Journal Article

Rock criticism’s musical text: Robert Christgau’s writing about words and music in song

Abstract

The academic study of rock criticism assumes musical works to be interesting for the way the words and music of song reflect history, society and culture. However, how did rock critics approach the musical text? This paper examines Robert Christgau’s writing on the balance between words and music in song, 1970-89. Christgau is then examined as a music analyst, based on a smaller collection of case studies including a sustained passage on DJ Shadow. A productive dialogue is suggested between the study of rock criticism and a music theory attentive to writing as a form of music analysis.

Attached files

Authors

Griffiths, Dai

Oxford Brookes departments

School of Arts

Dates

Year of publication: 2019
Date of RADAR deposit: 2020-01-10

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Related resources

This RADAR resource is the Accepted Manuscript of Rock criticism’s musical text: Robert Christgau’s writing about words and music in song