He was deeply influenced by New Journalism writers such as Gay Talese and Tom Wolfe . My ambitions when I went into journalism were always , to an extent , literary , Christgau later said . Career . Christgau initially wrote short stories , before giving up fiction in 1964 to become a sportswriter , and later , a police reporter for the Newark Star-Ledger . He became a freelance writer after a story he wrote about the death of a woman in New Jersey was published by New York magazine . Christgau was among the first dedicated rock critics . He was asked to take over the dormant music column at Esquire , which he began writing in June 1967 . He also contributed to Cheetah magazine at that time . He subsequently became a leading voice in the formation of a musical–political aesthetic combining New Left politics and the counterculture . After Esquire discontinued the column , Christgau moved to The Village Voice in 1969 , and he also worked as a college professor . From early on in his emergence as a critic , Christgau was conscious of his lack of formal knowledge of music . In a 1968 piece he commented : I dont know anything about music , which ought to be a damaging admission but isnt .. . The fact is that pop writers in general shy away from such arcana as key signature and beats to the measure .. . I used to confide my worries about this to friends in the record industry , who reassured me . They didnt know anything about music either . The technical stuff didnt matter , I was told . You just gotta dig it . In early 1972 , Christgau accepted a full-time job as music critic for Newsday . He returned to The Village Voice in 1974 as music editor . In a 1976 piece for the newspaper , he coined the term Rock Critic Establishment to describe the growth in influence of American music critics . His article carried the parenthesized subtitle But Is That Bad for Rock ? He listed Dave Marsh , John Rockwell , Paul Nelson , Jon Landau and himself as members of this Establishment . Christgau remained at The Village Voice until August 2006 , when he was fired shortly after the papers acquisition by New Times Media . Two months later , Christgau became a contributing editor at Rolling Stone ( which first published his review of Moby Grapes Wow in 1968 ) . Late in 2007 , Christgau was fired by Rolling Stone , although he continued to work for the magazine for another three months . Starting with the March 2008 issue , he joined Blender , where he was listed as senior critic for three issues and then contributing editor . Christgau had been a regular contributor to Blender before he joined Rolling Stone . He continued to write for Blender until the magazine ceased publication in March 2009 . In 1987 , he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in the field of Folklore and Popular Culture to study the history of popular music . Christgau has also written frequently for Playboy , Spin , and Creem . He appears in the 2011 rockumentary Color Me Obsessed , about the Replacements . He previously taught during the formative years of the California Institute of the Arts . As of 2007 , he was also an adjunct professor in the Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music at New York University . In August 2013 , Christgau revealed in an article written for Barnes & Nobles website that he is writing a memoir . On July 15 , 2014 , Christgau debuted a monthly column on Billboards website . Consumer Guide and Expert Witness columns . Christgau is perhaps best known for his Consumer Guide columns , which have been published more-or-less monthly since July 10 , 1969 , in the Village Voice , as well as a brief period in Creem . In its original format , each edition of the Consumer Guide consisted of approximately 20 single-paragraph album reviews , each given a letter grade ranging from A+ to E− . These reviews were later collected , expanded , and extensively revised in a three-volume book series , the first of which was published in 1981 as ; it was followed by ( 1990 ) and ( 2000 ) . In his original grading system from 1969 to 1990 , albums were given a grade ranging from A+ to E− . Under this system , Christgau generally considered a B+ or higher to be a personal recommendation . He noted that in practice , grades below a C− were rare . In 1990 , Christgau changed the format of the Consumer Guide to focus more on the albums he liked . B+ records that Christgau deemed unworthy of a full review were mostly given brief comments and star marks ranging from three down to one , denoting an honorable mention , records which Christgau believed may be of interest to their own target audience . Lesser albums were filed under categories such as Neither ( which may impress at first with coherent craft or an arresting track or two , before failing to make an impression again ) and Duds ( which indicated bad records and were listed without further comment ) . Christgau did give full reviews and traditional grades to records he pans in an annual November Turkey Shoot column in The Village Voice , until he left the newspaper in 2006 . In 2001 , robertchristgau.com – an online archive of Christgaus Consumer Guide reviews and other writings from his career – was set up as a co-operative project between Christgau and longtime friend Tom Hull ; the two had met in 1975 shortly after Hull queried Christgau as The Village Voices regional editor for St . Louis . The website was created after the September 11 , 2001 attacks when Hull was stuck in New York while visiting from his native Wichita . While Christgau spent many nights preparing past Village Voice writings for the website , by 2002 much of the older Consumer Guide columns had been inputted by Hull and a small coterie of fans . According to Christgau , Hull is a computer genius as well as an excellent and very knowledgeable music critic , but he’d never done much web site work . The design of the web site , especially its high searchability and small interest in graphics , are his idea of what a useful music site should be . In December 2006 , Christgau began writing his Consumer Guide columns for MSN Music , initially appearing every other month , before switching to a monthly schedule in June 2007 . On July 1 , 2010 , he announced in the introduction to his Consumer Guide column that the July 2010 installment would be his last on MSN . However , on November 22 , Christgau launched a blog on MSN , called Expert Witness , which featured reviews only of albums that he had graded B+ or higher , since those albums are the gut and backbone of my musical pleasure ; the writing of reviews for which are so rewarding psychologically that Im happy to do it at bloggers rates . He also began corresponding with dedicated readers of the column , named as The Witnesses after the column . On September 20 , 2013 , Christgau announced in the comments section that Expert Witness would cease to be published by October 1 , 2013 , writing , As I understand it , Microsoft is shutting down the entire MSN freelance arts operation at that time .. . On September 10 , 2014 , Christgau debuted a new version of Expert Witness on Cuepoint , an online music magazine published on the blogging platform Medium . In August 2015 , he was hired by Vice to write the column for the magazines music section , Noisey . In July 2019 , the final edition of Expert Witness was published . In September 2019 , at the encouragement of friend and colleague Joe Levy , Christgau began publishing the newsletter And It Dont Stop on the newsletter-subscription platform Substack . Charging subscribers $5 per month , it has included his monthly Consumer Guide column , podcasts , and free weekly content like book reviews . Christgau was skeptical of the platform at first : Basically I told Joe that if I didn’t have enough subscribers to pay what I made at Noisey by Christmas I was going to quit . I wasn’t going to do it for less than that money . I had that many subscribers inside of three days . By May 2020 , And It Dont Stop had more than 1,000 subscribers . Christgau was ambivalent about the platform at first , but has since found it immensely gratifying , explaining that , A man my age , who is still really intellectually active ? It is tremendously flattering and gratifying that there are people who are ready to help support me . Pazz & Jop . Between 1968 and 1970 , Christgau submitted ballots in Jazz & Pop magazines annual critics poll . He selected Bob Dylans John Wesley Harding ( released late in 1967 ) , The Whos Tommy ( 1969 ) , and Randy Newmans 12 Songs ( 1970 ) as the best pop albums of their respective years , and Miles Daviss Bitches Brew ( 1970 ) as the best jazz album of its year . Jazz & Pop discontinued publication in 1971 . In 1971 , Christgau inaugurated the annual Pazz & Jop music poll , named in tribute to Jazz & Pop . The poll surveyed music critics on their favorite releases of the year . The poll results were published in the Village Voice every February after compiling top ten lists submitted by music critics across the nation . Throughout Christgaus career at the Voice , every poll was accompanied by a lengthy Christgau essay analyzing the results and pondering the years overall musical output . The Voice continued the feature after Christgaus dismissal . Although he no longer oversaw the poll , Christgau continued to vote and , since the 2015 poll , also contributed essays to the results . Deans Lists . Each year that Pazz & Jop has run , Christgau has created a personal list of his favorite releases called the Deans List . Only his top ten count toward his vote in the poll , but his full lists of favorites usually numbered far more than that . These lists – or at least Christgaus top tens – were typically published in The Village Voice along with the Pazz & Jop results . After Christgau was dismissed from the Voice , he continued publishing his annual lists on his own website and at The Barnes & Noble Review . While Pazz & Jops aggregate critics poll are its main draw , Christgaus Deans Lists are noteworthy in their own right . Henry Hauser from Consequence of Sound said Christgaus annual Pazz & Jop poll has been a bona fide American institution . For music writers , his year-end essays and extensive Deans List are like watching the big ball drop in Times Square . The following are Christgaus choices for the number-one album of the year , including the point score he assigned for the poll . Pazz & Jops rules provided that each item in a top ten could be allotted between 5 and 30 points , with all ten items totaling 100 , allowing critics to weight certain albums more heavily if they chose to do so . In some years , Christgau often gave an equal number of points to his first- and second-ranked albums , but they were nevertheless ranked as first and second , not as a tie for first ; this list collects only his number-one picks . Style and impact . Christgaus blurbs , writes Slate music critic Jody Rosen , are like no one elses – dense with ideas and allusions , first-person confessions and invective , highbrow references and slang . Rosen describes Christgaus writing as often maddening , always thought-provoking .. . With Pauline Kael , Christgau is arguably one of the two most important American mass-culture critics of the second half of the 20th century . .. . All rock critics working today , at least the ones who want to do more than rewrite PR copy , are in some sense Christgauians . Spin magazine wrote in 2015 , You probably wouldnt be reading this publication if Robert Christgau didn’t largely invent rock criticism as we know it . Douglas Wolk said the earliest Consumer Guide columns were generally brief and detailed , but within a few years .. . he developed his particular gift for power , wit and economy , a phrase he used to describe the Ramones in a dead-on 37-word review of Leave Home . In his opinion , the Consumer Guide reviews were an enormous pleasure to read slowly , as writing , even if you have no particular interest in pop music . And if you do happen to have more than a little interest in pop music , theyre a treasure . While regarding the early columns as a model of cogent , witty criticism , Dave Marsh in 1976 said the tone of the writing is now snotty – it lacks compassion , not to mention empathy , with current rock . Fans of Christgaus Consumer Guide like to share lines from their favorite reviews , Wolk writes , citing Sting wears his sexual resentment on his chord changes like a closet American Woman fan ( from Christgaus review of the 1983 Police album Synchronicity ) ; Calling Neil Tennant a bored wimp is like accusing Jackson Pollock of making a mess ( reviewing the 1987 Pet Shop Boys album Actually ) ; and Mick Jagger should fold up his penis and go home ( in a review of Princes 1980 album Dirty Mind ) . In 1978 , Lou Reed recorded a tirade against Christgau and his column on the 1978 live album , : Critics . What does Robert Christgau do in bed ? I mean , is he a toe fucker ? Man , anal retentive , A Consumers Guide to Rock , what a moron : A Study by , yknow , Robert Christgau . Nice little boxes : B-PLUS . Can you imagine working for a fucking year , and you get a B+ from some asshole in The Village Voice ? Christgau rated the album C+ and wrote in his review , I thank Lou for pronouncing my name right . In December 1980 , Christgau provoked angry responses from Voice readers when his column approvingly quoted his wife Carola Dibbells reaction to the murder of John Lennon : Why is it always Bobby Kennedy or John Lennon ? Why isnt it Richard Nixon or Paul McCartney ? Similar criticism came from Sonic Youth in their song Kill Yr Idols . Christgau responded by saying Idolization is for rock stars , even rock stars manqué like these impotent bohos – critics just want a little respect . So if its not too hypersensitive of me , I wasnt flattered to hear my name pronounced right , not on this particular title track . Tastes and prejudices . Christgau has named Louis Armstrong , Thelonious Monk , Chuck Berry , the Beatles , and the New York Dolls as his top five artists of all time . In a 1998 obituary , he called Frank Sinatra the greatest singer of the 20th century . He considers Billie Holiday probably favorite singer . In his 2000 Consumer Guide book , Christgau said his favorite rock album was either The Clash ( 1977 ) or New York Dolls ( 1973 ) , while his favorite record in general was Monks 1958 Misterioso . In July 2013 , during an interview with Esquire magazines Peter Gerstenzang , Christgau criticized the voters at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame , saying theyre pretty stupid for not voting in the New York Dolls . When asked about Beatles albums , he said he most often listens to The Beatles Second Album – which he purchased in 1965 – and Sgt . Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band . Wolk wrote : When he says he’s encyclopedic about popular music , he means it . There are not a lot of white guys in their 60s waving the flag for Lil Waynes Da Drought 3 , especially not in the same column as they wave the flag for a Willie Nelson/Merle Haggard/Ray Price trio album , an anthology of new Chinese pop , Vampire Weekend , and Wussy .. . Christgau reflected in 2004 : Rock criticism was certainly more fun in the old days , no matter how cool the tyros opining for chump change in netzines like PopMatters and Pitchfork think it is now . Christgau readily admits to having prejudices and generally disliking genres such as heavy metal , salsa , dance , art rock , progressive rock , bluegrass , gospel , Irish folk , jazz fusion , and classical music . I admire metals integrity , brutality , and obsessiveness , Christgau wrote in 1986 , but I cant stand its delusions of grandeur , the way it apes and misapprehends reactionary notions of nobility . Christgau said in 2018 that he rarely writes about jazz as it is hard to write about in an impressionistic way , that he is not at all well-schooled in the jazz albums of the 50s and 60s , and that he has neither the language nor the frame of reference to write readily about them ; even while critiquing jazz artists like Miles Davis , Ornette Coleman , and Sonny Rollins , he said finding the words involves either considerable effort or a stroke of luck . Christgau has also admitted to disliking the records of Jeff Buckley and Nina Simone , noting that the latters classical background , default gravity and depressive tendencies are qualities Im seldom attracted to in any kind of art . Writing in a two-part feature on music critics for Rolling Stone in 1976 , Marsh bemoaned Christgau as a classic , sad example of how many critics .. . superimpos [ ed ] their own , frequently arbitrary , standards upon performers Marsh went on to accuse him of becoming arrogant and humorless – the raves are reserved for jazz artists , while even the best rock is treated condescendingly unless it conforms to Christgaus passion for leftist politics ( particularly feminism ) and bohemian culture . Marsh named another prejudice of Christgaus to be apolitical or middle-class performers of rock music . Dean of American rock critics . Christgau has been widely known as the Dean of American rock critics , a designation he originally gave to himself while slightly drunk at a press event for the 5th Dimension in the early 1970s . According to Rosen , Christgau was in his late 20s at the time – not exactly an éminence grise – so maybe it was the booze talking , or maybe he was just a very arrogant young man . In any case , as the years passed , the quip became a fact . When asked about it years later , Christgau said the title seemed to push peoples buttons , so I stuck with it . Theres obviously no official hierarchy within rock criticism – only real academies can do that . But if you mean to ask whether I think some rock critics are better than others , youre damn straight I do . Dont you ? For a long time he’s been called the dean of American rock critics , wrote New York Times literary critic Dwight Garner in 2015 . Its a line that started out as an offhanded joke . These days , few dispute it . Personal life . Christgau married fellow critic and writer Carola Dibbell in 1974 ; they have an adopted daughter , Nina , born in Honduras in 1986 . They have long lived in New York , as of 2020 . He has said he was raised in a born-again Church in Queens , but has since become an atheist . Christgau has been long , albeit argumentative , friends with critics such as Dave Marsh , Greil Marcus , and the late Ellen Willis , whom he dated from 1966 to 1969 . He has also mentored younger critics such as Ann Powers and Chuck Eddy . Bibliography . - Any Old Way You Choose It : Rock and Other Pop Music , 1967–1973 , Penguin Books , 1973 - , Ticknor & Fields , 1981 - , Pantheon Books , 1990 - Grown Up All Wrong : 75 Great Rock and Pop Artists from Vaudeville to Techno , Harvard University Press , 1998 - , St . Martins Griffin , 2000 - Going into the City : Portrait of a Critic as a Young Man , Dey Street Books , 2015 - Is It Still Good to Ya ? Fifty Years of Rock Criticism 1967–2017 , Duke University Press , 2018 - Book Reports : A Music Critic on His First Love , Which Was Reading Duke University Press , 2019 References . Bibliography External links . - Official website - Users Guide to the Consumer Guide at MSN Music