So, there’s stuff all over the place about the death of rock criticism — clearly, one of the things that has kept rock criticism alive in the 2000s is the endless discussion of its own death? — but scant little attention is ever paid to the real roots of the stuff — that is, its pre-Crawdaddy! roots. Is there such a thing?
Inquiring about rock ‘n’ roll criticism — as opposed to rock criticism — Tom Ewing at Freaky Trigger asks a good question and opens up a great conversation: How come rock’n'roll didn’t trigger the birth of rock criticism? Why was no one assigning A-minuses to Elvis is Back!, declaring Bobby Vinton “marked for death,” or writing polemics about the grain of Little Richard’s voice? Or were they and we just don’t know about it?
