Pitchfork Media

Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork, is a U.S.-based daily Internet publication devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its primary focus lies with independent music, particularly indie rock bands, electronic music artists, singer-songwriters, and hip-hop artists, although it also occasionally covers mainstream pop music when the editors and writers consider it innovative or relevant to the publication's readership. Pitchfork is reputed to have significant influence in the independent music world.

History

Pitchfork was created in Minneapolis in late 1995 by Ryan Schreiber, then just out of high school. Influenced by local fanzines and college radio station KUOM, Schreiber, who had no previous writing experience, aimed to provide the Internet with a regularly updated resource for independent music. At first bearing the name Turntable, the site was originally updated just once a month with interviews and reviews. In the summer of 1996, the name was changed to Pitchfork, and the site began publishing daily.

In early 1999, Schreiber uprooted Pitchfork from its Minneapolis base and relocated to Chicago. By then, the site had expanded to four full-length album reviews daily, as well as sporadic interviews, features, and columns. It had also begun garnering a following for both its extensive coverage of underground music and its controversial writing style. Toward the end of that year, the site added a daily music news section.

Pitchfork has since amassed an audience of more than 170,000 readers per day, and more than 1.3 million unique visitors per month, making it the most popular independent-focused music publication online.

Wide Reach and Criticism

Pitchfork's opinions have gained some cultural currency in recent years; some in the mainstream media view the site as a barometer of the indie music scene, and positive quotes from its reviews are increasingly used in press releases and affixed to the front of CDs. Some publications have cited Pitchfork in having played a part in "breaking" The Arcade Fire, Sufjan Stevens, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Interpol, The Go! Team, The Dismemberment Plan, Broken Social Scene, Wolf Parade, and Tapes n' Tapes. Some of these bands first received extensive praise from other sources, however, and the site's true impact on their popularity remains a source of frequent debate.

Conversely, Pitchfork has been seen as a negative influence on some indie artists' popularity, particularly Dismemberment Plan's Travis Morrison, whose Travistan LP received a rare rating of zero. The site has also faced attacks for what some readers see as impenetrable prose.

Pitchfork music festivals

In 2005, Pitchfork curated the Intonation Music Festival, attracting some 15,000 attendees to Chicago's Union Park for shows by indie bands such as Broken Social Scene and the Decemberists. The publication has since announced its own 2006 Pitchfork Music Festival, to take place in Union Park on July 29-30, 2006, which will feature performances by 41 bands including Destroyer and Mission of Burma as well as a rare performance by Os Mutantes.