Try to imagine a grizzled music critic endorsing a John Mayer album, singing the praises of its gritty authenticity and wild creative vigor.
Not so easy, is it?
Success in music, especially if the fame came first, provides ammunition to dismiss many artists. It doesn’t help that John Mayer, for example, has maintained an on-off relationship with Jessica Simpson, the epitome of a professional celebrity.
Music critics are also a fickle, self- referential bunch. They respond to styles that reinforce their notions of quality. Who in their right mind would declare Mayer’s “Continuum” the album of the year?
That’s the logic, at least.
The truth is that most critical assumptions are disconnected from commercial reality. Elitist, holier-than-thou attitudes toward pop music say more about the people holding them than the music itself, ignoring sales figures over a perceived lack of artistic integrity.
Performers like Mayer, who plays Red Rocks Amphitheater Friday and Saturday, face an uphill battle in this regard. Mayer may never be accepted by critics, but does that matter when he’s won multiple Grammys and sold millions of albums?
“We exist in a media environment now where the arbiters of taste are much more fragmented than they used to be,” said Brian Garrity, senior business correspondent for Billboard. “There’s less consensus than there ever was as to what’s good music.”
Certainly, critics still matter in some ways. The blog-webzine world lives and dies on the strength of informed, respected opinions. Indie rock webzine Pitchfork launched the careers of bands like the Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah upon endorsing their debuts.
But the assumption that every musician should strive for critical credibility is myopic, at best. It discounts music’s connection with its audience – even when that connection is bolstered by tens of millions of marketing dollars.
“The critical establishment demands performers show they are authentic, that they are singing about their real lives and baring their souls,” said Jeremy Wallach, assistant professor of popular culture studies at Bowling Green State University. “John Mayer is an interesting example because his work is supposedly confessional. Essentially he can be accused of faking it.”
If you follow these assumptions to their end they reveal certain critical tenets: That success and credibility are mutually exclusive, that anything loved by the masses cannot be high art, that the best career progression is toward prestige.
“There’s a built-in bias against whoever is the most popular with the teeny bopper set, especially with teenage girls,” Wallach said. “Fall Out Boy and emo is interesting because as the music has gotten more mainstream and feminized, its authenticity has been placed into question.”
Most bands won’t admit to being emo these days, but that doesn’t mean the genre is dead. People never talk about their guilty pleasures, even as they spend money and time on them. Fall Out Boy’s debut got middling notices from critics and sold 3 million copies.
The recent industry-wide viability of “respectable” genres like indie rock – something lauded by many critics – also has the potential to backfire.
“On an aesthetic level it’s not necessarily good,” said Amy Phillips, senior news editor for Pitchfork. “I don’t think seeing the Decemberists, Modest Mouse and the Shins on the charts is all, ‘Yay, we should all be so happy.’ I don’t only want to listen to whiny-dude guitar bands all day.”
Mayer would have an uphill battle if he wanted to court the critics. Despite his training at Boston’s prestigious Berklee College of Music, his breathy, guitar-based songs lean more toward adult contemporary than blues-rock. His audience consists largely of young women, and his personal life places him squarely in the tabloids.
“If he did things to appeal to the largely young, white-male rock critics he might lose his audience,” Wallach said. “He knows which side his bread his buttered on, and would never do anything to alienate his core.”
Of course, this assumes that pop stars like Clay Aiken or Rob Thomas need to appeal to rock critics. In many cases it would have no effect on their careers. And who says critics would even care?
“As a member of the press, I know we all need stuff to latch on to,” Pitchfork’s Phillips said. “But honestly, I’d much rather listen to most Britney Spears songs than most Strokes songs.”
Staff writer John Wenzel can be reached at 303-954-1642 or jwenzel@denverpost.com.
| John Mayer
POP-ROCK|Red Rocks Amphitheatre, 8 p.m., Tonight-Saturday (Saturday sold out)| $49.50-$55.50|Ticketmaster.com
