Ask the Critic: Robert Hilburn

Question: How do you choose which concerts you’ll review?

Hilburn: Selecting which acts to review is one of the most frustrating challenges facing the pop music department because there are far more shows around town each week than we have space to cover.

Ultimately, you aim for some kind of balance between devoting that space to great acts and hugely popular ones, new bands and old ones, rock and country, hip-hop and jazz, world music and Latin music, and so on.

The easiest choice is a band such as U2, which is not only among the best bands ever in rock but also among the most popular. It’s a win-win situation. But often you are faced with choosing between a great artist who isn’t well known and a popular artist who isn’t very interesting.

In that case, you lean toward the great act, because that’s part of your mission as a critic -- putting a spotlight on the most essential artists of each generation.

At the same time, a critic has an obligation to write about a hugely popular act because you want to keep a dialogue with readers, not be elitist. You also want to point out what is lacking in the bestsellers.

Another challenge is deciding when it’s time to stop reviewing a particular act. The question you have to ask yourself constantly is: “Is there really anything new to say about the artist?” If we are talking about someone like Neil Young or Bob Dylan, you keep reviewing that person indefinitely because he or she continues to do great work.

But if you’ve decided someone is merely mediocre, you don’t need to review that artist every time he or she comes through town just because the act sells out big venues. You may never review some acts more than once. In fact, an artist’s album may be so weak, you may never review that artist live.

While you try to keep an open mind to bands you once rejected, I’ve found that few bands ever improved enough to make you reconsider them. Rather than just writing yet again that you feel someone is bland, it’s better to focus that time and space on a promising new artist.

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