Robert Christgau

Robert Christgau – Life, Career, and Influential Voice in Music Criticism

Explore the life and work of Robert Christgau — the “Dean of American Rock Critics.” Delve into his biography, signature style, major contributions (like the Consumer Guide and Pazz & Jop), famous quotes, and enduring legacy in music journalism.

Introduction

Robert Thomas Christgau (born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist, essayist, and cultural critic whose work has deeply shaped how generations of readers think about and engage with music.

Often called the “Dean of American Rock Critics,” Christgau’s writing is known for its wit, density, irreverence, and intelligence. Over his decades-long career, he refined a distinct critical voice, produced signature review formats, and became a key figure in the legitimization of popular music criticism as serious cultural commentary.

Early Life and Family

Robert Christgau was born on April 18, 1942, in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City, and grew up in Queens, the son of a fireman.

As a child, he became enamored with rock & roll after radio disc jockeys like Alan Freed popularized the genre in New York in the mid-1950s.

He attended public schools in New York, then went on to Dartmouth College, graduating in 1962 with a B.A. in English.

Christgau later revealed that he grew up in a “born-again church” environment but, over time, has identified as an atheist.

In 1974, he married writer and critic Carola Dibbell; the couple later adopted a daughter, Nina (born 1986 in Honduras).

Career and Contributions

Early Career & Rise to Prominence

Christgau began his writing career with short fiction and journalism. Before fully immersing in music criticism, he worked as a police reporter and a sportswriter for the Newark Star-Ledger, among other freelance gigs.

In 1967, he launched a column in Esquire titled “Secular Music,” marking one of his earliest sustained music criticism endeavors. Creem, Playboy, Rolling Stone, Newsday, NPR, Billboard, Blender, and others.

In 1969, Christgau joined The Village Voice, where he would remain a central figure for nearly four decades as chief music critic and senior editor.

His time at The Voice also saw the establishment of the annual Pazz & Jop critics’ poll—an influential aggregation of critics’ year-end album rankings.

Signature Works & Critical Methodology

Consumer Guide and Capsule Reviews

Perhaps Christgau’s most enduring contribution is his “Consumer Guide” — a column of concise, capsule album reviews assigned a letter grade (from A+ down) in terse, layered prose.

These reviews were collected in book form across era-based anthologies, such as:

• Christgau’s Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981)

• Christgau’s Record Guide: The ’80s (1990)

• Christgau’s Consumer Guide: Albums of the ’90s (2000)

His style blends quick judgments, irony, cultural allusion, and political undercurrents.

Pazz & Jop & the “Dean’s List”

Christgau personally curated a Dean’s List each year—his own ranking of critics’ top albums—which also counted in the overall Pazz & Jop poll.

Over time, Pazz & Jop became a platform for wider critic engagement and shaped discourse around critical consensus in popular music.

Later Career & Adaptation

In 2006, after The Village Voice was acquired by a new publisher, Christgau was dismissed from his longtime role there. Consumer Guide reviews for MSN Music, then later for platforms such as Cuepoint and Noisey (Vice).

In September 2019, he launched the subscription newsletter And It Don’t Stop via Substack, continuing his monthly Consumer Guide format alongside essays and reflections.

He has also taught courses on music criticism and writing, most notably at New York University's Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music.

His personal memoir, Going into the City: Portrait of a Critic as a Young Man, was published in 2015.

Style, Philosophy & Critical Identity

Christgau’s writing is distinguished by economy, wit, fragmentation, and intellectual density. His appeal lies in how much he compresses in a short review—layers of cultural, musical, and political meaning in compact form.

He aligns his tastes with formal rigor, clarity, songwriting, and wit, often privileging song-oriented music over overly ambitious or grandiose forms.

Though he has been critical of genres like heavy metal, jazz fusion, and some strains of progressive rock, he is also known to champion underappreciated or marginalized music—hip hop, riot grrrl, non-Western pop, etc.

For example, Christgau has been an early advocate of African popular music influencing Western listeners, and of feminisms and leftist cultural critique in music criticism.

He once joked about being a “Dean of rock critics,” a label he coined himself somewhat tongue-in-cheek but which the field largely accepted.

Notable Quotes

“Opinions are like assholes—everybody’s got one. But not everybody’s got ten thousand of them.”
— From Time’s retrospective on Christgau’s career

On grading and taste:
“I don’t know anything about music, which ought to be a damaging admission but isn’t … You just gotta dig it.”
— Christgau, reflecting on his approach early in his career

“My mission is to razz a counterculture that considered consumption counterrevolutionary and didn’t like grades either.”
— On the naming and purpose of Consumer Guide

These quotes reflect his self-aware, provocative, and thoughtful critical stance.

Lessons from Robert Christgau

1. Clarity and compression can be powerful.
   Christgau’s capsule reviews show that you can convey depth in brevity—smart writing doesn’t need to be long.

2. Criticism is cultural work.
   He treated popular music as a space deserving serious analysis, not just fan enthusiasm or marketing copy.

3. Adapt and persist.
   Over decades of industry change—from print dominance to online platforms—Christgau found ways to stay relevant (e.g. Substack).

4. Taste is personal but accountable.
   His method shows that personal preferences gain weight when backed by argument, cultural insight, and consistency.

5. Be unafraid of contradiction.
   In his long career, he has both praised and panned genres, artists, and trends. His authority comes from honesty, not consistency.

Legacy & Influence

• Christgau helped legitimize pop music criticism as a serious literary and cultural field. Many later critics cite him as foundational.

• His Consumer Guide format has influenced how music publications structure short, digestible reviews.

• The Pazz & Jop poll created a shared space for critical consensus and debate year after year.

• He remains active as a teacher, critic, and public intellectual well into the 21st century—bridging generations.

Conclusion

Robert Christgau is more than a music critic—he is a cultural institution. From Greenwich Village to The Village Voice, from punchy capsule reviews to decades of essays, he has challenged readers to think more deeply about music, politics, and culture.

His legacy is a reminder that criticism matters. It can provoke, clarify, champion, and challenge—not just reflect.