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Wednesday, April 23, 2003 

There's a thin line for critics between expertise and snobbery; This gets it half-right and half-wrong. Yes, it is not elitist to have an opinion, and calling people with more specialized knowledge than most (i.e. all good critics, and a good point that Miller makes is that if you are an informed fan you can easily be a critic) 'elitist' is silly. On the other hand, her dismissal of the avant-garde in favour of the old smacks of the reactionary - regardless of whether she, myself, or others like a given piece, if the rest of the crowd does, it's silly to expect them not to applaud. The same goes, incidentially, for rap.



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Ian Mathers is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in Stylus, the Village Voice, Resident Advisor, PopMatters, and elsewhere. He does stuff and it magically appears here.

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