Pitchfork Media

When in the world did Pitchfork get to be big and an authority?

I remember reading Pitchfork back in the day, in high school (7 years ago??) when it was a small bootleg operation. Being an insufferable elitist in high school, I thought that Pitchfork was exciting for what it represented: the non-mainstream. Me and my “cool friends” would talk about the albums in the morning when we showed up to school. I would stay up late talking to my crush and boyfriend at the time, and we would joke about the time of night that the new reviews would be posted (it was usually around 3am Eastern time.)

College came and Pitchfork picked up steam, as did the community around it. Meeting Pitchfork people at the local shows in NYC was an exciting novelty. I was the fifth person to register on the original Pitchfork Smackdown message board when it opened up in 2001 (should I be embarrassed about that?) and probably spent way too much time on there for the next two years or so (I definitely should be embarrassed about that, though I did meet some very cool and interesting people.) Then I sort of fell off the Pitchfork bandwagon in the second half of college…

I guess it wasn’t an overnight thing, Pitchfork growing into this internet phenomenon: it’s something that’s been rolling for the past few years. I mean, shit, they got an interview with Thom fucking Yorke this past month. If you proposed that scenario five years ago, even the Pitchfork faithful would have snorted in their milk. Though its magnitude changes depending on whom you ask, Pitchfork’s influence in the music and hipster circles has undoubtedly grown to the point where it can launch a band and inspire vitriol from the internet community, and sometimes even in the same breath.

It’s cool to be a hipster now, cool to be uncool, and with the growth of places like MySpace and online blogging, it’s even easier to pronounce your uncoolness. I don’t know whether Pitchfork is riding or pushing it along but it’s placed itself firmly in that wave.

I’m thinking these days that being a hipster is too exhausting and takes too much effort… to make it look like you’re, err, not making an effort… err, hrm.