ALSO PURSUANT TO THAT WHOLE DEATH OF THE AUTHOR THING

So maybe it’s even MORE important in music than it is in literature? Because blah blah scholarship blah blah ivory tower lookin’ at the top-down hierarchical bullshit as a matter of course; of course they’re into the author, of course the context matters because it’s fangirls into their woobie, man

BUT

that is Great Man bullshit and it is bullshit

if we’re writing music criticism from the ground up

death of the author is VITAL

because that is what leaves space for AUDIENCE RESPONSE

take away authorial intent and you have space to insert your own definitions and meanings of all this business

in fact

some might say

that leaves room

to

break it yourself