Will The Job Of Critic Die With Social Media?

I enjoyed the premise of this article about how a Harvard Business Review study found that the ratings of books on Amazon end up being the same as critics.  From this, the conclusion drawn is that you don’t need to listen to book critics since you can rely on the Amazon crowed sourced review to be just as bit as ‘accurate’.  I think this conclusion should not be surprising and completely dismisses the true job of the professional critic.

As two of my favorite Music Critics (Greg Kot and Jim DeRogatis) say on their podcast Sound Opinions, “Everyone’s A Critic.”  Human nature is to evaluate everything we come in contact with.  Such is the case with people, cars and bars of soap, as it is also is with art.  And since we are a social species, we utilize the experiences of those who we come in contact with to inform our evaluations.  So the fact that a crowed-sourced evaluation like Amazon, Netflix, or Rotten Tomatoes reviews gets it right is not surprising.  Crowed-sourced evaluation accuracy is well documented.

 

But being accurate is not the true job of the critic.  They exist to fill a couple of critical voids beyond accuracy of their evaluation.  First, they alert the public of important work.  They can’t review everything, but the access they have to art and the artist is unprecedented.  The best of the best use this to bubble up great, important work and champion it.  Since I love indie rock, the place I go to fulfill this need for me is Pitchfork.  If an album makes their 'Best Of' list, I’m going to give it a spin.  Their evaluations more often than not align with my sensibilities.   

This brings me to another critical job.  They should mirror their audience.  Or more accurately, their work should find an audience that shares their sensibilities.  Over time, you should learn about the critic on a level that illuminates the way they think beyond just their evaluation.  They need to inform their readership on 'Why' they came to their conclusions.  

Finally, their evaluations must entertain us.  I don’t mean that they have to be full of fireworks and glitz.  But rather, they must touch our heart, mind, and soul.  Basically, their work must be art as well.  If it isn't, than it’s just basically a long winded set of Amazon stars.  This last one is why we need a class of professional critics.  Because their art moves souls and uncovers meaning through the basic practice of always criticizing.  Anyone can have an opinion, and with social media, anyone can find important work and broadcast it to their network.  A professional critic tells a story that enhances the reader’s relationship to the reviewed work.  And this can be just as valuable as the work itself.  

That doesn’t mean it won’t be tough for the professional critic moving forward.  All content creators are in limbo as everything rapidly changes.  But the good ones that just can’t help themselves, and continue to work at their craft to get better at finding great art, communicating its meaning to their followers, and doing it in a way that touches their audience will survive one way or another.  God willing.