Rockism and poptimism
Rockism and poptimism are ideological arguments about popular music prevalent in mainstream music journalism. Rockism is the belief that rock music depends on values such as authenticity and artfulness, which elevate it over other forms of popular music.[2] So-called "rockists" may promote the artifices stereotyped in rock music[3][2] or may regard the genre as the normative state of popular music.[4] Poptimism (or popism)[1] is the belief that pop music is as worthy of professional critique and interest as rock music.[5] Detractors of poptimism describe it as a counterpart of rockism that unfairly privileges the most famous or best-selling pop, hip hop and R&B acts.[6][7]
The term "rockism" was coined in 1981 by English rock musician Pete Wylie.[8] It soon became a pejorative used humorously by self-described "anti-rockist" music journalists.[2] The term was not generally used beyond the music press until the mid 2000s, and its emergence then was partly attributable to bloggers using it more seriously in analytical debate.[2] In the 2000s, a critical reassessment of pop music was underway, and by the next decade, poptimism supplanted rockism as the prevailing ideology in popular music criticism.[5]
While poptimism was envisioned and encouraged[9] as a corrective to rockist attitudes,[6] opponents of its discourse argue that it has resulted in certain pop stars being shielded from negative reviews as part of an effort to maintain a consensus of uncritical excitement.[10] Others argue that the two ideologies have similar flaws.[7]
Definitions and etymology[edit]
Rockism[edit]
"Rockism" was coined in 1981 when the English rock musician Pete Wylie announced his Race Against Rockism campaign, an inversion of Rock Against Racism.[22] The term was immediately repurposed as a polemical label to identify and critique a cluster of beliefs and assumptions in music criticism.[23] Morley recalled:
Other fields[edit]
Flavorwire's Elisabeth Donnely said that literary criticism "needs a poptimist revolution" to understand literary phenomena such as Fifty Shades of Grey and better connect with the reading audience.[28] In 2015, Salon published an article subtitled "Book criticism needs a poptimist revolution to take down the genre snobs", in which Rachel Kramer Bussell argued that critics ignore often good work and alienate readers by focusing only on genres considered "literary".[29]
Writing for Salon in 2016, Scott Timberg commented on critics giving increasing amounts of respect to the celebrity chef Guy Fieri: "Love or hate what is called poptimism, the impulse seems to be coming to food and restaurant criticism." Timberg likened food critics defending Fieri to rock critics who "began writing apologias for Billy Joel and composed learned deconstructions of Britney Spears".[30]