Why Music Critics Still Matter

The argument that music critics are obsolete goes like this: streaming services know what you like better than any critic does, the algorithm recommends songs you skip 5% of the time and critics recommend songs you skip 30% of the time, the data wins.

The argument is wrong about what critics are for.

Critics are not for telling you what you will like. Critics are for telling you what you should pay attention to. These are different jobs. The first is recommendation. The second is canon-formation.

The algorithm recommends within your established taste. The critic argues for things outside it. Some of those arguments succeed and you discover music you would not otherwise have heard. Most of them fail and you stay where you were. Both outcomes are useful. The algorithm by design cannot expand your taste — it can only deepen it within the boundaries you already have.

This does not mean every critic is good. Most critics, like most writers in any field, are not. The good ones are the ones who can argue you into spending an hour with something you would have skipped, and have you come away grateful.

The format of music criticism will keep changing. The job, properly understood, will not.