The Death Of Music Journalism

As Pitchfork announces its closing, the world of music journalism suffers an existential crisis.

This past week, legendary online music mag Pitchfork announced that it would be closing its own masthead and would be folded into the men’s fashion magazine, GQ. The move comes as Pitchfork has struggled to meet economic projections and as GQ’s parent company Condé Nast has continued to navigate a very tricky media landscape.

Pitchfork began in 1996 as an online space for indie music reviews. The site, started by record store employee, Ryan Schrieber, quickly grew to become one of the major voices in music culture. Pitchfork came to be known for its sardonic review style, and its vaunted decimal system rating scale that could be ruthless.

Throughout the late 90s and the first few years of the oughts, Pitchfork became a leading voice of culture as it expanded its coverage beyond the scope of indie, and started covering hip hop and pop stars as well. It…