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| Pitchfork Media | |
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A typical example of Pitchfork\'s main page, as of 12-12-06 | |
| URL | www.pitchforkmedia.com |
| Type of site | Music webzine |
| Registration | No |
| Owner | Ryan Schreiber |
| Created by | Ryan Schreiber |
| Launched | 1995 |
| Current status | Active |
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on independent music,Burns, Anna. Pitchfork Media. ABC.net. Retrieved on 2006-10-29. including indie rock. However, the range of musical genres covered extends to electronic, pop, hip hop, dance, folk, jazz, and experimental music.
The site, which was established in 1995, concentrates on new music, but Pitchfork journalists also review reissued albums and box sets. The site has published "best-of" lists – such as the best albums of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, and the best songs of the 1960s – as well as annual features detailing the best singles and albums of each year between 2001 and 2007.
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Pitchfork was created in Minneapolis, Minnesota in late 1995 by Ryan Schreiber, then just out of high school. Influenced by local fanzines and college radio station KUOM, Schreiber, who had no previous writing experience, aimed to provide the Internet with a regularly updated resource for independent music. At first bearing the name Turntable, the site was originally updated monthly with interviews and reviews. In May 1996, the site began publishing daily, and was renamed "Pitchfork", a reference to Tony Montana\'s tattoo in the 1983 film Scarface.du Lac, Josh Freedom. "Giving Indie Acts A Plug, or Pulling It", The Washington Post, April 30, 2006. Retrieved on 2006-10-29.
In early 1999, Schreiber uprooted Pitchfork from its Minneapolis base and relocated to Chicago, Illinois. By then, the site had expanded to four full-length album reviews daily, as well as sporadic interviews, features, and columns. It had also begun garnering a following for both its extensive coverage of underground music and its writing style, which was often unhindered by the conventions of print journalism. In October of that year, the site added a daily music news section.
Pitchfork now receives an audience of more than 240,000 readers per day, and more than 1.5 million unique visitors per month, making it the most popular independent-focused music publication online.Site Traffic Information for www.pitchforkmedia.com. Alexa Internet. Retrieved on 2006-10-29.Itzkoff, Dave (September 2006). The Pitchfork Effect. Wired. Retrieved on 2006-10-29.
On October 24, 2003, the author of Pitchformula.com reported that Pitchfork had published 5,575 reviews from 158 different authors, with an average length of just over 520 words. Together, the reviews featured a total of 2,901,650 words.Wilson, Loren Jan. Statistics for the reviews database. pitchformula.com. Retrieved on 2006-10-29. However, this data was recorded in 2003; since that point the site has continued to release reviews on an almost daily basis (excluding weekends and public holidays).
Pitchfork\'s opinions have gained increased cultural currency in recent years; some in the mainstream media view the site as a barometer of the independent music scene, and positive quotes from its reviews are increasingly used in press releases and affixed to the front of CDs.
Since 2004, when "indie" music experienced a popular resurgence, some publications have cited Pitchfork in having played a part in "breaking" artists such as Arcade Fire, Sufjan Stevens, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Interpol, The Go! Team, The Dismemberment Plan, Junior Boys, The Books, Broken Social Scene, Wolf Parade, and Tapes \'n Tapes, although the site\'s true impact on their popularity remains a source of frequent debate.
Conversely, Pitchfork has also been seen as being a negative influence on some indie artists. As suggested in a Washington Post article in April 2006, Pitchfork\'s reviews can have a significant influence on an album\'s popularity, especially if it had previously only been available to a limited audience or had been released on an independent record label. A dismissive 0.0 review of former Dismemberment Plan frontman Travis Morrison\'s Travistan album led to a large sales drop and a virtual college radio blacklist. On the other hand, "an endorsement from Pitchfork – which dispenses its approval one-tenth of a point at a time, up to a maximum of 10 points – is very valuable, indeed."
Along with its popularity, Pitchfork has attracted the criticism of certain music fans and rock journalists. A common complaint is that the site\'s journalism suffers from a narrow view of independent music, favoring lo-fi and often obscure indie rock and giving only cursory treatment to other genres.Thomas, Lindsey. "The Pitchfork Effect", City Pages, June 14, 2006. Retrieved on 2006-10-30. Another is that the site\'s opinions reflect a "hipster" attitude, overly subject to changing musical trends, and that the site itself creates hype around particular scenes (such as "dance punk" or "freak folk") or acts (such as Sufjan Stevens and Arcade Fire). Some critics have suggested that the site rates albums from particular music scenes or artists more favorably in order to bolster its influence when the music becomes popular.Slate. "The Indie Music Site Everyone Loves to Hate". [1]
The majority of criticism, however, is aimed at the site\'s album reviewing style, where there is a commonly-perceived[attribution needed] tendency to emphasize the reviewers\' own pretentious and self-conscious writing over the music being reviewed, sometimes not even reviewing the album and instead launching into a barrage of criticism of the artist\'s integrity.
In August 2006, a directory on Pitchfork\'s servers containing over 300 albums was compromised. A web surfer managed to discover and download the collection, which included The Decemberists\' The Crane Wife and TV on the Radio\'s Return to Cookie Mountain, both of which had previously leaked to peer-to-peer networks. Allegedly, one of the albums on the server, Joanna Newsom\'s Ys, had not been available previously on file-sharing networks.The Joanna Newsom leak - Music - The Phoenix
In 2005, Pitchfork curated the Intonation Music Festival, attracting approximately 15,000 attendees to Chicago\'s Union Park for a two-day bill featuring performances by 25 acts, including Broken Social Scene, The Decemberists, The Go! Team, and a rare appearance by Les Savy Fav.
On July 29 and 30, 2006, the publication premiered its own Pitchfork Music Festival in the same park. The event attracted over 18,000 attendees per day. More than 40 bands performed at the inaugural festival, including Spoon and Yo La Tengo, as well as a rare headlining set by reunited Tropicália band Os Mutantes.Pitchfork Music Festival 2006. Pitchfork Media (August 2, 2006). Retrieved on 2006-10-30.
The Pitchfork Music Festival was held again in 2007. It was expanded to three days (Friday, July 13 - Sunday, July 15), with the first day being a collaboration between Pitchfork and the British music festival All Tomorrow\'s Parties as part of the latter\'s "Don\'t Look Back" series, in which seminal artists perform their most legendary albums in their entirety. Performers that evening included Sonic Youth playing Daydream Nation, Slint playing Spiderland, and GZA/Genius playing Liquid Swords. Some of the other artists who performed over the weekend included Yoko Ono, De La Soul, Cat Power, The New Pornographers, Stephen Malkmus, Clipse, Iron & Wine, Girl Talk, Of Montreal, Deerhunter, Dan Deacon, The Ponys, and The Sea and Cake.
In 2008 Pitchfork will again collaborate with All Tomorrow\'s Parties to curate half of the bill for one of their May festival weekends. This is the first event Pitchfork have taken part in on foreign soil.
Pitchfork\'s music reviews use two different rating systems:
On October 24, 2003, Pitchformula.com made a survey of the 5,575 reviews available on Pitchfork at that time, showing that:
The review for Radiohead\'s album In Rainbows seems to have taken a satirical approach towards the method of pay that Radiohead utilized for the album. It allows user to type in their own rating, and when a question mark is clicked, says, "No, Really it\'s up to you" (just like on the Radiohead website). If clicked again, it says, "No really, it\'s 9.3".Radiohead: In Rainbows: Pitchfork Record Review British Sea Power\'s 2008 album Do You Like Rock Music? was awarded the unique rating of U.2.British Sea Power: Do You Like Rock Music?: Pitchfork Record Review
The following albums received a 10.0 rating upon initial release:
The following albums received a 10.0 rating upon re-release:
Note: Occasionally, a Pitchfork reviewer awards a 10.0 rating to an album\'s reissue despite its initial release being awarded a lesser rating,
The following albums received a 0.0 rating either upon initial release or re-release:
1 A feature defending the album and criticising the review was later also published on the website.Pitchfork: We Are The World: Zaireeka Is
2 In this review, the critic writes "I\'m giving it a 0.0 because you\'ll have to call this one on your own, sorry."John Frusciante: Smile From The Streets You Hold: Pitchfork Record Review
3 This album was not given a rating - the review consisted only of a video of a chimpanzee urinating into its own mouth.Suzuki, Ray (October 2, 2006). Jet: Shine On: Pitchfork Record Review (English) 1. Pitchfork. Retrieved on 2006-12-10.
4 In the review, this album theoretically received both a 10.0 and 0.0 rating.
Some albums have been awarded a 9.9 upon original release or reissue:
Some albums have been given a 0.1 upon original release or reissue:
The awarding of the 10.0 rating is the subject of discussion by figures both external and internal to Pitchfork Media. Examples of such discussion include:
| “ | On Bee Thousand, GBV mastered all those fragments of greatness and assembled an entire album from them. Sure, it stumbles occasionally, and falters as only four spare-time, blue-collar bandmates from Dayton, Ohio can-- that is, humanly and forgivably-- but the original Bee Thousand simply stands alongside the greatest of the modern era. The original warrants a 10. | ” |
| “ | Did Source Tags & Codes deserve a 10.0? That\'s not for me to say, but Matt LeMay rightfully counted it as one of indie rock\'s truly epic albums. | ” |
| “ | And by now you\'ve surely seen the rating. On the scale of artist indulgence, and by any other measure for that matter, this is a solid 10.0 if ever there was one, friends. This-- this-- is a 10 as surely as Metal Machine Music is a 10, as surely as Having ------- Fun on Stage With Elvis is a 10, as surely as any exercise so bafflingly, inexplicably, unintentionally and intentionally hilarious even in concept is a 10; good god-- what the hell else can this album receive? The rating is inconsequential. It\'s either a 10 or a zero, and considering Bob is the reigning king of intoxicated concert rambling it\'s sure as hell not a zero, m\'man. A single listen will verify this. | ” |
| “ | So then, Imagine, the music, gets a 10.0. However, this glossed up version only deserves a 9.9. That\'s how much power you have, Capitol Records! | ” |
On March 4, 2008, Pitchfork announced the April 7 beta launch of Pitchfork.tv, "The first-ever music video channel dedicated to documenting independent music as it happens. As a visual extension of the music coverage Pitchfork has provided for more than a decade, and a means of updating and advancing the music television format, the online channel will bring you closer to the artists you love, through original mini-documentaries, secret rooftop and basement sessions, full concerts, exclusive interviews, and the most carefully curated selection of music videos online."
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