Robert Christgau

"Christgau" redirects here. For other uses, see Christgau (disambiguation).

Robert Christgau
Christgau in 2010
Christgau in 2010
BornRobert Thomas Christgau
(1942-04-18) April 18, 1942 (age 82)
New York City, U.S.
Occupation
  • Music critic
  • essayist
  • journalist
Alma materDartmouth College
Period1967–present
Spouse
​
(m. 1974)​
Children1
Website
robertchristgau.com

Robert Thomas Christgau (/ˈkrɪstɡaʊ/ KRIST-gow; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known[1] and influential music critics,[2] he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became an early proponent of musical movements such as hip hop, riot grrrl, and the import of African popular music in the West.[1] He was the chief music critic and senior editor for The Village Voice for 37 years, during which time he created and oversaw the annual Pazz & Jop critics poll. He has also covered popular music for Esquire, Creem, Newsday, Playboy, Rolling Stone, Billboard, NPR, Blender, and MSN Music; he was a visiting arts teacher at New York University.[3] CNN senior writer Jamie Allen has called Christgau "the E. F. Hutton of the music world–when he talks, people listen."[4]

Christgau is best known for his terse, letter-graded capsule album reviews, composed in a concentrated, fragmented prose style featuring layered clauses, caustic wit, one-liner jokes, political digressions, and allusions ranging from common knowledge to the esoteric.[5] Informed by leftist politics (particularly feminism[6] and secular humanism), his reviews have generally favored song-oriented musical forms and qualities of wit and formal rigor, as well as musicianship from uncommon sources.[7]

Originally published in his "Consumer Guide" columns during his tenure at The Village Voice from 1969 to 2006, the reviews were collected in book form across three decade-ending volumes–Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s (1990), and Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s (2000).[3] Multiple collections of his essays have been published in book form,[3] and a website published in his name since 2001 has freely hosted most of his work.

In 2006, the Voice dismissed Christgau after the paper's acquisition by New Times Media. He continued to write reviews in the "Consumer Guide" format for MSN Music, Cuepoint, and Noisey–Vice's music section–where they were published in his "Expert Witness" column[8] until July 2019.[9] In September of the same year, he launched a paid-subscription newsletter called And It Don't Stop, published on the email-newsletter platform Substack and featuring a monthly "Consumer Guide" column, among other writings.[10]

  1. ^ a b Greene, Jayson (May 28, 2015). "Christgau, Robert". Grove Music Online. Retrieved June 12, 2021.
  2. ^ Shepherd, John; Horn, David; Laing, Dave; Oliver, Paul; Wicke, Peter, eds. (2003). Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World Volume I: Media, Industry and Society. A&C Black. p. 306. ISBN 978-1847144737.
  3. ^ a b c "Robert Christgau". HarperCollins. Retrieved September 30, 2015.
  4. ^ Allen, Jamie (November 9, 2000). "Music critic Christgau delivers new guide to consumers". CNN.com. Retrieved February 13, 2020.
  5. ^ Manzler 2000; Pick 2000; Klein 2002; Anderson 2001
  6. ^ Marsh, Dave (January 13, 1977). "The Critics' Critic II". Rolling Stone. Available at Rock's Backpages (subscription required).
  7. ^ Jody Rosen, X-ed Out: The Village Voice fires a famous music critic, Slate, September 5, 2006. Retrieved on October 15, 2006.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference noisey was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference xgausez070919 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Hull, Tom (September 17, 2019). "Music Week". tomhull.com. Retrieved September 29, 2019.