Puja Patel’s First Interview Since Pitchfork Downsized By Conde Nast

When Condé Nast introduced in January that it was folding the almost 30-year-old music web site Pitchfork into GQ, music followers and journalists decried the downsizing of a revered media outlet that gave voice to a various array of music genres, kinds and artists that it praised and panned with its decimal system ranking scale.

The shake-up additionally resulted within the departure of one other girl from a management place within the music business. Puja Patel, whom Condé Nast named Pitchfork’s first girl editor-in-chief in 2019, was amongst these laid off after presiding over an enlargement each in employees and protection. A veteran of Spin, which she additionally ran, and The Village Voice, Patel — the daughter of a Zimbabwean father and Indian mom — advocated for “more conversational and accessible writing,” guaranteeing that the publication’s tagline of being “the most trusted voice in music” rang true for a wider vary of readers. She additionally empowered her employees to form that protection and widen its focus from the once-male-dominated area of indie-rock to incorporate, as an example, regional rap, Latin and urbano music, whereas additionally supporting indie’s present era of stars reminiscent of Phoebe Bridgers, Mitski, Adrianne Lenker and HAIM.

In her first interview since leaving Pitchfork, Patel, 38, discusses her influence on the model and why music journalism is right here to remain.

What had been your targets as Pitchfork’s editor-in-chief?

I actually knew what I wished to do with it once I went there, and I feel having some safety of imaginative and prescient and a powerful sense of the legacy of a publication — with the ability to hold that alive whereas additionally rising the factor — is the largest activity of anybody taking up an establishment like Pitchfork. But I used to be largely enthusiastic about taking an extremely gifted employees and [helping build] an much more expansively minded employees.

How did you see the influence of these modifications throughout your time there?

The work of fixing a spot that’s so beloved and such an establishment is sluggish and purposeful. Often when somebody new is available in, individuals count on some sort of bombshell explosive reinvention. The tougher and extra significant model of that’s maintaining the most effective elements and altering the elements that may be modified. The employees may be very clearly extra various than it has ever been. The style on the positioning — it has gotten weirder and extra engaged with well-liked music. And the readership has additionally grow to be much more inclusive.

What had been your final targets for Pitchfork’s progress and evolution?

I wished Pitchfork to be the vacation spot for the discerning music listener — a spot the place you could possibly uncover an artist, take heed to our employees debate and contextualize new releases; hear from the musicians themselves; see them stay at one in every of our reveals; and grow to be a part of our neighborhood on-line and in particular person. It was essential to me to be deliberate about increasing the scope of our editorial whereas additionally advocating for model expansions in audio, sponsored activations and shopper progress.

Indie music is at present extra various and dominated by girls. What position did Pitchfork’s protection play in that evolution?

I wouldn’t go as far as to say that Pitchfork is the explanation why that has occurred, however I feel we did make a very pointed case lately to say, “We’re going to give this artist what might be their first interview for a major publication. And we might also go ahead and book them for the festival.” We’ve heard from labels that they’ve signed artists based mostly on Pitchfork album evaluations and that tickets to reveals have bought out as soon as [an act] received Best New Music or as soon as Pitchfork gave a glowing advice. Part of the way in which we curated the festivals throughout my time at Pitchfork was to present at the very least one [artist] their first headlining set at a pageant. During my time there, that was HAIM, Big Thief, Phoebe Bridgers and Mitski. All people who’re vitally essential to the dialog round music proper now.

What position will the album overview play going ahead?

I discover that music criticism and, particularly, the position of the album overview is so essential for anybody who cares about music. Every single day at midnight, we noticed an uptick in site visitors once we printed our new album evaluations. They are a means for followers to gauge their very own understanding and opinion of how they really feel. Beyond that, they contextualize an album towards the artist’s personal discography, clarify the nuances of lyricism or {that a} [song sounds] deliberately acquainted as a result of it’s a callback to another piece of artwork. I additionally actually consider that the album overview is a means for individuals to soundboard their very own instincts. When they see, in Pitchfork’s case, a rating, or they learn somebody who’s speaking about how a chunk of music makes them really feel, it’s a means for them to viscerally say, “I agree” or “I don’t agree” and discover why.

Why is it essential to have a wider and various group of individuals choose Best New Music?

When I began at Pitchfork, I actually made the thought of the album overview scoring and consideration rather more inclusive and collaborative. We would invite your entire employees to take heed to an album. Bringing extra individuals and extra views into the dialog opens up new home windows and lanes to think about the piece of music, which at all times in my thoughts made us prefer it extra. That’s to not say that there wasn’t an govt determination made occasionally.

With music publications shuttering or shrinking, does that create more room for unbiased voices to thrive?

It has been arduous to observe essentially the most iconic music publications slowly being pared down increasingly. I’ve discovered a ton of inspiration and pleasure from the way in which that youthful people are utilizing social media as a spot to make music discovery and discourse accessible to extra informal followers — particularly as we’re seeing labels encouraging artists to take possession of their narratives via a few of the similar codecs. And whereas that form of push from the music business makes the business ostensibly or optically much less reliant on a journalist’s viewpoint, I nonetheless consider that journalism and humanities writing is extraordinarily priceless. At the very least, it acts as a historic report. So a lot of music proper now’s repurposed from different music, and figuring out what you’re listening to and the place it comes from is exceedingly priceless. I actually consider that even excellent advertising and marketing can’t exchange excellent music journalism.

Who are your must-reads?

I need to shout out Mano Sundaresan’s weblog, No Bells, which began as this tiny, friends-talking-about-rap factor however has advanced into a set of a few of the most fascinating and spirited younger individuals with an enormous curiosity for brand new music. It’s accomplished with the humor and levity and normal alt-counterculture spirit that’s lacking from a lot “capital s” critical writing.

How have you ever formed the way forward for music journalism?

There tends to be lots of acclaim awarded to people who find themselves the primary of their identification to step into some position that has traditionally been reserved for a sure different sort of particular person. And, actually, virtually in every single place I labored, I’ve been the primary of some sort in my place: the primary girl, the primary particular person of colour, the primary Asian American. In most circumstances, I’m two of these issues, typically all three. So you’re proving your self to the techniques that had been made with different individuals in thoughts, and you’re additionally bending these techniques towards the longer term. You are de facto performing as a consultant or a sounding board for individuals who could be or have felt underrepresented prior to now. And simply by means of that, you’re additionally reshaping the business that you simply’re part of.

This article initially appeared within the March 2, 2024 difficulty of Billboard.