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rockcritics.com

rockcritics.com is a website about rock criticism and the people who write it. Since its inception in 2000, it has featured interviews with nearly 100 rock critics, from the infamous to the obscure, and everything in between.

31 articles

List of articles in the library

By date | By artist | Most recently added

Lester Bangs, Warren Zevon: What ever happened to rock critic Paul Nelson? An Interview

Interview by Steven Ward, rockcritics.com, March 2000

ROCK WRITING WAS not the first choice of Paul Nelson. A pioneer of rock criticism, and one of its most talented practitioners, Nelson (who cites ...

The not-so-hip J.D. Considine: A music critic who writes about music

Interview by Steven Ward, rockcritics.com, May 2000

J.D. CONSIDINE has been writing about popular music since 1977. During his more than 22-year career in rock criticism, he has polarized as many of ...

Enduring the noise: Martin Popoff Pops Off on Heavy Metal, Rock Criticism, and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Interview by Steven Ward, rockcritics.com, July 2000

IF CHUCK EDDY is heavy metal's bastard child, Martin Popoff is its favourite son. Popoff, 37, has been writing about metal for more than a ...

The Rolling Stones: The True Adventures of Stanley Booth: An email interview with the Stones' greatest chronicler

Interview by Steven Ward, rockcritics.com, August 2000

STANLEY BOOTH IS one hell of a writer. The evidence is clear once you pick up his book on the world's greatest rock ‘n' roll ...

Part-Time Writer: Tom Smucker Keeps Us Hangin' By the Telephone

Interview by Steven Ward, rockcritics.com, October 2000

TOM SMUCKER writes about music when he wants to. I wish he would "want to" more than he does. ...

Anthony DeCurtis: Populist at Large

Interview by Steven Ward, rockcritics.com, November 2000

ANTHONY DECURTIS never liked the rock writing of Lester Bangs. He never read Creem. After 20 years, DeCurtis still writes for Rolling Stone and still loves and defends ...

He Got a TV Eye on You: The Ken Tucker Interview

Interview by Steven Ward, rockcritics.com, December 2000

ONE DAY, BACK in 1974, a Lower East Side resident named Ken Tucker wrote Village Voice music editor Robert Christgau an angry letter because the Voice wasn't covering the ...

David McGee: He will never be the editor of a rock magazine again

Interview by Steven Ward, rockcritics.com, January 2001

IF ANYONE EVER writes a history on rock criticism and music writing, the names of Stanley Booth, Peter Guralnick and Nick Tosches will surely lead ...

The Rev. Charles M. Young calms down, grows up, and sings the joys of middle-age

Interview by Steven Ward, rockcritics.com, February 2001

BACK IN THE mid and late '70s, Charles M. Young – known then as The Rev. Charles M. Young – roamed the halls of Rolling Stone magazine ...

A Rousing Interview of Self-affirmation with John Mendelssohn, King of L.A.

Interview by Steven Ward, rockcritics.com, March 2001

ALTHOUGH NO one has written a biography about him, portrayed him in a movie, or released a collection of his rock writing, John Mendelssohn's name ...

Richard Riegel: From Jester to Lester

Interview by Steven Ward, rockcritics.com, March 2001

THERE WAS A TIME when Richard Riegel worried about his idolization of a friend. Worshipping a friend, co-worker and colleague doesn't really sound too healthy, ...

Gina Arnold in the Present Tense

Interview by Steven Ward, rockcritics.com, April 2001

LOVE HER OR hate her, rock critic Gina Arnold writes from her own point of view. For Arnold, when writing about music, objectivity is thrown ...

Caught With His Trousers Down: The Ira Robbins Interview

Interview by Steven Ward, rockcritics.com, May 2001

IF ANYONE OUT there has a million dollars and wants to start a music magazine, please let Ira Robbins know about it. ...

El David: Saint Dalton Shoots His Mouth Off

Interview by Steven Ward, rockcritics.com, May 2001

DAVID DALTON WAS a founding editor of Rolling Stone magazine. In between 1968 and 1971, Dalton penned Rolling Stone cover stories on Little Richard, James Brown and Elvis Presley. ...

glenn mcdonald's War Against Rock Criticism

Interview by Steven Ward, rockcritics.com, June 2001

glenn mcdonald [all lower case – RBP Ed.] is one of the most important rock critics working in the field today, though maybe "working" is ...

The Grey Lady's Pop Music Man: Jon Pareles in Conversation

Interview by Steven Ward, rockcritics.com, July 2001

WHENEVER I INTERVIEW rock writers for this site, I always ask them to name their favourite music critics — writers that make them want to ...

Man On the Moon: An Interview With Tom Moon

Interview by Steven Ward, rockcritics.com, August 2001

FORMER PROFESSIONAL musician Tom Moon, currently the pop music critic at the Philadelphia Inquirer, started his career in rock journalism because he was anxious to hear ...

Flaubert On the Off Days: Interview with Fred Schruers

Interview by Steven Ward, rockcritics.com, September 2001

FROM AN EARLY stint at Circus, through a tenure at Rolling Stone magazine that spanned from the late '70s to the early '90s, then to Entertainment Weekly and Premiere in the '90s ...

Some Smiles With Miles: Milo Miles in Conversation

Interview by Steven Ward, rockcritics.com, September 2001

IF YOU HAVE read rock criticism consistently during the last two decades, odds are, you have a read a piece by Milo Miles. Or maybe ...

Lester Bangs: Cum on Read The Noise: An Interview with former Creem writer Robert Duncan

Interview by Steven Ward, rockcritics.com, October 2001

ROCK CRITIC Robert Duncan, a second generation Creem writer — he joined the magazine in the mid-'70s — is also the author of The Noise: Notes From a ...

From the Archives: Alan Light

Interview by Steven Ward, Scott Woods, rockcritics.com, January 2002

THIS SITE TIPS its hat all over the place to people who write about pop music, but perhaps not enough has been said about the ...

Losin' His Mind in Detroit Rock City: Gary Graff

Interview by Steven Ward, rockcritics.com, January 2002

GARY GRAFF FIRST earned his reputation in the mid-'80s as the in-house music critic for the Detroit Free Press, a stint that terminated a decade ...

From Hard Rock to Rock of Ages: Former Hit Parader Writer, Father Charley Crespo

Interview by Steven Ward, rockcritics.com, February 2002

BACK IN THE '70s and '80s, Charley Crespo frequented the rock clubs of New York and New Jersey gathering info for his fan-obsessed dispatches for ...

Chuck E… So Addictive: Voice Music Editor in His Second rockcritics.com Interview

Interview by Steven Ward, rockcritics.com, March 2002

ROCK CRITIC Chuck Eddy. Love or hate? Let us count the ways… ...

Rolling Stone's Nathan Brackett Snubs Breakfast Reviews, Predicts Klezmer Kraze

Interview by Jason Gross, rockcritics.com, June 2002

Perfect Sound Forever founder/editor Jason Gross interviews Rolling Stone's reviews editor. ...

Blue Öyster Cult: Rock Criticism as Brain Surgery: Deborah Frost Looks Back

Interview by Steven Ward, rockcritics.com, June 2002

MUSICIAN/SONGWRITER Deborah Frost took a little break in the early '70s from a gig with an all-girl band that lasted until the early '90s. ...

Out of His Pen: The Words of Richard Williams

Interview by Simon Warner, rockcritics.com, September 2002

IN U.S. CULTURE, the rock critic is valued, even venerated. From Lester Bangs to Dave Marsh, from Ben Fong-Torres to Greil Marcus, the voices that ...

Interview with RJ Smith

Interview by Steven Ward, rockcritics.com, 2006

RJ SMITH IS a senior editor at Los Angeles magazine, where he writes about the media. Smith previously wrote about music for the Village Voice and Spin. Instead of composing ...

Douglas Wolk… Dean of American Comics Critics

Interview by Steven Ward, rockcritics.com, 2007

THAT TITLE WAS not self-proclaimed by Douglas Wolk. I came up with the unofficial designation as soon as I finished the last page of Wolk's ...

Strumming, Picking, and Shredding: An Oral History of Guitar Player Part 3: Steven Rosen

Interview by Steven Ward, rockcritics.com, 2007

STEVEN ROSEN is a professional music journalist with a career spanning thirty years. During this period he has published well over 700 articles appearing in ...

My Top 50 Songs

Special Feature by Jim Esposito, rockcritics.com, 15 December 2021

NOTE: This is an unabridged "director's cut" version of the list Jim wrote for RockCritics.com. ...

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