Sam Smith waves his fists at "critics"

The extraordinarily ordinary Sam Smith is seeing his success as one in the eye for "critics":

"I remember my first Shepherd's Bush Empire gig, and at that point I'd had two number-one singles, the Critics' Choice Award and the Sound poll, and critics were just waiting to pull me down. At first, that made me upset, but as I've been doing this for the past year, I've started to realise that you're never going to please critics because they're not Sam Smith fans. The only people you can really impress are those who really want to come and see you play. The majority of critics are being paid to watch you perform, they don't actually want to see you sing, so I can't expect them to like me."

Just re-read that quote. He won an award, from critics, called the Critics Choice award, and then says 'well, you're never going to please the critics'.

Smith's entire career is based on getting two awards, both voted for by nobody but music critics. Sure, there's plenty of reason there to lambast critics for their bland taste, but to suggest that somehow his sales have been in the face of staunch criticism is rewriting history a little.

Bookmarks: Some stuff to read on the internet: NYT critic

The New York Times' jazz and pop but mainly jazz critic Ben Ratliff is taking questions from the readers about pop, but mainly jazz:

In the last 60 years, people almost completely stopped dancing to jazz, and far fewer people grew up with pianos in the house. I think that has a lot to do with why jazz is no longer the popular vernacular art it used to be. When you dance to music (in all ways — partner dancing, stepping, headbanging — just reacting to music with your body) or when you play it, then you own it. A lot of people born since 1960 don't feel that they own jazz.

Absolutely, the media plays a role in why the average person doesn't know who Cedar Walton is. But I think the mainstream media — obviously we're not talking about jazz magazines like Downbeat, which has Benny Golson on the cover this month (a good example of the kind of artist you're talking about) — doesn't, by definition, deal with the kind of art that post-bop mainstream jazz has become, which is an art of tradition and very slow refinements.

Bookmarks: Some stuff to read on the internet

The Christian Science Monitor asks what the future holds for music criticism as a profession:

Professional critics say they add particular value: cultural and musical context. For instance, a buzz band such as The Kooks might sound like innovators to an 18-year-old. A seasoned critic can point out that only a few chords, and a few vowels, separate The Kooks from The Kinks.

Music writers say that newspapers still have a role to play in reaching out to people in their 40s who are curious about their world – and what their teens are listening to.

But the future is still online, where a younger generation clusters around music blogs such as Stereogum and Brooklyn Vegan and discovers artists such as Colbie Caillat, Ingrid Michaelson, and Sara Bareilles through MySpace rather than radio or reviews.