Robert Christgau

Christgau was born in Greenwich Village in Manhattan, New York City,{{cite book |last=Christgau|first=Robert|date=2015|title = Going into the City| page= 23| publisher=Dey Street| isbn=978-0-06-223880-1}} on April 18, 1942.{{Cite book| last= Greene|first=Jayson|url=http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-1002282362| title=Grove Music Online|date=May 28, 2015|publisher=Oxford University Press| volume= 1|language=en| chapter= Christgau, Robert| doi= 10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.a2282362|isbn=978-1-56159-263-0}} He grew up in Queens,{{cite news|last=Christgau|first=Robert|title=Consumer Guide (22) |url= http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/cg/cg22.php|access-date=November 18, 2013|newspaper=The Village Voice| date=December 30, 1971}} the son of a fireman.{{cite web | url= http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/web/bio.php | title=Robert Christgau Biography | work= robertchristgau.com | access-date=January 28, 2014 | author=Christgau, Robert}} He has said he became a rock and roll fan when disc jockey Alan Freed moved to the city in 1954.Christgau, Robert (2004), "A Counter in Search of a Culture". Any Old Way You Choose It, Cooper Square Press, p.2.

After attending public school in the city, Christgau attended Dartmouth College graduating in 1962 with a B.A. degree in English. At college, his musical interests turned to jazz, but he quickly returned to rock after moving back to New York.{{cite web | url= http://www.salon.com/2001/05/09/xgau/ | title=A conversation with Robert Christgau | first = Robert | last= Christgau |work=Salon.com | date= May 9, 2001 | access-date=October 22, 2013 | interviewer= Barbara O'Dair}} He has said that Miles Davis's 1960 album Sketches of Spain initiated "one phase of the disillusionment (in him) with jazz that resulted in my return to rock and roll."{{cite news |newspaper= The Village Voice |last= Christgau |first=Robert |date=May 21, 1970 |url= http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/rock/jazz-70.php |title=Jazz Annual |access-date=September 20, 2013 |quote=... Sketches of Spain, which in 1960 catapulted Davis into the favor of the kind of man who reads Playboy and initiated in me one phase of the disillusionment ...}} He was deeply influenced by New Journalism writers including Gay Talese and Tom Wolfe. "My ambitions when I went into journalism were always, to an extent, literary", Christgau said later.{{cite web| last= Eliscu|first=Jenny|date=October 26, 2016| url= https://www.vice.com/en/article/prolific-music-critic-robert-christgau-knows-what-he-likes-and-hates-v23n07/| title=Prolific Music Critic Robert Christgau Knows What He Likes (and Hates)|work=Vice |access-date=October 20, 2016}}

{{quote box|quoted=1|quote=I am interested in those places where popular culture and avant-garde culture intersect. As a critic, I want to achieve a new understanding of culture in both its aesthetic and political aspects; as a journalist, I want to suggest whatever I figure out to an audience in an entertaining and provocative way.|source=—Christgau (1977){{cite book|page=[https://archive.org/details/contemporaryauth65-68fran/page/118 118]|editor1-last=Locher|editor1-first=Frances C.|editor2-last=Evory|editor2-first=Ann|year=1977|title=Contemporary Authors|isbn=081030029X|publisher=Gale|url=https://archive.org/details/contemporaryauth65-68fran/page/118}}|width=25em|align=right|style=padding:8px;}}

Christgau wrote short stories, before giving up fiction in 1964 to become a sportswriter and later, a police reporter for the Newark Star-Ledger.Christgau, Robert (2004), "A Counter in Search of a Culture". Any Old Way You Choose It, Cooper Square Press, p.4. He became a freelance writer after a story he wrote about the death of a woman in New Jersey was published by New York magazine.{{Cite web|last=Christgau|first=Robert|date=July 8, 2008|title=Game Changer|url=https://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/najp/080711a-game.php|access-date=January 29, 2022|website=NAJP}} He was among the first dedicated rock critics.{{cite book|last=Gendron|first=Bernard|title=Between Montmartre and the Mudd Club: Popular Music and the Avant-Garde|year=2002|publisher=University of Chicago Press|location=Chicago, IL|isbn=978-0-226-28737-9|page=193}} He was asked to take over the dormant music column at Esquire, which he began writing in June 1967.{{sfn|Gendron|2002|p=193}} He also contributed to Cheetah magazine at the time. He then became a leading voice in the formation of a musical–political aesthetic combining New Left politics and the counterculture.{{cite book|last=Wiener|first=Jon|author-link=Jon Wiener|title=Come Together: John Lennon in His Time|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dj5uY-yAy4QC&q=Cheetah|year=1991|location=Urbana, IL|publisher=University of Illinois Press|isbn=978-0-252-06131-8|page=38}} After Esquire discontinued the column, Christgau moved to The Village Voice in 1969, and he also worked as a college professor.

From early on in his emergence as a critic, Christgau was conscious of his lack of formal knowledge of music. In a 1968 piece he commented:

I don't know anything about music, which ought to be a damaging admission but isn't... The fact is that pop writers in general shy away from such arcana as key signature and beats to the measure... I used to confide my worries about this to friends in the record industry, who reassured me. They didn't know anything about music either. The technical stuff didn't matter, I was told. You just gotta dig it.{{sfn|Gendron|2002|pp=346–47}}

In early 1972, Christgau accepted a full-time job as music critic for Newsday. He returned to The Village Voice in 1974 as music editor. In a 1976 piece for the newspaper, he coined the term "Rock Critic Establishment" to describe the growth in influence of American music critics. His article carried the parenthesized subtitle "But Is That Bad for Rock?"{{sfn|Gendron|2002|pp=223–24}} He listed Dave Marsh, John Rockwell, Paul Nelson, Jon Landau and himself as members of this "establishment".{{cite magazine|first=Dave|last=Marsh|title=The Critics' Critic|magazine=Rolling Stone|date=December 16, 1976}} Available at [https://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/the-critics-critic Rock's Backpages] (subscription required). Christgau remained at The Village Voice until August 2006, when he was fired shortly after the paper's acquisition by New Times Media.Rosen, Judy (September 5, 2006), "[http://www.slate.com/id/2148997/ X-ed Out: The Village Voice fires a famous music critic]". Slate.com. Retrieved August 15, 2009. Two months later, Christgau became a contributing editor at Rolling Stone (which first published his review of Moby Grape's Wow in 1968).{{Citation|title=Correspondence, Love Letters & Advice |author=Bob Christgau |publisher=Rolling Stone |date=June 22, 1968 }} Late in 2007, Christgau was fired by Rolling Stone,Christgau, Robert (March 27, 2009), "[http://www.najp.org/articles/2009/03/under-the-axe.html Poptastic bye-bye] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110407231253/http://www.najp.org/articles/2009/03/under-the-axe.html |date=April 7, 2011 }}". ARTicles. Retrieved March 4, 2010 although he continued to work for the magazine for another three months. Beginning with the March 2008 issue, he joined Blender, where he was listed as "senior critic" for three issues and then "contributing editor".Blender, June 2008, p. 16 Christgau had been a regular contributor to Blender before he joined Rolling Stone. He continued to write for Blender until the magazine ceased publication in March 2009. In 1987, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in the field of "folklore and popular culture" to study the history of popular music.{{cite web | url=http://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/robert-christgau/ | title=Robert Christgau | work=Guggenheim Foundation | access-date=November 8, 2016}}{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/education/2007/jan/16/highereducationprofile.highereducation |title=Robert Christgau: School of rock |last=Cohen |first=David |date=January 16, 2007 |newspaper=The Guardian}}

Christgau has also written frequently for Playboy, Spin, and Creem. He appears in the 2011 rockumentary Color Me Obsessed, about the Replacements.{{cite web | url=https://www.popmatters.com/review/165719-color-me-obsessed-a-film-about-the-replacements/ | title='Color Me Obsessed: A Film About the Replacements' Paints 'Minor Band' with Major Strokes | work=PopMatters | date=December 2, 2012 | access-date=January 29, 2014 | author=Beaudoin, Jedd}} He previously taught during the formative years of the California Institute of the Arts. As of 2007, he was an adjunct professor in the Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music at New York University.{{cite web | url=https://www.theguardian.com/education/2007/jan/16/highereducationprofile.highereducation | title=Robert Christgau: School of rock | work=The Guardian | date=January 16, 2007 | access-date=March 27, 2016 | author=Cohen, David}}

In August 2013, Christgau revealed in an article written for Barnes & Noble's website that he was writing a memoir.{{cite web | url=http://bnreview.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Rock-Roll/Tell-All/ba-p/11151 | title=Tell All | work=Barnes & Noble | date=August 27, 2013 | access-date=January 26, 2014 | author=Christgau, Robert}} On July 15, 2014, Christgau debuted a monthly column on Billboard{{'}}s website.{{cite web | url=https://www.slantmagazine.com/house/2014/16/links-for-the-day-nathan-rabin-is-sorry-for-the-manic-pixie-dream-girl-robert-christgau-premieres-billboard-column-hillary-clinton-on-the-daily-show-more | title=Links for the Day: Nathan Rabin Is Sorry for the Manic Pixie Dream Girl, Robert Christgau Premieres Billboard Column, Hillary Clinton on The Daily Show, & More | work=Slant Magazine | date=July 16, 2014 | access-date=August 27, 2014 | author=Gonzalez, Ed}}

{{Anchor|Consumer Guide|Expert Witness}}

{{See also|Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies|Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s|Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s}}

Christgau is perhaps best known for his "Consumer Guide" columns, which have been published more-or-less monthly since July 10, 1969, in the Village Voice, as well as a brief period in Creem.{{cite book|last=Applegate|first=Edd|page=[https://archive.org/details/literaryjournali00appl/page/49 49]|title=Literary Journalism: A Biographical Dictionary of Writers and Editors|year=1996|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=0313299498|url=https://archive.org/details/literaryjournali00appl/page/49}} In its original format, each edition of the "Consumer Guide" consisted of approximately 20 single-paragraph album reviews, each given a letter grade ranging from A+ to E−.{{cite magazine|last=Cohen|first=David|date=September 30, 2006|url=https://www.noted.co.nz/archive/listener-nz-2006/the-grad-school-of-rock/|title=The grad school of rock|magazine=New Zealand Listener|access-date=July 13, 2019|archive-date=July 13, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190713160414/https://www.noted.co.nz/archive/listener-nz-2006/the-grad-school-of-rock/|url-status=dead}} The reviews were later collected, expanded, and extensively revised in a three-volume book series, the first of which was published in 1981 as Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies; it was followed by Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s (1990) and Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s (2000).{{cite magazine|last=Wolk|first=Douglas|author-link=Douglas Wolk|date=July 9, 2010|url=https://www.vulture.com/2010/07/musics_time_capsules_41_years.html|title=Music's Time Capsules: 41 Years of Christgau's 'Consumer Guide'|magazine=Vulture|access-date=April 15, 2017}}

In his original grading system from 1969 to 1990, albums were given a grade ranging from A+ to E−. Under this system, Christgau generally considered a B+ or higher to be a personal recommendation.{{cite web|url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/bk-cg70/criteria.php|title=CG 70s: The Criteria|publisher=RobertChristgau.com}} He noted that in practice, grades below a C− were rare.{{cite web|url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/bk-cg90/intro.php|title=CG 90s: Introduction|publisher=RobertChristgau.com}} In 1990, Christgau changed the format of the "Consumer Guide" to focus more on the albums he liked. B+ records that Christgau deemed "unworthy of a full review" were mostly given brief comments and star marks ranging from three down to one, denoting an honorable mention",{{cite web|last=Christgau|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Christgau|date=January 1, 2019|url=http://robertchristgau.com/xgausez.php|title=Xgau Sez|website=robertchristgau.com|access-date=January 1, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181230113326/http://www.robertchristgau.com/xgausez.php|url-status=live|archive-date=December 30, 2018}} records which Christgau believed may be of interest to their own target audience. Lesser albums were filed under categories such as "Neither" (which may impress at first with "coherent craft or an arresting track or two", before failing to make an impression again){{cite web|url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/bk-cg90/grades-90s.php|title=Key to Icons|publisher=RobertChristgau.com}} and "Duds" (which indicated bad records and were listed without further comment). Christgau did give full reviews and traditional grades to records he pans in an annual November "Turkey Shoot" column in The Village Voice, until he left the newspaper in 2006.

In 2001, robertchristgau.com–an online archive of Christgau's "Consumer Guide" reviews and other writings from his career – was set up as a co-operative project between Christgau and longtime friend Tom Hull; the two had met in 1975 shortly after Hull queried Christgau as The Village Voice{{'}}s regional editor for St. Louis. The website was created after the September 11, 2001, attacks when Hull was stuck in New York while visiting from his native Wichita. While Christgau spent many nights preparing past Village Voice writings for the website, by 2002 much of the older "Consumer Guide" columns had been inputted by Hull and a small coterie of fans. According to Christgau, Hull is "a computer genius as well as an excellent and very knowledgeable music critic, but he'd never done much web site work. The design of the web site, especially its high searchability and small interest in graphics, are his idea of what a useful music site should be".

File:Pop Conference 2010 - Music in the '00s panel 03 (cropped).jpg in Seattle.]]

In December 2006, Christgau began writing his "Consumer Guide" columns for MSN Music, initially appearing every other month, before switching to a monthly schedule in June 2007. On July 1, 2010, he announced in the introduction to his "Consumer Guide" column that the July 2010 installment would be the last on MSN.{{cite web |url=http://music.msn.com/music/consumerguide/ |title=Inside Music |publisher=MSN |last=Christgau |first=Robert |access-date=July 1, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110302201445/http://music.msn.com/music/consumerguide/ |archive-date=March 2, 2011 |url-status=dead }} On November 22, he launched a blog on MSN, called "Expert Witness", which featured reviews only of albums that he had graded B+ or higher, since those albums "are the gut and backbone of my musical pleasure"; the writing of reviews for which are "so rewarding psychologically that I'm happy to do it at blogger's rates".{{cite web |url=http://social.entertainment.msn.com/music/blogs/expert-witness-blogpost.aspx?post=258264de-2519-4d38-a469-ca4742b3bf29&_blg=3 |title=This Blog—The Whats, Whys, and Wherefores |last=Christgau |first=Robert |date=November 22, 2010 |work=Expert Witness |publisher=MSN |access-date=January 15, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110714124931/http://social.entertainment.msn.com/music/blogs/expert-witness-blogpost.aspx?post=258264de-2519-4d38-a469-ca4742b3bf29&_blg=3 |archive-date=July 14, 2011 }} He began corresponding with dedicated readers of the column, named as "The Witnesses" after the column. On September 20, 2013, Christgau announced in the comments section that "Expert Witness" would cease to be published by October 1, 2013, writing, "As I understand it, Microsoft is shutting down the entire MSN freelance arts operation at that time ..."{{cite web |url=http://social.entertainment.msn.com/music/blogs/post--odds-and-ends-036 |title=Odds and Ends 036 |publisher=MSN Music |date=September 20, 2013 |access-date=September 22, 2013 |author=Christgau, Robert |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130929004844/http://social.entertainment.msn.com/music/blogs/post--odds-and-ends-036 |archive-date=September 29, 2013 }}

On September 10, 2014, Christgau debuted a new version of "Expert Witness" on Cuepoint, an online music magazine published on the blogging platform Medium.{{cite web | url=https://medium.com/cuepoint/robert-christgau-expert-witness-299c3329fb6f | title=Expert Witness: The Story Till Now | work=Cuepoint | date=September 10, 2014 | access-date=October 11, 2014 | author=Christgau, Robert | archive-date=October 17, 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141017181302/https://medium.com/cuepoint/robert-christgau-expert-witness-299c3329fb6f | url-status=dead }} In August 2015, he was hired by Vice to write the column for the magazine's music section, Noisey.{{cite web | url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/expert-witness-with-robert-christgau-1/ | title=Welcome to Expert Witness | work=Vice | date=August 13, 2015 | access-date=August 14, 2015 | author=Christgau, Robert}} In July 2019, the final edition of "Expert Witness" was published.{{cite web|last=Christgau|first=Robert|date=July 9, 2019|url=https://www.robertchristgau.com/xgausez.php?d=2019-07-09|title=Xgau Sez|access-date=September 29, 2019|website=robertchristgau.com}}

In September 2019, at the encouragement of friend and colleague Joe Levy, Christgau began publishing the newsletter "And It Don't Stop" on the newsletter-subscription platform Substack. Charging subscribers $5 per month, it has his monthly "Consumer Guide" column, podcasts, and free weekly content like book reviews. He was skeptical of the platform at first: "Basically I told Joe that if I didn't have enough subscribers to pay what I made at Noisey by Christmas I was going to quit. I wasn't going to do it for less than that money. I had that many subscribers inside of three days." By May 2020, "And It Don't Stop" had more than 1,000 subscribers. Christgau was ambivalent about the platform at first, but has since found it "immensely gratifying" explaining that, "A man my age, who is still really intellectually active? It is tremendously flattering and gratifying that there are people who are ready to help support me."{{cite web|last=Barmann|first=Jay|date=May 28, 2020|url=https://influence.co/nofilter/make-money-patreon-substack-onlyfans-twitch|title=How Creators Make Money on Subscription Platforms and Services|website=influence.co|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200617063720/https://influence.co/nofilter/make-money-patreon-substack-onlyfans-twitch|archive-date=June 17, 2020|access-date=July 13, 2020}}

{{Main|Pazz & Jop}}

Between 1968 and 1970, Christgau submitted ballots in Jazz & Pop magazine's annual critics' poll. He selected Bob Dylan's John Wesley Harding (released late in 1967), The Who's Tommy (1969), and Randy Newman's 12 Songs (1970) as the best pop albums of their respective years, and Miles Davis's Bitches Brew (1970) as the best jazz album of its year.{{cite news |url=https://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/jpballot-68.php |title=Robert Christgau's 1968 Jazz & Pop Ballot |access-date=January 23, 2019 |author=Christgau, Robert}}{{cite news |url=https://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/jpballot-69.php |title=Robert Christgau's 1969 Jazz & Pop Ballot |access-date=January 23, 2019 |author=Christgau, Robert}}{{cite news |url=https://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/jpballot-70.php |title=Robert Christgau's 1970 Jazz & Pop Ballot |access-date=January 23, 2019 |author=Christgau, Robert}} Jazz & Pop discontinued publication in 1971.{{cite web |url=http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Publication/jazz-pop |title=Jazz & Pop |publisher=Rock's Backpages |access-date=January 23, 2019}}

In 1971, Christgau inaugurated the annual Pazz & Jop music poll, named in tribute to Jazz & Pop. The poll surveyed music critics on their favorite releases of the year. The poll results were published in the Village Voice every February after compiling "top ten" lists submitted by music critics across the nation. Throughout his career at the Voice, every poll was accompanied by a lengthy Christgau essay analyzing the results and pondering the year's overall musical output. The Voice continued the feature after Christgau's dismissal. Although he no longer oversaw the poll, Christgau continued to vote and, since the 2015 poll, also contributed essays to the results.{{Cite web|url=https://www.villagevoice.com/2016/01/12/pazz-jop-2015-robert-christgau-joe-levy-ann-powers-and-greg-tate-on-the-year-that-was/|title=Pazz & Jop 2015, Robert Christgau, Joe Levy, Ann Powers and Greg Tate on the Year that Was|last=Christgau|first=Robert|date=January 12, 2016|website=Villagevoice.com}}{{cite news |url=http://www.villagevoice.com/pazznjop/critics/2010/684394/ |title=Music | Latest News |newspaper=Village Voice |date=July 6, 2017 |access-date=July 13, 2017 |archive-date=March 8, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160308111613/http://www.villagevoice.com/pazznjop/critics/2010/684394 |url-status=dead }}

Each year that Pazz & Jop has run, Christgau has created a personal list of his favorite releases called the "Dean's List". Only his top ten count toward his vote in the poll, but his full lists of favorites usually numbered far more than that. These lists–or at least Christgau's top tens–were typically published in The Village Voice along with the Pazz & Jop results. After Christgau was dismissed from the Voice, he continued publishing his annual lists on his own website and at The Barnes & Noble Review.

While Pazz & Jop's aggregate critics' poll are its main draw, Christgau's Deans' Lists are noteworthy in their own right. Henry Hauser from Consequence of Sound said Christgau's "annual 'Pazz & Jop' poll has been a bona fide American institution. For music writers, his year-end essays and extensive 'Dean's List' are like watching the big ball drop in Times Square."{{cite web |last=Hauser |first=Henry |url=https://consequence.net/2015/04/going-into-the-city-portrait-of-the-critic-as-a-young-man-by-robert-christgau/ |title=Going into the City: Portrait of the Critic as a Young Man by Robert Christgau |work=Consequence of Sound |date=April 18, 2015 |access-date=January 7, 2019}}

These are Christgau's choices for the number-one album of the year, including the point score he assigned for the poll. Pazz & Jop's rules provided that each item in a top ten could be allotted between 5 and 30 points, with all ten items totaling 100, allowing critics to weight certain albums more heavily if they chose to do so. In some years, he often gave an equal number of points to his first- and second-ranked albums, but they were nevertheless ranked as first and second, not as a tie for first. The list shows only his number-one picks.

{{quote box|quoted=1|quote=No one in this time and place has the time to sit and listen uninterrupted for sixty minutes to anybody's music. I think Robert Christgau is the last record reviewer on earth who listens to eight records a day twice before giving his opinion on it ... Christgau is the last true-blue record critic on earth. He gave us an A-plus. That's pretty much who I make my records for. He's like the last of that whole Lester Bangs generation of record reviewers, and I still heed his words. He gets my vision, and I'm cool with that. But half these people, they read Pitchfork, and they base half their opinion and quotes on that.|source=—Questlove, 2008{{cite web|last=Roberts|first=Michael|date=May 28, 2008|url=http://www.westword.com/music/qanda-with-ahmir-uestlove-thompson-of-the-roots-5688923|title=Q&A with Ahmir ?uestlove Thompson of the Roots|work=Westword|access-date=November 2, 2015}}||width=25em|align=right|style=padding:8px;}}

"Christgau's blurbs", writes Slate music critic Jody Rosen, "are like no one else's–dense with ideas and allusions, first-person confessions and invective, highbrow references and slang". Rosen describes Christgau's writing as being "often maddening, always thought-provoking. ... With Pauline Kael, Christgau is arguably one of the two most important American mass-culture critics of the second half of the 20th century. ... All rock critics working today, at least the ones who want to do more than rewrite PR copy, are in some sense Christgauians." Spin magazine said in 2015, "You probably wouldn't be reading this publication if Robert Christgau didn't largely invent rock criticism as we know it."{{cite web|url=http://www.spin.com/2015/02/robert-christgau-memoir-excerpt-going-into-the-city/|title=Read an Excerpt From Robert Christgau's Memoir Going Into the City|work=Spin|date=February 23, 2015|access-date=July 30, 2015}}

Douglas Wolk said the earliest "Consumer Guide" columns were generally brief and detailed, but "within a few years ... he developed his particular gift for 'power, wit and economy', a phrase he used to describe the Ramones in a dead-on 37-word review of Leave Home". In his opinion, the "Consumer Guide" reviews were "an enormous pleasure to read slowly, as writing, even if you have no particular interest in pop music... if you do happen to have more than a little interest in pop music, they're a treasure." While regarding the early columns as "a model of cogent, witty criticism", Dave Marsh in 1976 said "the tone of the writing is now snotty–it lacks compassion, not to mention empathy, with current rock."

Fans of Christgau's "Consumer Guide" like to share lines from their favorite reviews. Wolk wrote, "Sting wears his sexual resentment on his chord changes like a closet 'American Woman' fan" (from Christgau's review of the 1983 Police album Synchronicity). "Calling Neil Tennant a bored wimp is like accusing Jackson Pollock of making a mess" (reviewing the 1987 Pet Shop Boys album Actually); and "Mick Jagger should fold up his penis and go home" (in a review of Prince's 1980 album Dirty Mind).

In 1978, Lou Reed recorded a tirade against Christgau and his column on the 1978 live album, Take No Prisoners: "What does Robert Christgau do in bed? I mean, is he a toe fucker? [...] Can you imagine working for a fucking year, and you get a B+ from some asshole in The Village Voice?"{{Cite web |last=Schonfeld |first=Zach |date=October 28, 2013 |title=There Were Many Lou Reeds to Remember |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2013/10/lou-reed-remembrances/354506/ |access-date=October 4, 2024 |website=The Atlantic}}{{cite web |url=http://ww21.tiki.ne.jp/~wildside/mails/Jared_Wolfsen.htm |title=Walk On The Wild Side |date=May 4, 2002 |last=Wolfsen |first=Jared |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020720191145/http://ww21.tiki.ne.jp/~wildside/mails/Jared_Wolfsen.htm | archive-date=July 20, 2002}} - fan transcription of the Take No Prisoners album

Christgau rated the album C+ and wrote in his review, "I thank Lou for pronouncing my name right."{{cite web |url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=Lou+Reed |title=Lou Reed |last=Christgau |first= Robert |publisher=RobertChristgau.com}} In December 1980, Christgau provoked angry responses from Voice readers when his column approvingly quoted his wife Carola Dibbell's reaction to the murder of John Lennon: "Why is it always Bobby Kennedy or John Lennon? Why isn't it Richard Nixon or Paul McCartney?"{{cite web |url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/music/lennon-80.php|title=John Lennon, 1940–1980|access-date=March 15, 2008|last=Christgau|first=Robert|date=December 22, 1980|work=Robert Christgau: Dean of American Rock Critics}} Similar criticism came from Sonic Youth in their song "Kill Yr Idols". Christgau responded by saying "Idolization is for rock stars, even rock stars manqué like these impotent bohos—critics just want a little respect. So if it's not too hypersensitive of me, I wasn't flattered to hear my name pronounced right, not on this particular title track."{{cite web |url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=sonic+youth |title=Sonic Youth |last=Christgau |first=Robert |publisher=RobertChristgau.com}}

Christgau has named Louis Armstrong, Thelonious Monk, Chuck Berry, the Beatles, and the New York Dolls as being his top five artists of all time.{{cite web |url=http://www.salon.com/2001/05/09/xgau/ |title=A conversation with Robert Christgau |last=O'Dair |first=Barbara |date=May 9, 2001 |work=Salon |access-date=April 13, 2008 |quote=... there are things I don't like or get. Metal – I don't think metal's as bad as I hear it as being.}} In a 1998 obituary, he called Frank Sinatra "the greatest singer of the 20th century".{{cite journal|last=Christgau|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Christgau|year=1998 |url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/music/sinatra-det.php|title=Frank Sinatra 1915–1998|journal=Details|access-date=November 8, 2015}} He considers Billie Holiday "probably {{interp|his|orig=my}} favorite singer".{{cite web|url=https://robertchristgau.com/xgausez.php|title=Xgau Sez|publisher=robertchristgau.com|access-date=October 21, 2018}} In his 2000 Consumer Guide book, Christgau said his favorite rock album was either The Clash (1977) or New York Dolls (1973), while his favorite record in general was Monk's 1958 Misterioso.{{cite book|last=Christgau|first=Robert|year=2000|page=[https://archive.org/details/christgausconsum00chri_0/page/352 352]|chapter=How to Use These Appendices|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xVQbszFuEGMC&pg=PA352|title=Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s|publisher=Macmillan Publishers|isbn=0-312-24560-2|access-date=November 15, 2015|url=https://archive.org/details/christgausconsum00chri_0|url-access=registration}} In July 2013, during an interview with Esquire magazine's Peter Gerstenzang, Christgau criticized the voters at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, saying that "they're pretty stupid" for not voting in the New York Dolls.{{cite magazine|last=Gerstenzang|first=Peter|title=Why Aren't the New York Dolls in the Rock Hall of Fame?|date=July 24, 2013|magazine=Esquire|url=http://www.esquire.com/blogs/culture/the-new-york-dolls-rock-hall-of-fame|access-date=July 20, 2014}} When asked about Beatles albums, he said he most often listens to The Beatles' Second Album, which he purchased in 1965, and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.{{cite web|last=Christgau |first=Robert|author-link=Robert Christgau|date=September 18, 2018|url=https://robertchristgau.com/xgausez.php|title=Xgau Sez|website=robertchristgau.com |access-date=September 18, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180927211259/http://www.robertchristgau.com/xgausez.php|archive-date=September 27, 2018|url-status=live}}

Wolk wrote: "When he says he's 'encyclopedic' about popular music, he means it. There are not a lot of white guys in their 60s waving the flag for Lil Wayne's Da Drought 3, especially not in the same column as they wave the flag for a Willie Nelson/Merle Haggard/Ray Price trio album, an anthology of new Chinese pop, Vampire Weekend, and Wussy..." Christgau reflected in 2004: "Rock criticism was certainly more fun in the old days, no matter how cool the tyros opining for chump change in netzines like PopMatters and Pitchfork think it is now."{{cite web|first=Barney|last=Hoskyns |title=Music Journalism at 50|website=Rock's Backpages|date=April 2013|url=https://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/music-journalism-at-50|access-date=June 29, 2019}}

In a broad sense, Christgau says he responds to qualities of "tone, spirit, [and] music", disregarding, for instance, scholarly analysis of artists such as Bob Dylan.[https://www.robertchristgau.com/get_album.php?id=6244 Bob Dylan: Love and Theft]. Robertchristgau.com. Retrieved August 11, 2023. He readily admits to having prejudices and generally dislikes genres such as heavy metal, salsa, dance, art rock, progressive rock, bluegrass, gospel, Irish folk, jazz fusion, and classical music.{{cite web |url=http://rockcriticsarchives.com/interviews/robertchristgau/01.html |title=Online exchange with Robert Christgau |last=Rubio |first=Steven |date=July 2002 |work=Rockcritics Archives |publisher=rockcritics.com |pages=1–5 |access-date=September 4, 2007 |archive-date=December 30, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181230150809/http://rockcriticsarchives.com/interviews/robertchristgau/01.html |url-status=dead}} "I admire metal's integrity, brutality, and obsessiveness", Christgau wrote in 1986, "but I can't stand its delusions of grandeur, the way it apes and misapprehends reactionary notions of nobility".{{cite news|last=Christgau|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Christgau|date=December 30, 1986|url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/cg/cgv12b-86.php|title=Consumer Guide|newspaper=The Village Voice|location=New York|access-date=May 7, 2016}} In a 2015 interview, he described heavy metal as "symphonic bombast without the intelligence and complexity, although there's a lot of virtuosity. ... That music is so masculine in a really retrograde way; I don't like that at all. It seems to me to have a very 19th-century notion of power."{{Cite web |last=Rath |first=Arun |date=March 1, 2015 |title=Robert Christgau Reviews His Own Life |url=https://www.npr.org/2015/03/01/388695420/robert-christgau-reviews-his-own-life |access-date=February 10, 2024 |publisher=NPR}} He said in 2018 that he rarely writes about jazz as it is "hard" to write about in an "impressionistic way", that he is "not at all well-schooled in the jazz albums of the '50s and '60s", and that he has neither the "language nor the frame of reference to write readily about them". This was even while critiquing jazz artists like Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, and Sonny Rollins; he said "finding the words involves either considerable effort or a stroke of luck". Christgau has also admitted to disliking the records of Jeff Buckley and Nina Simone, noting that the latter's classical background, "default gravity and depressive tendencies are qualities I'm seldom attracted to in any kind of art." Writing in a two-part feature on music critics for Rolling Stone in 1976, Dave Marsh bemoaned Christgau as a "classic, sad example" of how "many critics ... superimpos[ed] their own, frequently arbitrary, standards upon performers." Marsh accused him of becoming "arrogant and humorless–the raves are reserved for jazz artists, while even the best rock is treated condescendingly unless it conforms to Christgau's passion for leftist politics (particularly feminism) and bohemian culture." Marsh named another prejudice of Christgau's to be "apolitical or middle-class performers" of rock music.

Christgau has been widely known as the "dean of American rock critics",{{cite news|last=Simon|first=Clea|newspaper=The Boston Globe|quote=Hailed by many as the dean of American rock criticism...|date=December 21, 1998|page=62|title=Grown Up All Wrong: 75 Great Rock and Pop Artists from Vaudeville to Techno|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/441626899/|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=January 24, 2019}} a designation he originally gave to himself while slightly drunk at a press event for the 5th Dimension in the early 1970s. According to Rosen, "Christgau was in his late 20s at the time – not exactly an éminence grise–so maybe it was the booze talking, or maybe he was just a very arrogant young man. In any case, as the years passed, the quip became a fact." When asked about it years later, Christgau said that the title "seemed to push people's buttons, so I stuck with it. There's obviously no official hierarchy within rock criticism–only real academies can do that. But if you mean to ask whether I think some rock critics are better than others, you're damn straight I do. Don't you?" "For a long time he's been called the 'dean of American rock critics'", wrote New York Times literary critic Dwight Garner in 2015. "It's a line that started out as an offhanded joke. These days, few dispute it."{{cite news|last=Garner|first=Dwight|author-link=Dwight Garner|date=February 24, 2015|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/25/books/review-robert-christgau-reflects-on-his-career-as-a-rock-critic.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190125020511/https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/25/books/review-robert-christgau-reflects-on-his-career-as-a-rock-critic.html |archive-date=January 25, 2019 |url-status=unfit |title=Review: Robert Christgau Reflects on His Career as a Rock Critic |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=June 20, 2022}}

Christgau married fellow critic and writer Carola Dibbell in 1974 and they have an adopted daughter, Nina, born in Honduras in 1986.{{cite magazine | url=https://time.com/3719392/robert-christgau/ | title=How To Survive 13,000 Album Reviews | magazine=Time | date=February 24, 2015 | access-date=October 27, 2015 | author=Dickey, Jack}} He said that he grew up in a "born-again church" in Queens but has since become an atheist.{{cite news|last=Christgau|first=Robert|date=August 27, 1991|url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/rock/gospel-91.php|title=With God on Their Side|newspaper=The Village Voice|access-date=April 6, 2017}}

Christgau has been long-standing, albeit argumentative, friends with critics Tom Hull, Dave Marsh, Greil Marcus and the late Ellen Willis whom he dated from 1966 to 1969. He has mentored younger critics Ann Powers and Chuck Eddy.

• Any Old Way You Choose It: Rock and Other Pop Music, 1967–1973, Penguin Books, 1973
• Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies, Ticknor & Fields, 1981
• Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s, Pantheon Books, 1990
• Grown Up All Wrong: 75 Great Rock and Pop Artists from Vaudeville to Techno, Harvard University Press, 1998
• Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s, St. Martin's Griffin, 2000
• Going into the City: Portrait of a Critic as a Young Man, Dey Street Books, 2015
• Is It Still Good to Ya? Fifty Years of Rock Criticism 1967–2017, Duke University Press, 2018
• Book Reports: A Music Critic on His First Love, Which Was Reading, Duke University Press, 2019

• Album era

{{reflist|group=nb|1}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

• {{cite news|last=Anderson|first=Rick|date=June 14, 2001|url=https://www.newsreview.com/reno/christgaus-consumer-guide-albums-of/content?oid=37932|title=Reno News & Review - Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s - In the Mix - Book - Arts&Culture|magazine=Reno News & Review|access-date=February 11, 2020}}
• {{cite web|last=Klein|first=Joshua|date=March 29, 2002|url=https://www.avclub.com/robert-christgau-christgaus-consumer-guide-albums-of-1798193851|title=Robert Christgau: Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums Of The '90s|website=The A.V. Club|access-date=February 11, 2020}}
• {{cite magazine|last=Manzler|first=Scott|date=October 31, 2000|url=https://www.nodepression.com/christgaus-consumer-guide-to-albums-of-the-90s/|title=Christgau's Consumer Guide To Albums Of The '90s|magazine=No Depression|access-date=February 11, 2020}}
• {{cite news|last=Pick|first=Steve|date=December 13, 2000|url=https://www.riverfronttimes.com/stlouis/the-pleasure-principle/Content?oid=2473114|title=The Pleasure Principle|newspaper=Riverfront Times|access-date=February 11, 2020}}

• {{cite web|last=Buyanovsky|first=Dan|date=February 24, 2015|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/robert-christgau-interview-2015/|title='I'm a Good Writer' - Robert Christgau on the Life and Legacy of Robert Christgau|work=Noisey|access-date=April 3, 2017}}
• {{cite book|last=Powers|first=Devon|authorlink=Devon Powers|year=2013|title=Writing the Record: The Village Voice and the Birth of Rock Criticism|location=Amherst|publisher=University of Massachusetts Press|isbn=978-1-62534-012-2|url=https://archive.org/details/writingrecordvil0000powe|url-access=registration|via=the Internet Archive {{registration required}}}}

{{commons}}

• {{Official website}}
• [https://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/rock/critics-76.php Yes, There Is a Rock-Critic Establishment (But Is That Bad for Rock?)]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20071106075156/http://music.msn.com/music/article.aspx?news=243434 Users' Guide to the Consumer Guide] at MSN Music
• {{Substack pub|robertchristgau|And It Don't Stop}}

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