Music Discourse Quotes

When I was in high school, if my favorite band got too popular, I'd watch carefully.

I don't care what 'Pitchfork' says. They write from a place that's a little too self-aware for me to really give a damn about what they're talking about.

I believe that music is another form of news. Music is another form of journalism to me so I have to cover all the areas with my album.

Rock journalism is people who can't write, interviewing people who can't talk, in order to provide articles for people who can't read.

Musicians were always coming and going in our house. My parents didn't play much, but they were forever arranging these parties for artists. As a result, they didn't have to play that many records.

I love music with everything I have, and when I am in a front of a classroom talking about music sometimes someone will ask me a question and it reminds me to really think about something, to really feel something.

The people who know nothing about music are the ones always talking about it.

Where else can you go with respect to the work, lyrics, and message of the music? If you are past high school age, you can get by with saying very little the first or second time around. However, after a while you know you are going to have to say something beyond high school stuff.

I'm especially interested in what I call practitioner criticism, which is when people who practice an art form start writing about it on blogs. I think that's an immensely important development. I want to see much, much more of that. People who make music who are verbally articulate. And not all musicians are verbally articulate. But those who are should be encouraged to write about what they do and their perception of what other people do. It makes the discourse smarter.

Everybody enjoys arguing about the current state of music because it feels as if you are talking about something incredibly important, yet it requires little understanding of the subject matter at hand. It's like world politics meets the pink questions in Trivial Pursuit. Points are made but nothing gets accomplished.

I think that most people who write about music just want to fill some paper. They're not really interested in getting to the heart of something. Otherwise, they wouldn't write what they write.

I feel like 'Pitchfork' has a style, and you always know what they're gonna say and what they're gonna pick apart.

I loved our music discussion. I live for discussions like that. It's my favorite thing because it means that people care about music, and actually have an opinion. I feel like it's dying. Everyone is just really like, they take a step back, but to actually have conviction about what's good and bad: love it.