Despite the jocularity of tone in Chris Ott’s response to my recent post about Basement Jaxx he, as usual, brings up an interesting point about music criticism. I mean, as much hate as the guy gets, he’s probably the most fascinating writer to me (maybe a combination of proximity and tastes that cross in very odd places and diverge in other unexpected areas) of the past year or so. (While I’m on this tip of asides, let me just say that Ott V. 2.0 is ridiculously better than his earlier writing. I can only hope to improve as much as he has in the coming years)

But, to the point, which is credibility. If a writer takes a positive stance on a particular artist that you’re vehemently against but you tend to trust them in most other cases, has it ever been a breaking point? Can one opinion make or break your trust of someone’s taste?

Or, in a more general sense, what if a writer really enjoys the same sorts of music in a particular genre that you both enjoy- but goes off into other genres that a) you hate or b) have never been exposed to? Would you discount certain things they now say about the previous genre that you shared? And, more pertinent to b, would you be more apt to follow them there even if it’s, say, a jump from Dirty South hip-hop to Italian opera?

All this taken into account- TI’s “24’s” and Rossini’s La Cenerentola…both killin’ it tonight for me.