Lorde, Iggy Azalea, & Grimes Unite Against “Spineless” Critics

Pop music stars and Commonwealth compatriots Lorde, Iggy Azalea and Grimes have called out “spineless” music critics for using artist profiles to draw in audiences and then throwing the same artist “under the bus” with a bad review.

The conversation was started by New Zealand’s Lorde in a post on her Tumblr, where she criticised Complex magazine for publishing a negative review of Azalea’s debut album The New Classic shortly after featuring her on a print cover.

“Bugs me how publications like complex will profile interesting artists in order to sell copies/get clicks and then shit on their records?,” she wrote. “It happens to me all the time- pitchfork and that ilk being like “can we interview you?” after totally taking the piss out of me in a review.”

“Have a stance on an artist and stick to it,” continued the 17-year-old musician. “Don’t act like you respect them then throw them under the bus.” The post was reblogged by Canada’s Grimes on her Tumblr where she wrote, “hahaha yes — i agree with this.

Australian native Azalea jumped in on the conversation via Twitter, writing, “I agree @lordemusic media LOVE to flop about, But when you’re completely spineless Im sure its hard to stick to even ur own opinion #GoGirl.”

Azalea continued to fans, “The media will beg for free tickets to your show just so they can write about how much they hate it etc etc, I wish you could all see it. The whole things actually pretty funny.”

“They also love to have upbeat bubbly mid 20s women do the daily blog posts about you,” she added. “But keep a stash of pseudo intellectual middle aged men in sandals at hand ready to review everyone’s albums.” The “man in sandals” in this particular case is Complex‘s David Drake, who commented that The New Classic “isn’t really”.

Complex responded to the allegations in an editorial piece written by Associate Editor Insanul Ahmed, titled Why Lorde, Iggy Azalea, & Grimes Are Wrong About Criticism and Journalism. “Lorde declaring “have a stance on an artist and stick to it” is a bizarre notion for an organisation like Complex, which is to say bizarre for any media organisation that claims to have any journalistic integrity,” writes Ahmed. “Art and artistry are fluid things.”

“If Complex — or the media at large—operated the way Lorde wished, it would do away with journalistic integrity all together,” he adds. “Lorde — as well as Iggy — seem to confuse press as ‘respect’ and criticism as being thrown ‘under the bus’.”

Ahmed adds that Complex will continue to cover Lorde, Iggy Azalea, and Grimes and hopes they will be open to more interviews with the publication. “But we’re not going to treat artists like they’re above reproach just because we profiled them” he says. “Why? Well, because that would just be plain spineless.”

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