Tampa Calling

OK, I’m going to milk this Ann Powers/American Idol debate for all I can, and then maybe even some more. Quick recap: It started with my July 27 post “Debating Ann Powers, poptimism and American Idol.” The Toronto Globe and Mail’s music critic commented, prompting “Response to American Idol post.”

My pal at the St. Petersburg Times‘ couldn’t resist the bait and that led to “Sean Daly writing about me writing about him.” The latest reason for me to continue writing about myself comes courtesy of Idolator:

Powers’ talk about covering American Idol prompted Wade Tatangelo of Tampa’s Creative Loafing to point out the monetary aspects of such coverage:

Ann Powers wrote a fine essay . . . But she failed to mention that a potential reason daily music critics like the St. Petersburg Times’ Sean Daly are covering cheap reality TV like American Idol (Powers does, too, but more likely by choice, see below) is because they are no longer in a position to tell populist/desperate editors “no.” Arts critics are being laid off at even a faster clip than reporters. In fact, there’s not a single music critic job opening at a daily newspaper in the entire nation. I know critics rank right alongside lawyers in the receiving of sympathy department, but it’s grim folks.

Carl Wilson of the Toronto Globe and Mail and the blog Zoilus weighed in on both Powers’ piece and Tatangelo’s reply:

Idolator concludes its post with a comment with which I’m totally in agreement:

Still, the most salient point of all may be from Marc Hogan’s Tumblr, in which the freelancer (best known for his contributions to Pitchfork) spells it out even more plainly:

As anyone who knows anyone who has blogged about “American Idol” knows, you get more clicks blogging about “American Idol” than blogging about Steinski, Harvey Milk, or Fleet Foxes. So it’s not as if the turning tide toward “poptimism” among critics who want to be paid for our work is entirely un-self-interested.

Here’s the entire Idolator post.

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Ann Powers wrote a fine essay on the music critic trend of “poptimism” titled “Pop music critics embrace the mainstream.” (L.A. Times). But she failed to mention that a potential reason daily music critics like the St. Petersburg Times’ Sean Daly are covering cheap reality TV like American Idol (Powers does, too, but more likely by choice, see below) is because they are no longer in a position to tell populist/desperate editors “no.” Arts critics are being laid off at even a faster clip than reporters. In fact, there’s not a single music critic job opening at a daily newspaper in the entire nation. I know critics rank right alongside lawyers in the receiving of sympathy department, but it’s grim folks.

Let me give you a first-person example. My title was “features writer/music critic” during my four years at the McClatchy-owned Bradenton Herald. About 18 months ago, I left for the greener pastures of CL, and to avoid covering American Idol, something I was asked to do and refused. I would have left regardless, I’ve had my eye on this CL gig for years, but the American Idol debate — I was offended it was even being mentioned as something the music critic should cover — sealed the deal. The full-time position at the Herald has since been eliminated like so many other “critics” gigs in Florida. Truth be told, if I was at The Herald today, in this job climate, and asked to cover American Idol, my response would quite possibly be different.

Now, a celebrated vet like Powers writes books with the likes of Tori Amos and probably has the fuck you money and job prospects to shoot down anything she deems beneath her. But most daily music critics are likely thinking twice before telling the boss to shove it when told to advance/review, say, the New Kids on the Block reunion tour. We already kinda sorta know where Daly stands on this one. Would his contempt be more pronounced even two years ago? Is poptimism the result of critics feeling the pressure to pander to a shrinking audience? And retain one of the scarcest jobs in America? On some level, at least, this has to be a factor.

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I just stumbled across some stats that really show how CD sales have tapered off in the last decade or so:

1994: Tom Petty’s Wildflowers album went triple platinum (in excess of 3-million in sales). It reached No. 8 on the Billboard 200.

2006: Petty’s Highway Companion fell short of gold (500,000 in sales) while reaching No. 4 on the Billboard 200.

Both CDs came out when Soundscan technology — which records sales via bar codes — was available. So for the mathematically impaired, this means that Petty’s most recent disc charted four positions higher than his release a dozen years ago, but sold less than one-sixth the units.

Next time you hear about an act entering the Top 5 on the Billboard album sales chart, don’t assume that its moving a lot of copies.

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