Pitchfork gave Ariana Grande's last album (which has 23 producers I believe) a better score than U2 (4 producers) and in a more comparable genre - Lorde (1 producer).
I don't really care that she has a better score than U2 or anyone else under the sun (hell, I might like her new album as well or better than the U2 album for all I know, I haven't heard it), that they even reviewed her album tells you all you need to know. At times, Pitchfork reviews major label pop, rap, r&B, hip-hop and somehow these artists are not supposed to know better than to be highly commercial. Or at least it is not held against them.
Yet Rock is absolutely supposed to know better and major label Rock almost entirely ignored by default for this very reason. It's nearly a cardinal sin for Rock to be on a major label (barring certain influential or massive acts pertinent to the niche), yet Ariana Grande can make as much money for Republic and its massive UMG daddy all she wants and she isn't supposed to know better than to have such unabashed popular ambition. An ambition, almost always, for fame and money and all the rest of the things that these same Rock bands get skewered for. All of this is the hypocrisy of that trendy joke niche in a nutshell, kids. Wake up and get out while you can.
Please understand, I say that as a music snob myself. But I have consistent standards. I'm not objectively right or wrong about a piece of music (although I would argue that I am, subjectively) but I am genuine and objectively consistent and I judge the music and not the personalities making the music. Although those personalities can affect the music, still there are many instances where it doesn't. And I can tell you with 100% certainty, it doesn't make one fucking bit of difference what label it's released on. Maybe in 1984 or 1994 but not in 2014. You shouldn't need anything more than the music unless it's not really about the music. Oh, it's suddenly only about the music when it's Ariana Grande. But not some Rock band that should know better. Ad the label is only relative to the Rock band, because that's the part of the inconsistent code (read: the path to fake snobbery).
And let's face it, this one particular genre of music that is supposed to know better is almost exclusively White (and mostly male for that matter). It's the bigotry of low expectations at work. Just pat cute little Ariana on the head for making a nice, easily digestible pop album and then turn around and refuse to even review a Rock band for merely making a nice, easily digestible pop album. After all, they're almost entirely White, probably suburbanite, almost surely male...and because of that, definitely supposed to know better.
