Music critics still matter — even in the streaming era
Greg Kot’s departure from the Chicago Tribune put me in a reflective mood.
Until Friday he was the newspaper’s veteran pop music critic. After 40 years at the Tribune— 30 of those as critic — he exits in one of two classic ways for a journalist of his experience and stature: a voluntary buyout.
Kot, 62, not only gutted it out through circulation decline and rounds of layoffs (the other classic exit). He maintained his trademark diligence and insight, radiating stability as a beloved caretaker of the Windy City music scene alongside his “Sound Opinions” radio partner, Jim DeRogatis, formerly of the Sun-Times.
Well, “beloved” goes only so far for a critic: We can’t forget that they’re paid to dish out strong, informed opinions, setting them up to be routinely pilloried by fans for calling out obvious bad taste. Consider the artists with №1 albums on the Billboard chart throughout 1990, the year Kot began as Tribune critic: Phil Collins, Milli Vanilli, Paula Abdul, Bonnie Raitt, Sinead O’Connor, MC Hammer, New Kids on the Block, and (drum roll, please) Vanilla Ice. Excepting Raitt and O’Connor, in retrospect that’s an auspicious year to begin a music-critic job considering the abundance of fresh victims — talk about shooting fish in a barrel.
