How Pitchfork is killing "alternative"

Through top-notch writing and reviews, pitchfork.com has become the premier internet resource for all things music, especially for acts that don't show up on the mainstream pop culture radar. That being said they have effectively crippled underground, alternative or whatever you want to call it.

They have done this not by HOW they review, but by WHAT. For example:

1) They review mostly stuff that is very polished or heavily buzzed. This shuts out a lot of acts with unproven yet redeeming qualities, especially when compared to the ink/ love something like Maximum Rock n Roll gives a lot of unknowns.

2) Because of what they review, they create the mentality that image and polish are more important than the music itself.

3) Some accuse the web site of promoting style or personality over substance-- giving props to acts based solely on charisma.

So-called indie, underground or whatever has become very poppy and very trendy in this post-Pitchfork age. I hate to sound like an ol' timer but "alternative" used to be about being different or weird. Now-- its about having a different brand or image.

Like the financial sector, the advent of Pitchfork becoming the premier taste-maker for the music industry has lead to another "boom and bust" industry. Acts and genres are sequentially built up and torn down. Music doesn't seem to evolve organically anymore with Pitchfork-reading hipsters across the lands glomming on to the latest trend (or in Buffalo, last year's trend (oh BTW, it's been over for a few years now-- GIVE IT UP STONER ROCKERS!!!)) only to see it blow up in their face.

The last serious rock movement was the garage revival earlier this decade, which, by the way, was based entirely on the rebooting of old ideas. Meanwhile, micro/minimal techno seems to have turned the page on electronic music, trendiness be damned. These two examples show ground swells in "pop" music still exist, however substantive, yet it remains to be seen if the snowballing of underground trends via Pitchfork hype will have an effect on music in the long run.