A Critic On The Edge

The music critic is usually portrayed as a lone wolf in the musical world – an independent and mysterious figure slipping silently in and out of concerts, and pronouncing judgment from afar. However, her work cannot occur in isolation, and the interactions of the critic with her publication, her readers, and her subjects create a network of relationships, each with their own dynamic effect on the critic and her writing. These relationships function as an exchange of capital, as described in Bourdieu’s Field of Cultural Production. The publication is lent capital by having skilled writers, and the critic is given a powerful position from which to reach her readers. The readers, functioning as an imagined community built around a common subject interest, grant the critic authority, and therefore capital, by being influenced by her work.