RIP Village Voice
The first time I became aware of the Village Voice was when I came upon Robert Christgau's Rock Albums of the 70's book at a library in the mid-80's. Christgau's Consumer Guide was published monthly in the Voice, but finding a copy of the Voice in my area of California was never easy.
Every week, I would spend half a day driving to bookstores and libraries looking for the latest copy. The Voice was a weekly, so imagine the time I put in from the 80's to the late 90's hunting down an issue. BTW- the subscription price was too high, which is why I never went that route.
While my initial intentions were to read the music section, I quickly became a fan of the rest of the paper. Especially the film and political parts.
Once the Internet came along, I no longer needed to hunt for every issue. Just about everything was right there at my fingertips. It was around this time that I emailed the music editor and asked how I could become a voter in its year-end music critics Pazz & Jop poll. And from the early 2000's-2017, I voted in its poll. With the Voice gone, so goes Pazz & Jop with it. Unless somebody else picks it up. Last year the Voice gave up its printed edition, like so many other papers, and went digital only. Sadly, it didn't last. Now it is gone for good. A staple of the New York scene. And at its peak, an essential buy for many fans of alt-journalism throughout the U.S.
Every week, I would spend half a day driving to bookstores and libraries looking for the latest copy. The Voice was a weekly, so imagine the time I put in from the 80's to the late 90's hunting down an issue. BTW- the subscription price was too high, which is why I never went that route.
While my initial intentions were to read the music section, I quickly became a fan of the rest of the paper. Especially the film and political parts.
Once the Internet came along, I no longer needed to hunt for every issue. Just about everything was right there at my fingertips. It was around this time that I emailed the music editor and asked how I could become a voter in its year-end music critics Pazz & Jop poll. And from the early 2000's-2017, I voted in its poll. With the Voice gone, so goes Pazz & Jop with it. Unless somebody else picks it up. Last year the Voice gave up its printed edition, like so many other papers, and went digital only. Sadly, it didn't last. Now it is gone for good. A staple of the New York scene. And at its peak, an essential buy for many fans of alt-journalism throughout the U.S.
posted by Tom Lane at 1:49 AM
