oa The Identity Crisis of Music Criticism

This chapter discusses the identity crisis of music criticism through the lens of activism and asks is there something criticism institution could learn from activism. While professional music criticism has long been defined as a practice where critic discusses aesthetics of music from afar, activist ethos suggests socially informed criticism which aims for agonistic rather than antagonistic stance.

Keywords: activism ; authorship of a critic ; criticism and agonism ; criticism and antagonism ; criticism institution ; inclusive criticism ; music criticism and social turn ; transformation of music criticism