As if I didn’t need a reason to already not like or trust the New York Times (as I don’t like or trust any news out), the paper just published a list of who they consider the 30 greatest living American songwriters…and they excluded Billy Joel. Yes, this is a subjective call at best, but Joel not on a list that includes Bad Bunny, Kendrick Lamar, Taylor Swift and Mariah Carey…um, I just can’t let this one go.
Sure, Carole King is here, as she damn well should be. But no B.J.?
Believe me, the NYT not including Mr. Joel, is just the tip of the iceberg. Here is a video of some of the list’s compilers explaining their choices: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hc1ARmtVwFg. This video reeks even more than the paper’s flaccid list and surely reveals the smugness of these music critics, as their obvious biases (and in one case, sure made-up guilt).
More than any FU I could yell at the NYT (not that they care or would ever hear me anyway) I grabbed a bunch of comments from under the video that pretty much sum up what I was feeling watching this and hearing the critics defend their choices. The following say it better than me:
I have a new list…….5 worst living music critics.
There was no universe where I thought this video could be even worse than the list itself, but here we are.
They don’t care about music, they just want internet engagement.
“I wonder what the New York Times staff thinks of this album.” -Words never said by anyone prior to purchase.
That last one is what I think when I read a Rolling Stone Magazine review praising an album.
In the end, I have to remind myself that A.) New York Times has never been a record of note on popular music; B) as with all news outlets nowadays, this paper is built on and works from a sure cultural/political bias that colors their facts so much of the time; C.) These ‘music critics,’ are generally not real music experts of any standing (at least in my reckoning) and D….I think Billy Joel is tops.
And mostly, for me, what I think matters most.
I just figured I send a good old FU to the paper that claims they print “All The News That’s Fit To Print.” But this time, as in so many other instances, you got that news wrong, Potsie.
