Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s
ISBN 0-679-73015-X | | |
Preceded by | Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies | |
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Followed by | Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s |
Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s is a music
The guide compiles approximately 3,000 capsule album reviews, most of which were originally written by Christgau for his monthly "Consumer Guide" column in The Village Voice through the 1980s. It covers a variety of genres and musical developments from the decade, which are given an overview in his introductory essays. Further insight is also given into his grading criteria.
The book was received positively by critics. Christgau's sensibility and the qualities of his judgements were deemed entertaining and insightful, although some regarded the writing as too challenging for most readers. Another guide was published in 2000, called Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s, forming a three-volume series of "Consumer Guide" collections.
Background
Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s is the second in a series of books—beginning in 1981 with Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies—to compile, revise, and expand on Christgau's capsule album reviews, which were originally written for his monthly "Consumer Guide" column in The Village Voice throughout the decade specific to each volume.[1] In the process of reviewing 20 records per month for the column, Christgau told the Chicago Tribune in 1990 that he had developed into a "processor" of music, with 12 to 14 hours of his day usually spent listening to albums:
There's something very mechanical about what I do. I'm a sophisticated and very well-oiled machine, but I am a machine. I put the music through my head even when I'm not listening because I know something rubs off. It's not the only way to be a critic. Some listen to the good stuff and listen to it hard and write about that. But in order to provide an overview of good and bad, it's the only way to do it. I don't do enough to suit myself, but I know I do more than anybody else. So that's satisfying.[2]
Christgau later said he spent "a year or two" transforming the original reviews into this book, re-listening to albums twice.[3]
Content and scope
The book collects approximately 3,000 "Consumer Guide" reviews which range individually from 50 to 150 words—accompanied by a
In the book's introductory essay, Christgau identifies a two-pronged criteria ("importance" and "quality") for the music reviewed in the guide: "Importance divided into cultural impact (commercial or occasionally just sociopolitical reach, with added panache preferred), subcultural acclaim (especially from
There are also introductory essays about musical developments and trends during the 1980s. In one essay, Christgau identifies the fusion of post-punk and post-disco sounds as one of the decade's major developments while coining the term "dance-oriented rock" to describe their synthesis.[8] An appendix lists artists overlooked in the reviews and a "core collection" of albums before 1980, including out of print records categorized as "Gone But Not Forgotten".[9] The book was also printed with a dedication to his daughter Nina, whom Christgau and his wife Carola Dibbell had adopted from Honduras in 1985.[10]
Publication history
Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s was first published in October 1990 by Pantheon Books and was reprinted in 1994 by Da Capo Press.[11] A follow-up to The '80s—Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s—was published in 2000, forming a three-volume series of "Consumer Guide" collections.[12] The contents of all three books were made available on Christgau's website after it went online in 2001 with the help of fellow critic and web designer Tom Hull, who also served as a resource for this book.[13]
Critical reception
Reviewing the book in 1991, John Lawson of the
In the
The book was not without criticism. Hilburn questioned Christgau's "grouchy dismissal" of U2's 1980 debut Boy while noting a partiality for third-world music records and an impenetrability as a writer, citing the review of the 1987 X album See How We Are as an example of the latter.[17] Kot believed Christgau was less understanding of metal and also called some of the writing inaccessible: "Sometimes he assumes an intimate understanding of not only the record he's discussing but also a host of peripheral concerns that most of his readers could not possibly possess."[2] Library Journal's Barry Miller praised the broad-based musical coverage but deemed the writing glib and unctuous: "Christgau's catholic tastes provide a wonderful cornucopia, but the cumulative effect of his terminally hip prose and gymnastic verbal constructions ('boho Americanism,' 'antipunk discowave,' 'postprog art-rock,' 'mucho pusho,' etc.) is vacuous." Miller recommended The New Trouser Press Record Guide as an alternative of superior "depth and information".[4]
Legacy and reappraisal
Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s was used by the Music Library Association as a reference to prepare select rock recordings for A Basic Music Library: Essential Scores and Sound Recordings (1997), published by the American Library Association as a guide for librarians and other collectors.[18] According to M. Thomas Inge's The Greenwood Guide to American Popular Culture (2002), Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s was a precursor to more popular music guide series—such as All Music Guide, MusicHound, and Rough Guides—and has since "maintained a resourceful timelessness ... Christgau's judgments are incisive, knowledgeable, and amusing."[19]
In 2006, the "Consumer Guide" series was ranked fifth on
See also
References
- ^ Wolk 2010.
- ^ a b c d Kot 1990.
- ^ Christgau 2000, p. vii.
- ^ a b Miller 1990, p. 78.
- ^ Christgau 1990, back cover; Lawson 1991, p. 136; Kot 1990.
- ^ Christgau 1990, "Decade".
- ^ Shuker 1994, pp. 70–71.
- ^ Miller 1990, p. 78; Campbell 2012, pp. 335, 394.
- ^ Miller 1990, p. 78; Lawson 1991, p. 136.
- ^ Gross 2015.
- ^ Miller 1990, p. 78; Davis et al. 1997, p. 576.
- ^ Robins 2016, p. 277; Wolk 2010.
- ^ Matos 2011; Anon. 2002, p. 1; Christgau 1990, "Acknowledgements".
- ^ Lawson 1991, p. 136.
- ^ Anon. 1994, p. 129.
- ^ Christgau 1990, back cover.
- ^ a b Hilburn 1990.
- ^ Davis et al. 1997, pp. xi, 576.
- ^ Inge & Hall 2002, p. 1125.
- ^ Murray et al. 2006.
- ^ Matos 2011.
- ^ Murray 2001.
- ^ Jenkins 2001.
Bibliography
- Anon. (June 1994). "Book Reviews". Australian Academic and Research Libraries. 25.
- Anon. (2002). "Answers From the Dean: Online Exchange with Robert Christgau". RockCritics.com. Archived from the original on December 30, 2018. Retrieved August 21, 2018.
- Campbell, Michael (2012). Popular Music in America: The Beat Goes On (4th ed.). ISBN 978-1133712602.
- ISBN 0-679-73015-X.
- Christgau, Robert (2000). Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s. ISBN 0312245602.
- Davis, Elizabeth A.; Bristah, Pamela; Gottlieb, Jane; Underwood, Kent David; Anderson, William E., eds. (1997). A Basic Music Library: Essential Scores and Sound Recordings. ISBN 0838934617.
- Gross, Jason (June 2015). "The Dean of Rock Critics Schools Us On Himself: Robert Christgau's Going Into the City (Dey St.)". Rock's Backpages. Retrieved January 1, 2019.(subscription required)
- Hilburn, Robert (October 28, 1990). "A Guide, Gossip, a Glimpse of Glory". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 27, 2018.
- ISBN 0313308780.
- Jenkins, Mark (April 27, 2001). "Add N to (X)". Washington City Paper. Retrieved March 4, 2020.
- Kot, Greg (November 15, 1990). "Elder Statesman". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on July 10, 2019. Retrieved October 13, 2018.
- Lawson, John (June 1991). "Christgau's Record Guide". School Library Journal. 37.
- Matos, Michaelangelo; et al. (A.V. Club Staff) (June 10, 2011). "Most Re-Read Books". The A.V. Club. Retrieved October 13, 2018.
- Miller, Barry (October 15, 1990). "Christgau's Record Guide". Library Journal. 115.
- Murray, Noel (January 4, 2001). "A Critical Matter". Nashville Scene. Retrieved October 20, 2018.
- Murray, Noel; Phipps, Keith; Ryan, Kyle; Modell, Josh (October 6, 2006). "Inventory: 17 Essential Books About Popular Music". The A.V. Club. Retrieved August 20, 2018.
- Robins, Wayne (2016). A Brief History of Rock, Off the Record. ISBN 978-1135923464.
- Shuker, Roy (1994). Understanding Popular Music. ISBN 978-0415107228.
- Vulture. Retrieved April 15, 2017.
Further reading
- .