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analytical readers would appreciate "more music talk in music criticism", suggesting that "sensitively modest doses" of musical analysis would provide helpful support for a conclusion "that great melody writing occurred or it didn't". For example, he noted that critics rarely "identify catchy melodies as specific passages within a song", in the way that working musicians might discuss "the A-minor in the second measure of the chorus". According to the
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primitives, embodying an archetype by accident of nature." Based on past experience as an artist receiving criticism, Miller argued against critics' efforts to maintain journalistic distance or objectivity, suggesting that "acknowledging and respecting readers' stylistic boundaries and keeping their own sentimentality in check" was counterproductive, and hypothesizing that instead, "readers actually want a critic to be their friend by listening
26:
310:." Oakes called the book "an indispensable collection of rock criticism" and praised Miller's writing style as "great ... very alive, specific and entertaining. He seems influenced by Christgau, occasionally swept away by his own analytics, whimsical at the expense of accuracy, and compulsively iconoclastic. But that almost always makes for fun—never dull—reading."
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being prepared "to give young artists credit for terrific music without being intimidated into a frame of mind where dark subject matter always gets a passing grade", writing that a critic should be able to call a young artist "a musical genius" while "in the same breath declaring that his or her lyrics are morally objectionable".
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wrote that Scott Miller's "encyclopedic knowledge of pop", upon which his music drew, made the book a "shining example of the auteur ideal ... a year-by-year, song-by-song journey from 1957 to this decade, connecting the dots for a macro-perspective on pop". For each year, Miller wrote about ten
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Miller had kept annual countdown lists of his favorite records throughout his life, and his personal project of compiling those lists onto CDs evolved into a formal endeavor to explain what made those songs noteworthy, for what was then the last 50 years of recorded music. Portions of the book were
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Reacting to the state of pop music criticism, Miller suggested, "Part of the problem is that a lot of vital pop music is made by 22-year-olds who enjoy shock value, and it's pathetic when their elders are cornered into unalloyed reverence." He suggested that critics could navigate this problem by
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s Tracy Moore, in 2014, suggested that one of the virtues of writing about how music made one feel, in contrast with linking it to the sounds of other artists, was to avoid excluding readers who may not have musical knowledge as broad as that of the writer. In contrast, Miller believed that
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as an emotional writer who nonetheless "never really related to his favorite artists as people who develop a skill of conveying feelings. You don't feel that he comfortably acknowledged being moved as a result of their honest work. Artists in his writing were vaguely ridiculous, fascinating
323:. Milano described the book as one that not only tells the story of Miller and his bands Game Theory and The Loud Family, but also explores "the college and indie-rock explosion of the 1980s and 1990s" and how some influential artists "managed to fall through the cracks".
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bands Game Theory and The Loud Family, turned his efforts to cataloging his thoughts about the music that had inspired him. The writing process began after his decision to take a break from his recording career following the 2006 release of his penultimate album,
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stylistic boundaries with special gold-seeking ears, and reporting how they unexpectedly turned into a love-struck adolescent over a vocal harmony or a piano run... digging the truth of musical experience out from under half-asleep habits of discussing it".
269:, the book "is mostly about the act of listening, but a fair amount of musician talk comes into play, and Miller deploys it gracefully.... As a nonplayer I don't always get his more technical notes, but they're never alienating".
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According to the music writer Jordan Oakes, "Not only does Miller totally acquit himself as a rock critic, he's produced one of the most interesting compendiums of music journalism since Robert
Christgau's
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wrote, "The way describes the songs he loves... is tremendously suggestive. If only he or some acolyte could spin a worldview around those observations, we might really have something to go on."
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magazine, Miller was described as "a sort of fourth-generation rock and roll renaissance man capable of making the printed page jump and sing as deftly as the complex conversations that his
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The cover art, designed by Betsy
Lescosky, established a knowledgeable but humorous tone by using photographs of Miller in poses that recreated noteworthy album covers such as that of
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wrote that Miller "manages actual humor (a first in music criticism) and major insights that may change the way you think about, for example, 1967. Almost a new art form."
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395:"A way with words: Friends pay tribute to Scott Miller, the late Davis artist who combined his love for music and literature into an influential career"
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serially published in draft form on his official web site, where he responded to fan requests by writing about one year at a time, in random order.
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or more of his favorite songs, providing analytical insights and placing the songs in context in the musical world of their era.
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Miller identified a major issue as critics' failure to "credit an artist with getting a feeling across", citing
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493:"Music: What Happened? Scott Miller on 50 Years of Singles in 258 Pages"
789:"Game Theory's Scott Miller Gets Posthumous Biography, Record Reissues"
219:. The book's title is a comical appropriation from the sensationalist
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as "a well-received critical overview of 53 years of rock history".
621:"Oh, the Unbelievable Shit You Get Writing About Music as a Woman"
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In 2006, Miller, a songwriter and guitarist who had founded the
468:"Scott Miller, Game Theory and Loud Family Singer, Dead at 53"
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Miller is the subject of a 2015 biography by the rock critic
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185:, was completed after Miller's death and released in 2017.)
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Don't All Thank Me at Once: The Lost Genius of Scott Miller
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Don't All Thank Me at Once: The Lost Genius of Scott Miller
342:"Scott Miller, Loud Family and Game Theory Rocker, Dies"
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The book was first published in 2010 by an imprint of
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560:(Sample chapter) (3rd ed.). 125 Records.
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698:"Music: What Happened? by Scott Miller"
640:Matos, Michaelangelo (March 17, 2011).
551:Miller, Scott (November 2012). "2011".
514:Miller, Scott (December 2011). "2010".
407:from the original on November 19, 2013.
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787:Appelstein, Mike (September 1, 2015).
706:(book review) (32): 36. Archived from
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340:Greenwald, David (April 17, 2013).
731:(blurb). 125 Records. Back cover.
675:(blurb). 125 Records. Back cover.
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368:Conner, Thomas (April 18, 2013).
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766:St. Louis Magazine
642:"A Homemade Canon"
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829:Categories
327:References
757:"Review:
453:724510113
347:Billboard
317:, titled
211:Liz Phair
166:power pop
153:Billboard
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