A column in the Oct. 31 edition of the New York Times by music critic Kelefah Sanneh has been the subject of great debate among music critics for its attack on “rockists,” or those who have a bias towards rock over other forms of popular music. I have been accused of this bias countless times, so it’s worth examining the idea.
Sanneh accuses writers who prefer guitars to samples of being narrow-minded old fogeys, and possibly even white supremacists, given that rock is a genre dominated by white males. She argues that disposable pop songs are just as valid as “serious” rock songs that deal with weightier subject matter and can even outlive them in the popular consciousness. She points to the legacy of the Sugar Hill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” over that of Van Morrison songs from the same period as evidence. She champions Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake as proud standard bearers of non-rock pop music today.
As an unapologetic bastion of indie rock pretension, I am undeniably prone to the pro-guitar bias against which Sanneh rails. While some of her points are valid, she fails to consider the differences in intentionality behind music that transcend genres.
Rock has been, since its inception, a form of pop music. Since then, it’s splintered into so many subgenres that to call a group a “rock” band implies little more than that they have guitars. And guitars and pop music mix undeniably well; there is plenty of pop music that’s made with guitars. Similarly, there is plenty of serious, artistic music that is made with instruments that aren’t guitars. But a single group of any genre can make either kind of music, regardless of what instruments they play. The Beatles went from boy band to Sgt. Pepper in just three years. The difference Sanneh should be criticizing isn’t between rock and pop and hip hop and whatever other genre, but between music that’s made seriously and music that isn’t.
There are a few writers out there who deserve Sanneh’s criticism. Plenty of white supremacist rockers and critics exist, like the father-son team of Ted Nugent and Time music writer Benjamin Nugent. I may endlessly extol the virtues of Pavement and Radiohead, but I think Public Enemy, A Tribe Called Quest and Outkast are just as artistically important. It’s not guitars that make music good: it’s the combination of artistic intent and musical skill. Brilliance transcends genre, and it’s important for Sanneh to recognize that guitar rock still has its moments.
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