"The death of the critic" has become a sorry meme to explain the impact of the Internet on arts writing, perhaps nowhere more devastating than in music journalism. The avalanche of neophyte music blogs begs the question "Who needs professionals?" Yet music writing continues to have an important presence in the culture, and thoughtful books about music continued to be published. So is music criticism dying or being reborn?

Ann Powers, 2008 Resident of the Lear Center's Popular Music Project, will lead this discussion about the perils and possibilities of music writing with the following professionals:

Oliver Wang (Souldsides.com, Cal State Long Beach)
Tim Page (USC Annenberg)
Natalie Nichols (City Beat, hipspinster.com)
Ayala Ben-Yehuda (Billboard)
Ernest Hardy (LA Weekly)
Chris Willman (Entertainment Weekly)
Lorraine Ali (Newsweek)
Randall Roberts (LA Weekly)
Eric Weisbard, organizer of the Experience Music Project "Pop Conference"

Wednesday, September 24, 2008