I rarely talk about my workaday life before I settled into music and writing. Those days are far too strange and confusing to convey without writing a whole book about them. And I’ll never write that book because a lot of it I’d rather forget.
Thanks. It seems to me that one thing an honest broker does is be forthright about how he sees his role, so this essay is another manifestation of honest-broker-ism. Well done. And what a fascinating and mysterious backstory.
Your observations about pleasure and the Clement Greenberg trap seems to me to summarize the problem of modernism, which values novelty above all else. There's little that's inherently valuable about novelty. I guess it's pleasing to be surprised, but that's a pretty evanescent condition, especially compared to beauty, truth, or transcendence.
I found Florence Rubenfeld's book Clement Greenberg very revealing in describing how much money he made by touting the newest new thing—especially because he often owned works of art of the artists he helped in their rise to fame. That's a subject deserving of an essay in its own right. The role of financial incentives in arts criticism is, I suspect, much larger than most people realize.
I think novelty in itself isn’t negative, it can be valuable for sparking new ideas and inspiration, for understanding where culture can be moving, for pushing some things forward inch by inch, for challenging currently accepted thought models and tastes.
A critic pushing novelty without being an “honest broker” is the problem, not novelty itself. A critic hoping to gain something whether egotistically or financially is the problem.
Hi Ted, I found the link to this on Hacker News. I liked that your epiphany came in China, because the Chinese developed an entire philosophy, and later a religion, very much like what you've described, called Daoism. The philosophy developed before 200 BC during the "warring states" period before the first unification of China, a time of chaotic, every man for himself progress.
"Honest Brokers play a hidden but vital role in communities without a history of legal protections and stable institutions."
That's probably the best description of the Daoist sage I've ever read.
In appreciation of Ted's approach and this description of it I'll put a few lines from the Tao Te Ching that reflects it in a way that hopefully could be useful to you:
Wow, what a story. Honestly, I suspected you to have this kind of sort of double personality or life on two different realities. Why? Because your passion and writing about Music seem to good for just an Academic or researcher who lived His all life behind a desk or typwriter. You have to experience a lot to give a lot in your writing. Feed yourself before feeding others. Wow, thank You for sharing as I might have similar story to share but didn’t have The courage to do it. Bravo and know you on my list to meet and talk.
Mr.Gioia, this post inspires me tremendously. You have articulated exactly the kind of person I want to be in my field (teaching singing). I just need to be patient!
I believe it was Jason Kottke who brought me to your substack a little while back, and I'm so glad he brought me here. I absolutely loved your article, especially because of the vulnerability of disclosing something very personal to what brought you to this point of your life and career.
I agree with two main ideas from Jake Imber's comments below. The first is that by telling your story, you further strengthen your point of honest-broken-ism by demonstrating it in your writing.
The second important point from Jake I also agree with is the problem with modernism that values novelty. It is in this point that combines both your honest-brokerism & criticism that I wanted to expand on.
We are so full of content in every single direction through different channels and different mediums (social media makes us the product), we rely so much on algorithmic output and ranking that just refines a version of what makes it simple to occupy a closed loop of just good enough to keep us tuned in. If we can spend enough of our limited time or consciousness reconsidering what it is that we enjoy, and also bring enough context to what lead to something truly great, we gain a deeper meaning and pleasure through that greater understanding.
Criticism is content about content, and when done well, it contextualizes what we love most about something truly great, and points to original sources that we can dig deeper to gain a more thorough understanding. But (I get this is getting a bit meta) criticism is especially vulnerable to the 'don't bite the hand that feeds me' bias, and really your broader point about what makes you successful is sort of embedded in the difficulty/challenge of obtaining commercial success and making good art.
Well said. I have a minor disagreement with Ted's hierarchy--food critics own the bottom rung.
Done well, the thoughtful and informed voice of the co-conspirator, trusted advisor or obsessive is very valuable. No one ever leapt out of bed to read a review when an album is released, and the more grounded critics never lose sight of that. Despite an addled industry, there are more sharp writers today than ever before--driven by an expanding ecosystem of ever-more enriching, wildly variegated music practice, profits be damned.
I would consider what passes as journalists are the lowest rung. Most don't even google research what they write about and just take whatever propaganda is doled out from the powerful and the intelligence agencies. There are very few honest brokers in news media.
I enjoyed reading about your outer and inner honest broker. To be honest it is too bad you can't talk about your earlier exploits! At 74 I recall playing the clarinet in grade school and growing up on straight ahead jazz, classical, rock 'n roll, soul music, The Beatles and Stones and other British bands, some jazz fusion, more classic jazz from the 50's and 60's, house music, pre-Castro classic big band Cuban. I was seeking authentic African music and found it via zouk and beguine from Guadeloupe & Martinique in the early 90's. You sound like you have open ears. Miles Davis was listening to Kassav' just before he died. I cannot recommend the music from Angola and Cape Verde highly enough. If you are interested I can recommend some artists or even send you some files to whet your whistle. You have my email.
Yes please! Thanks for responding. I have enjoyed the Mario Rui Silva reissue recently (Angolan). Would you type your recommendations here for everyone to see ? Otherwise I could provide a throw-away email for public display.
Amazing story. Not sure if this is the best place to post this, but I am truly grateful to you for A Subversive History of Music. It satisfies a hunger I didn't know I had and leaves me wondering, why weren't we taught this, and what difference could it have made.
Cool piece! I write about books and culture and this crossed my transom exactly on a day when I was bummed out by all the people (like me) secretly wanting to publish their novel, obsesssed with "building audience," etc, and I was wondering, why exactly was I doing this? You reminded me why - to share the joy, the pleasure, the connection, the humanity that we find through the arts. It's urgent and essential right now. ALSO - for my day job I teach at a well-known journalism school, and this piece reminds me that the Honest Broker in arts criticism is actually the Journalist - always thinking of the reader, pursuing our craft ethically and honestly, even and especially when our topic is the arts. Usually I don't think of my Substack and my journalism as intersecting, but this discussion highlights the intersection. At a time when people have tuned out the headlines, our culture actually depends on this honest brokering - this good journalism - in the humanities right now. Thanks for the insights!
This rings a bell with me. I am in legal academia and it is over-populated with egotists and sharks. Some of the realisations that you came to earlier in your life I am now coming to in my early 50s (I am a slow learner). You seem to have found the secret to writing of integrity - which might be for example, being able to escape the machine through financial independence.
Your commentary on the devolution of music criticism could undoubtedly apply far more widely. Sobering to think of the conditions under which honest brokers become both rare and the only means forward, and where we stand today.
Loved your article "Is Old Music Killing New Music?" and I love this story about being a trusted advisor. That is what I try to do in my life. If I can't help you then I will try to find someone who can. My grandfather taught me to live like this and I always have. Thanks for your words.
Thanks. It seems to me that one thing an honest broker does is be forthright about how he sees his role, so this essay is another manifestation of honest-broker-ism. Well done. And what a fascinating and mysterious backstory.
Your observations about pleasure and the Clement Greenberg trap seems to me to summarize the problem of modernism, which values novelty above all else. There's little that's inherently valuable about novelty. I guess it's pleasing to be surprised, but that's a pretty evanescent condition, especially compared to beauty, truth, or transcendence.
I found Florence Rubenfeld's book Clement Greenberg very revealing in describing how much money he made by touting the newest new thing—especially because he often owned works of art of the artists he helped in their rise to fame. That's a subject deserving of an essay in its own right. The role of financial incentives in arts criticism is, I suspect, much larger than most people realize.
I think novelty in itself isn’t negative, it can be valuable for sparking new ideas and inspiration, for understanding where culture can be moving, for pushing some things forward inch by inch, for challenging currently accepted thought models and tastes.
A critic pushing novelty without being an “honest broker” is the problem, not novelty itself. A critic hoping to gain something whether egotistically or financially is the problem.
"Every generation throws another leader up the pop charts"
-Paul Simon
Mr. Simon knows of what he speaks.
"It was a slow day
And the sun was beating
On the soldiers by the side of the road
There was a bright light
A shattering of shop windows
The bomb in the baby carriage
Was wired to the radio
These are the days of miracle and wonder
This is the long distance call
The way the camera follows us in slo-mo
The way we look to us all
The way we look to a distant constellation
That's dying in a corner of the sky
These are the days of miracle and wonder
And don't cry, baby, don't cry
Don't cry
It was a dry wind
And it swept across the desert
And it curled into the circle of birth
And the dead sand
Falling on the children
The mothers and the fathers
And the automatic earth
These are the days of miracle and wonder
This is the long distance call
The way the camera follows us in slo-mo
The way we look to us all, oh yeah
The way we look to a distant constellation
That's dying in a corner of the sky
These are the days of miracle and wonder
And don't cry baby, don't cry
Don't cry
It's a turn-around jump shot
It's everybody jump start
It's every generation throws a hero up the pop charts
Medicine is magical and magical is art
Think of the boy in the bubble
And the baby with the baboon heart
And I believe
These are the days of lasers in the jungle
Lasers in the jungle somewhere
Staccato signals of constant information
A loose affiliation of millionaires
And billionaires and baby
These are the days of miracle and wonder
This is the long distance call
The way the camera follows us in slo-mo
The way we look to us all, oh yeah
The way we look to a distant constellation
That's dying in a corner of the sky
These are the days of miracle and wonder
And don't cry baby, don't cry
Don't cry, don't cry"
-The Boy in the Bubble
Did your honest broker ever come back and ask for a favour ? Would have been some amazing ellipsis if that favour was music related.
Hi Ted, I found the link to this on Hacker News. I liked that your epiphany came in China, because the Chinese developed an entire philosophy, and later a religion, very much like what you've described, called Daoism. The philosophy developed before 200 BC during the "warring states" period before the first unification of China, a time of chaotic, every man for himself progress.
"Honest Brokers play a hidden but vital role in communities without a history of legal protections and stable institutions."
That's probably the best description of the Daoist sage I've ever read.
In appreciation of Ted's approach and this description of it I'll put a few lines from the Tao Te Ching that reflects it in a way that hopefully could be useful to you:
When the work's done right,
with no fuss or boasting,
ordinary people say,
Oh, we did it.
That’s also what gets said once a good, Saul Alinsky-style community organizer has finished their work.
Wow, what a story. Honestly, I suspected you to have this kind of sort of double personality or life on two different realities. Why? Because your passion and writing about Music seem to good for just an Academic or researcher who lived His all life behind a desk or typwriter. You have to experience a lot to give a lot in your writing. Feed yourself before feeding others. Wow, thank You for sharing as I might have similar story to share but didn’t have The courage to do it. Bravo and know you on my list to meet and talk.
Mr.Gioia, this post inspires me tremendously. You have articulated exactly the kind of person I want to be in my field (teaching singing). I just need to be patient!
I missed this when it was first posted and it is a truly revealing and insightful piece.
As witness to a small segment of your "workaday life" I ALWAYS considered you a natural "Honest Broker" and think the choice of that handle is ideal.
Nice to know that at least one Aussie gave you some good advice. (wink, wink)
I believe it was Jason Kottke who brought me to your substack a little while back, and I'm so glad he brought me here. I absolutely loved your article, especially because of the vulnerability of disclosing something very personal to what brought you to this point of your life and career.
I agree with two main ideas from Jake Imber's comments below. The first is that by telling your story, you further strengthen your point of honest-broken-ism by demonstrating it in your writing.
The second important point from Jake I also agree with is the problem with modernism that values novelty. It is in this point that combines both your honest-brokerism & criticism that I wanted to expand on.
We are so full of content in every single direction through different channels and different mediums (social media makes us the product), we rely so much on algorithmic output and ranking that just refines a version of what makes it simple to occupy a closed loop of just good enough to keep us tuned in. If we can spend enough of our limited time or consciousness reconsidering what it is that we enjoy, and also bring enough context to what lead to something truly great, we gain a deeper meaning and pleasure through that greater understanding.
Criticism is content about content, and when done well, it contextualizes what we love most about something truly great, and points to original sources that we can dig deeper to gain a more thorough understanding. But (I get this is getting a bit meta) criticism is especially vulnerable to the 'don't bite the hand that feeds me' bias, and really your broader point about what makes you successful is sort of embedded in the difficulty/challenge of obtaining commercial success and making good art.
Well said. I have a minor disagreement with Ted's hierarchy--food critics own the bottom rung.
Done well, the thoughtful and informed voice of the co-conspirator, trusted advisor or obsessive is very valuable. No one ever leapt out of bed to read a review when an album is released, and the more grounded critics never lose sight of that. Despite an addled industry, there are more sharp writers today than ever before--driven by an expanding ecosystem of ever-more enriching, wildly variegated music practice, profits be damned.
It is geography dependent I guess. Music reviewers occupy the lowest level in India at least. They are just PR now
I would consider what passes as journalists are the lowest rung. Most don't even google research what they write about and just take whatever propaganda is doled out from the powerful and the intelligence agencies. There are very few honest brokers in news media.
I agree with you sir.
I enjoyed reading about your outer and inner honest broker. To be honest it is too bad you can't talk about your earlier exploits! At 74 I recall playing the clarinet in grade school and growing up on straight ahead jazz, classical, rock 'n roll, soul music, The Beatles and Stones and other British bands, some jazz fusion, more classic jazz from the 50's and 60's, house music, pre-Castro classic big band Cuban. I was seeking authentic African music and found it via zouk and beguine from Guadeloupe & Martinique in the early 90's. You sound like you have open ears. Miles Davis was listening to Kassav' just before he died. I cannot recommend the music from Angola and Cape Verde highly enough. If you are interested I can recommend some artists or even send you some files to whet your whistle. You have my email.
Marco, I'd take you up on that offer of Angolan and Cape Verdean music if you would expand it beyond its initial scope.
Yes, I would be pleased to. Are you looking for artist and album recommendations?
Yes please! Thanks for responding. I have enjoyed the Mario Rui Silva reissue recently (Angolan). Would you type your recommendations here for everyone to see ? Otherwise I could provide a throw-away email for public display.
I had not heard of Mario Rui Silva. I have listened to a few of his tracks. His voice is soothing. Very beautiful music.
So you would like artist and album recommendations? I can do that here, but not until tomorrow at some point. OK?
Yes, I source the recordings myself unless they are really obscure. I'll be happy to wait and thanks for responding (quickly).
Today is not good either. Our dog has been having seizures. It will have to wait until his coming week.
No problem. I will try to list some info from Angola, Cabo Verde and Guinea Bissau. Probably late tomorrow morning or early pm.
Spot on, Ted. Enlightening, informative, and chocked full of genuine "enjoyment, pleasure, and delight."
Amazing story. Not sure if this is the best place to post this, but I am truly grateful to you for A Subversive History of Music. It satisfies a hunger I didn't know I had and leaves me wondering, why weren't we taught this, and what difference could it have made.
Cool piece! I write about books and culture and this crossed my transom exactly on a day when I was bummed out by all the people (like me) secretly wanting to publish their novel, obsesssed with "building audience," etc, and I was wondering, why exactly was I doing this? You reminded me why - to share the joy, the pleasure, the connection, the humanity that we find through the arts. It's urgent and essential right now. ALSO - for my day job I teach at a well-known journalism school, and this piece reminds me that the Honest Broker in arts criticism is actually the Journalist - always thinking of the reader, pursuing our craft ethically and honestly, even and especially when our topic is the arts. Usually I don't think of my Substack and my journalism as intersecting, but this discussion highlights the intersection. At a time when people have tuned out the headlines, our culture actually depends on this honest brokering - this good journalism - in the humanities right now. Thanks for the insights!
Might a purpose of criticism be to educate the reader? Understanding might even enhance enjoyment?
This rings a bell with me. I am in legal academia and it is over-populated with egotists and sharks. Some of the realisations that you came to earlier in your life I am now coming to in my early 50s (I am a slow learner). You seem to have found the secret to writing of integrity - which might be for example, being able to escape the machine through financial independence.
Your commentary on the devolution of music criticism could undoubtedly apply far more widely. Sobering to think of the conditions under which honest brokers become both rare and the only means forward, and where we stand today.
Loved your article "Is Old Music Killing New Music?" and I love this story about being a trusted advisor. That is what I try to do in my life. If I can't help you then I will try to find someone who can. My grandfather taught me to live like this and I always have. Thanks for your words.
Best,
Matt