Pitchfork Media
 | |
| Web address | http://pitchfork.com |
|---|---|
Type of site | Online music magazine |
| Registration | No |
| Owner | Condé Nast |
| Created by | Ryan Schreiber |
| Launched | 1996 |
Alexa rank |
 2,456 (November 2014)[1] |
| Current status | Active |
Pitchfork Media, commonly referred to as Pitchfork, is a Chicago-based online music magazine devoted to music journalism, news, album reviews, and feature stories. Founded in 1995 by Ryan Schreiber, who was working in a record store at the time, the magazine originally developed a reputation for its extensive focus on independent music, but it has since expanded with a variety of coverage on both indie and popular music artists.[2]
The site generally concentrates on new music, but Pitchfork journalists have also reviewed reissued albums and box sets. The site has also 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 albums and tracks of each year since 1999.
History
In late 1995, Ryan Schreiber, then just out of high school, created Pitchfork in Minneapolis, Minnesota. 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.[3]
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 has launched a variety of subsidiary websites. Pitchfork launched Pitchfork.tv, a website displaying videos related to many independent music acts, in April 2008. It features bands that are typically found on pitchforkmedia.com. In July 2010, Pitchfork announced Altered Zones, a blog aggregator devoted to underground and do-it-yourself music.[4] Altered Zones was closed on November 30, 2011.[5] On December 26, 2012, Pitchfork launched Nothing Major, a website that covered visual arts such as fine art and photography.[6] Nothing Major closed in October 2013.[7]
On October 13, 2015, Condé Nast announced that it had acquired Pitchfork Media.[8]
On March 13, 2016, Pitchfork fully redesigned its website. In an announcement post, they said:[9]
| “ | We last redesigned in the fall of 2011. A lot about the online world has changed since then. This iteration, more than a year in the making, brings Pitchfork into a new era, improving functionality and inviting deeper exploration while simplifying the experience to make browsing, searching, reading, listening, and watching easier. | ” |
Influence
Publicity and artist popularity
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.
Some publications[10] 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, Junior Boys, The Books, Broken Social Scene, Cold War Kids, Wolf Parade, Tapes 'n Tapes, and Titus Andronicus 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.[3] 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."[3]
Examples of Pitchfork's impact include:
- Arcade Fire is among the bands most commonly cited to have benefited from a Pitchfork review. In a 2005 Chicago Tribune article, a Merge Records employee states, "After the Pitchfork review, [Funeral] went out of print for about a week because we got so many orders for the record."[11]
- Bon Iver was catapulted to mainstream and critical success after a 2007 Pitchfork review of the album For Emma, Forever Ago.[12] Pitchfork was the only publication to have included the album on a 2007 end-of-the-year list, while over sixteen popular publications included the re-release on their 2008 lists. In the summer of 2011, Pitchfork noted Bon Iver's self titled release as "Best New Music," and later chose the release as the Best Album of 2011. Pitchfork's critical acclamation of Bon Iver is widely seen as lifting the artist to commercial mainstream success, which culminated with his Grammy Award for Best New Artist and Best Alternative Music Album. Time Magazine nominated Bon Iver as Person of the Year in 2012, noting the 2007 Pitchfork review as the "indie cred" that "led to mainstream success."[13]
- Clap Your Hands Say Yeah member Lee Sargent has discussed the impact of Pitchfork's influence on their album, saying, "The thing about a publication like Pitchfork is that they can decide when that happens. You know what I mean? They can say, 'We're going to speed up the process and this is going to happen...now!' And it was a kick in the pants for us, because we lost control of everything."[14]
Size, readership and site traffic
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.[15][16]
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.[17]
Criticism
One common complaint about Pitchfork is that the website'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.[18] 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.[19]
The majority of criticism, however, is aimed at the site's album reviewing style. Critics argue the site often emphasizes a reviewers' own writing over the actual music being reviewed, sometimes not even reviewing the album and instead criticising the artist's integrity.[18] Pitchfork is also known to give "0.0" ratings, deeming the work as utterly worthless. One critic wrote that Pitchfork's "0.0" rating of a particular album amounts to no more than a "cheap publicity stunt" for a website that "thrives on controversy."[20] The critic also hypothetically asked how a neo-Nazi punk record would be scored in comparison to these "0.0" albums, based on Pitchfork standards.[20]
Parodies
- When Pitchfork asked comedian David Cross to compile a list of his favorite albums, he instead provided them with a list of "Albums to Listen to While Reading Overwrought Pitchfork Reviews". In it, he satirically piled over-the-top praise on fictional indie rock records, mocking Pitchfork Media's reviewing style.[21]
- In 2004, comedy website Something Awful created a parody of Pitchfork's front page. Entitled "RichDork Media", the page makes reference to nonexistent, obscure-sounding indie-rock bands in its reviews, news headlines and advertisements. The rating system measures music on its proximity to the band Radiohead.[22] A similar, more light-hearted parody was created by Sub Pop, a record label whose musical artists Pitchfork has reviewed (often favorably).[23]
- On September 10, 2007, the satirical newspaper The Onion published a story in which Pitchfork Media editor Ryan Schreiber reviews music as a whole, giving it a 6.8 out of 10.[24]
- In 2010, writer David Shapiro started a Tumblr called "Pitchfork Reviews Reviews," which reviews Pitchfork reviews.[25]
Leaked music
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.[26]
Misinformation
Pitchfork has been criticized directly by artists for misrepresentation, most famously in 2007 by the artist M.I.A. for what one of their writers later described as "perpetuating the male-led ingenue myth" with regard to her work.[27][28] Some have argued this is not isolated to Pitchfork in the music press, while this incident was later cited and similarly condemned by the artist Björk,[29] who criticized the site for assuming female musicians do not usually write or produce their own music. Pitchfork's articles on M.I.A. and her career since the incident have been noticeably negative and have attracted media commentary;[30] an article titled "M.I.A. Uses Pitchfork Tweets to Diss Pitchfork" was printed by LA Weekly in 2010.[31]
The Pitchfork Review
In December 2013, Pitchfork Media debuted The Pitchfork Review, a quarterly print journal focused on long-form music writing and design-focused content.[32] J.C. Gabel, its first editor, previously was the publisher of The Chicagoan and founding publisher of Stop Smiling.[33] Pitchfork planned a limited-edition quarterly publication of about 10,000 copies of each issue, perfect bound, and printed on glossy, high-quality 8-by-10¼ paper.[34] It was expected that about two-thirds of the content would be original, with the remaining one-third recycled from the Pitchfork website.[34] The International Business Times likened the publication's literary aspirations to The New Yorker and Paris Review.[35]
Music festivals
Intonation Music Festival
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 an appearance by Les Savy Fav.
Pitchfork Music Festival
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.[36]
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.
Since 2011, a European winter edition of the festival takes place in Paris.
All Tomorrow's Parties
In 2008 Pitchfork collaborated with All Tomorrow's Parties to curate half of the bill for one of their May festival weekends. This was the first event that Pitchfork has been involved in outside of the United States.
Rating system
Pitchfork's music reviews use two different rating systems:
- Individual track reviews were formerly ranked from 1 to 5 stars, but on January 15, 2007, the site introduced a new system called "Forkcast". In it, instead of assigning tracks a particular rating, reviewers simply label them one of the self-explanatory categories "New Music", "Old Music", "Video", "Advanced Music", "Rising", "WTF", the category of their most favorably regarded songs, "On Repeat" and, for the least favored songs, "Delete". As of 2009, the site has officially removed this system, opting to instead simply review tracks and giving some a label of Best New Track.
- Album reviews are given a rating out of 10.0, specific to one decimal point.
On October 24, 2003, Pitchformula.com[37] made a survey of the 5,575 reviews available on Pitchfork at that time, showing that:
- 6.7 was the average rating
- 2,339 reviews had been awarded a rating of 7.4 or higher
- 2,362 reviews had been awarded a rating of between 5.0 and 7.3
- 873 reviews had been awarded a rating of less than 5.0[17]
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 a user to type in their own rating, and when a question mark is clicked, says, "It's up to you" (similar to Radiohead's website). If clicked again, it says, "No really, it's 9.3".[38] British Sea Power's 2008 album Do You Like Rock Music? was initially awarded a tongue-in-cheek rating of "U.2", however the page now gives a rating of 8.2, seemingly at odds with the critical review.[39] Their rating of Run the Jewels' remix album Meow the Jewels (2015) was a pictogram of a cat's head with hearts for eyes - highlighting the pictogram and right-clicking on it reveals that the actual score is 7.0.[40] Their review of Pope Francis' album Wake Up! featured the rating "3:16," though using the same method of revealing Meow the Jewels' actual score reveals the score to be 5.0.[41]
Initial release 10.0 rated albums
The following is a list of albums given Pitchfork's highest possible rating, on initial release. The score is rare and has only been given to eleven albums since the site was launched in 1995. Several more albums have been given a 10 on re-release.
Relaxation of the Asshole, a comedy album by Guided by Voices singer Robert Pollard, was awarded a dual 0.0 and 10.0 on initial release. A later site redesign changed the rating to 0.0 only, although the explanation for the unusual rating remains in the text of the review.[42]
| Artist | Title | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 Rods | Gay? | 1996 | [43] |
| ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead | Source Tags & Codes | 2002 | [44] |
| Amon Tobin | Bricolage | 1997 | [45] |
| Bob Dylan | The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966, The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert | 1998 | [46] |
| Bonnie 'Prince' Billy | I See a Darkness | 1999 | [47] |
| The Flaming Lips | The Soft Bulletin | 1999 | [48] |
| Kanye West | My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy | 2010 | [49] |
| Radiohead | Kid A | 2000 | [50] |
| Radiohead | OK Computer | 1997 | [51] |
| Walt Mink | El Producto | 1996 | [52] |
| Wilco | Yankee Hotel Foxtrot | 2002 | [53] |
Pitchfork awards
Pitchfork Album of the Year
Pitchfork Track of the Year
| Year | Artist | Song | Nation | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Outkast | "Hey Ya!" |  United States | [71] |
| 2004 | Annie | "Heartbeat" |  Norway | [72] |
| 2005 | Antony & The Johnsons | "Hope There's Someone" |  United Kingdom | [73] |
| 2006 | Justin Timberlake featuring T.I. | "My Love" | United States | [74] |
| 2007 | LCD Soundsystem | "All My Friends" | United States | [75] |
| 2008 | Hercules and Love Affair | "Blind" | United States | [76] |
| 2009 | Animal Collective | "My Girls" | United States | [77] |
| 2010 | Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti | "Round and Round" | United States | [78] |
| 2011 | M83 | "Midnight City" |  France | [79] |
| 2012 | Grimes | "Oblivion" |  Canada | [80] |
| 2013 | Drake | "Hold On, We're Going Home" | Canada | [81] |
| 2014 | Future Islands | "Seasons (Waiting on You)" | United States | [82] |
| 2015 | Kendrick Lamar | "Alright" | United States | [83] |
See also
References
- ↑ "Pitchfork.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2014-04-01.
- ↑ Singer, Dan (November 13, 2014). "Are Professional Music Critics an Endangered Species?". American Journalism Review. Retrieved September 13, 2015.
- 1 2 3 du Lac, Josh Freedom (April 30, 2006). "Giving Indie Acts A Plug, or Pulling It". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2006-10-29.
- ↑ "Pitchfork launches Altered Zones". Pitchfork Media. 2010-07-07. Retrieved 2013-05-30.
- ↑ "Altered Zones RIP". The Brooklyn Vegan. 2011-11-30. Retrieved 2013-05-30.
- ↑ "Welcome to Nothing Major". Pitchfork Media. 2012-12-26. Retrieved 2013-05-30.
- ↑ "So Long for Now". Nothing Major. 2013-10-16. Retrieved 2014-09-29.
- ↑ "Condé Nast Buys Pitchfork Media". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
- ↑ "Introducing Pitchfork's New Website: Our first full redesign since 2011". Pitchfork Media. 2016-03-13. Retrieved 2016-03-15.
- ↑ du Lac, Josh Freedo (April 30, 2006). "Giving Indie Acts A Plug, or Pulling It". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2008-05-06.
- ↑ Kot, Greg (May 8, 2005). "Pitchfork e-zine tells indie fans what's hot and not". The Honolulu Advertiser. Retrieved 2006-10-29.
- ↑ Staff, Time (June 2011). "Bon Iver's New Album: An Elusive Kanye West Collaborator Returns to His Emotional Roots". Time. Retrieved 2011-06-20.
- ↑ Staff, Time (June 2012). "Bon Iver". Time. Retrieved 2012-03-29.
- ↑ CR (June 2005). "Clap Your Hands Say Yeah Interview". Tiny Mix Tapes. Retrieved 2008-02-02.
- ↑ "Site Traffic Information for www.pitchforkmedia.com". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2006-10-29.
- ↑ Itzkoff, Dave (September 2006). "The Pitchfork Effect". Wired. Retrieved 2006-10-29.
- 1 2 Wilson, Loren Jan. "Statistics for the reviews database". pitchformula.com. Retrieved 2006-10-29.
- 1 2 Thomas, Lindsey (June 14, 2006). "The Pitchfork Effect". City Pages. Retrieved 2006-10-30.
- ↑ Matthew Shaer (28 November 2006). "The indie music site that everyone loves to hate.". Slate Magazine.
- 1 2 "Dusted Features".
- ↑ Cross, David (May 5, 2005). "Albums to Listen to While Reading Overwrought Pitchfork Reviews". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 2006-10-30.
- ↑ "RichDork Media and Music Reviews and General Pretentiousness". Something Awful. 2004. Retrieved 2007-04-28.
- ↑ Whitmore, Dean. "Popdork Feature: The Dean's List". Sub Pop. Archived from the original on August 6, 2004.
- ↑ "Pitchfork Gives Music 6.8". The Onion. September 5, 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-10.
- ↑ "David Shapiro Isn't Much Use to Anyone". Vice.
- ↑ The Joanna Newsom leak - Music - The Phoenix
- ↑ "Album Reviews: M.I.A.: Kala". Pitchfork Media. 2007-08-21. Retrieved 2011-01-30.
- ↑ Thomson, Paul (2007). "M.I.A. Confronts the Haters". Pitchforkmedia. Retrieved 2007-12-10.
- ↑ Nicholson, Rebecca (August 27, 2008). "Why Björk is right to stand up for female producers". The Guardian (London).
- ↑ Sasha Frere-Jones (6 February 2012). "M.I.A. Shouldn’t Have Apologized". The New Yorker.
- ↑ Gustavo Turner. "M.I.A. Uses Pitchfork Tweets to Diss Pitchfork, Show Off Obama Ecstasy Pills Pic". L.A. Weekly.
- ↑ Nagy, Evie (November 21, 2013). "Pitchfork to launch $19.96 print publication, The Pitchfork Review". Fast Company.
- ↑ "Introducing The Pitchfork Review". Pitchfork. November 21, 2013. Archived from the original on 2014-03-25.
- 1 2 Sisario, Ben (November 21, 2013). "With Pitchfork Review, a Music Site Plants a Flag in Print". New York Times. Archived from the original on 2013-11-25.
- ↑ Zara, Christopher (November 21, 2013). "Pitchfork Media Takes A Stab At Print With The Pitchfork Review: Can It Save Music Magazines?". International Business Times. Archived from the original on 2014-02-03.
- ↑ "Pitchfork Music Festival 2006". Pitchfork Media. August 2, 2006. Retrieved 2006-10-30.
- ↑ Pitchformula.com
- ↑ "Radiohead: In Rainbows". Pitchfork. Retrieved 2016-02-05.
- ↑ "British Sea Power: Do You Like Rock Music?". Pitchfork. Retrieved 2016-02-05.
- ↑ "Run the Jewels". Pitchfork.
- ↑ "Pope Francis". Pitchfork.
- ↑ Robert Pollard - Relaxation of the Asshole review - Pitchfork
- ↑ "12 Rods: Gay?: Pitchfork Record Review". Archived from the original on 7 March 2008.
- ↑ "...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead". Pitchfork.
- ↑ "Amon Tobin: Bricolage: Pitchfork Record Review". Archived from the original on 12 February 2008.
- ↑ "Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 4: Live 1966: The Royal Albert Hall Concert: Pitchfork Review". Web.archive.org. Archived from the original on June 4, 2004. Retrieved 2014-08-14.
- ↑ "Bonnie "Prince" Billy: I See a Darkness: Pitchfork Review". Archived from the original on 23 August 2000.
- ↑ "Flaming Lips: The Soft Bulletin: Pitchfork Record Review". Archived from the original on 11 July 2007.
- ↑ "Kanye West". Pitchfork.
- ↑ "Radiohead". Pitchfork.
- ↑ "Radiohead: OK Computer: Pitchfork Review". Archived from the original on 3 March 2001.
- ↑ "Walt Mink: El Producto: Pitchfork Review". Archived from the original on 24 February 2003.
- ↑ "Wilco". Pitchfork.
- ↑ "Staff Lists". Pitchfork.
- ↑ "Staff Lists". Pitchfork.
- ↑ "Staff Lists". Pitchfork.
- ↑ "Staff Lists". Pitchfork.
- ↑ "Staff Lists". Pitchfork.
- ↑ "Staff Lists". Pitchfork.
- ↑ "Staff Lists". Pitchfork.
- ↑ "Staff Lists". Pitchfork.
- ↑ "Staff Lists". Pitchfork.
- ↑ "Staff Lists". Pitchfork.
- ↑ "Staff Lists". Pitchfork.
- ↑ "Staff Lists". Pitchfork.
- ↑ "Staff Lists". Pitchfork.
- ↑ "Staff Lists". Pitchfork.
- ↑ "The Top 50 Albums of 2013". Pitchfork. Retrieved 2014-08-14.
- ↑ "The Top 50 Albums of 2014". Pitchfork. Retrieved 2014-12-17.
- ↑ "The 50 Best Albums of 2015 - Pitchfork". Pitchfork.
- ↑ "Staff Lists". Pitchfork.
- ↑ "Staff Lists". Pitchfork.
- ↑ "Staff Lists". Pitchfork.
- ↑ "Staff Lists". Pitchfork.
- ↑ "Staff Lists". Pitchfork.
- ↑ "Staff Lists". Pitchfork.
- ↑ "Staff Lists". Pitchfork.
- ↑ "Staff Lists". Pitchfork.
- ↑ "Staff Lists". Pitchfork.
- ↑ "Staff Lists". Pitchfork.
- ↑ "The Top 100 Tracks of 2013". Pitchfork. 2007-10-22. Retrieved 2014-08-14.
- ↑ "The 100 Best Tracks of 2014 - Pitchfork". Pitchfork.
- ↑ "The 100 Best Tracks of 2015 - Pitchfork". Pitchfork.
External links
Pitchfork sites
Other links
- Giving Indie Acts A Plug, or Pulling It (The Washington Post, 30 April 2006).
- Listen To This (Columbia Journalism Review, May–June 2006).
- Pitchfork e-zine tells indie fans what's hot and what's not (Chicago Tribune reprint, published 8 May 2005).
- The Pitchfork Effect (City Pages, 14 June 2006).
- Interview with Ryan Schreiber (The Chicagoist, 10 March 2006)
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