Juliana Zammit
Pitchfork – a well-known publication for music reviews – is being merged into GQ, leaving many upset over the revelation.
Pitchfork’s Merge into GQ
Anna Wintour, chief content officer of Condé Nast, the company who bought Pitchfork and GQ, announced to her staff that after evaluation of Pitchfork’s performance, they have decided to merge with GQ – a men’s style magazine. This ultimately led to half the staff being laid off, including editor-in-chief Puja Patel stepping down.
Founded by Ryan Schreiber in the 1990s, Pitchfork gained recognition due to its indie-rock coverage with reviews leading to the make or break of bands. The prose style is described as breathless, and truth-be-told, it made a big difference to everyone as some even learnt how to critique from reading Pitchfork.
Reminiscing Pitchfork reviews
Pitchfork had published 27,809 reviews from 1999 till 2021 going from The Beatles to Taylor Swift – and yes, the reviews from 1999 are still available on their site.
The review that set off Pitchfork was for Pacer, the album published by the Amps in 1996; Schreiber gave it an 8.2 on their unique reviewing scale that went from 0.0 to 10.0. They weren’t afraid of giving 0’s, 10’s and even once, Brent DiCrescenzo wrote on his Radiohead, Kid A review that he had never even seen a shooting star before, (after listening to that album, he confirmed dreams really do come true).
What’s the big deal on GQ?
After 30 years of the publication, this decision leaves many gloomed over the fact that they are leading the publication into an entirely unrelated brand, leading a doubt on music journalism and if its future is heading into a dead-end. Producer Dan Le Sac, who received a 0.2 in a 2008 review, said that ‘‘whether you agree with a reviewer or not, music needs journalism’’.
As on the GQ website, music is subbed under the ‘‘culture’’ section which shows a lack of priorities as music should be its own category. Many are also worried that the value will be overlooked and diminish through a business point of view. Recently, they covered Playboy Carti’s album rollout which although it showcases Pitchfork format’s, it doesn’t fit into GQ’s existing brand.
What should we be expecting?
Pitchfork Staff are expecting to hear more about their reporting structure in next weeks’ meetings. On a good note, Pitchfork’s reviews director, Jeremy Larson, gave us hope on a post on X, saying he expects to keep publishing reviews on the site. Keep up with the latest news.
