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From Pitchfork to Q, music criticism is under attack. We must fight for the magic it can inspire | John Doran

Yes, critics help us make sense of the millions of songs released every month – but the best writing transcends the music, says John Doran, editor of the Quietus

To many of the site’s millions of monthly readers this news means a great deal more than simply the decline of a large website: they see this, with some justification, as an existential threat to worthwhile music criticism itself. I want to make sure I have some really ear-boggling new sounds and in order to achieve this, I will refer to the expert advice available at magazines I have a subscription to such as The Wire and Crack and excellent wide-ranging websites such as Bandcamp Daily and, while I still can, Pitchfork. A lot of the time, music writing is a client, shackled to the vast glorious beast it serves, but occasionally, at its best, it stands independently to one side as a thing of singular elegance.

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