so in a way, record label heads, the people who decide which bands to sign, are both businessmen and THE ULTIMATE CRITICS — they’re the people who have to put their money with their mouths are, whose conviction in the resonance of their tastes powers their livelihood. ideally, label heads believe in the bands they sign more than any critic does, because their bands doing well means they can put food on their table and their business can survive (if a critic’s picks don’t sell well, it doesn’t really have any impact on the critic as long as the criticism behind those recommendations is worthwhile).
I like this observation, and mostly agree with it, and I assume the part in capitals isn’t meant to be taken utterly seriously - or if it is, the part at the end in parentheses rather neatly encapsulates why they can’t be so, although they can be critics of a milder sort. Recalling your previous, redacted quote about reviewers and publicists, it would be odd for you to sincerely argue for criticism based solely on positive outcomes, rather than (and this includes both label-heads and label-makers) the furthering of knowledge about music good and bad. Or at least music that you don’t have a commercial interest in (because I know I don’t find writing about music I don’t like to be particularly worthwhile) other than, perhaps, you being paid to write about it as part of an established - or unestablished - body of new music.
As for knowing labels, I used to do that more when I was solely and heavily into punk, except it was pretty much just the one - Epitaph. Then Dischord - mostly historical - and No Idea! - mostly Hot Water Music - followed as I broadened out. In fact, there were quite a few labels I would become partially familiar with because of one or two bands I really liked, but found that the rest of the catalogue was either not of the right style or standard, such as Lookout! (Green Day, Operation Ivy and American Steel). Or, oppositely, there’s the micro-label documenting a scene of some particularly effective subgenre. When it comes to ‘indie’ labels, I’m even less likely to follow more than a tiny slice of their catalogue, so I don’t bother. I haven’t heard anything from Woodsist other than Woods themselves that I would buy, and that includes Wavves. Most of my relation with labels now is the quality of their vinyl artwork and packaging, and whether or not they include free downloads (though most of the time I’ve already downloaded the album elsewhere… it’s still useful for a smaller band).
