Robert Christgau: Dean of American Rock Critics

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Pazz & Jop

Each year since 1974 (plus 1971, maybe?) Robert Christgau and the Village Voice run a Critics Poll. Here are Christgau's year-end essays, the Critics Poll results, and Christgau's own "Dean's List" year-end lists.

1971: What Does It All Mean?
  Critics Poll   Dean's List
1974: Our Own Critics' Poll
  Critics Poll   Dean's List
1975: It's Been a Soft Year for Hard Rock
  Critics Poll   Dean's List
1976: Critics Cheer Debut Albums
  Critics Poll   Dean's List
1977: Pazz & Joppers Dig Pistols--What Else Is New?
  Critics Poll   Dean's List
1978: New Wave Hegemony and the Bebop Question
  Critics Poll   Dean's List
1979: The Pazz & Jop Critics' Poll (Almost) Grows Up
  Critics Poll   Dean's List
1980: The Year of the Lollapalooza
  Critics Poll   Dean's List
1981: The Year the Rolling Stones Lost the Pennant
  Critics Poll   Dean's List
1982: Funkentelechy vs. the Placebo Syndrome
  Critics Poll   Dean's List
1983: Who Else? A Goddamn Critics Band, That's Who Else
  Critics Poll   Dean's List
1984: The Rise of the Corporate Single
  Critics Poll   Dean's List
1985: Virtue Rewarded
  Critics Poll   Dean's List
1986: Township Jive Conquers the World
  Critics Poll   Dean's List
1987: Significance and Its Discontents in the Year of the Blip
  Critics Poll   Dean's List
1988: Dancing on a Logjam
  Critics Poll   Dean's List
1989: New Kids on the Block
  Critics Poll   Dean's List
1990: Hard News in a Soft Year
  Critics Poll   Dean's List
1991: Reality Used to Be a Friend of Ours
  Critics Poll   Dean's List
1992: Between a Rock and a Hard Place
  Critics Poll   Dean's List
1993: Playing to Win
  Critics Poll   Dean's List
1994: Hegemony Sez Who?
  Critics Poll   Dean's List
1995: Lost in the Soundscape
  Critics Poll   Dean's List
1996: Don't Believe the Gripe
  Critics Poll   Dean's List
1997: The Year of No Next Big Thing
  Critics Poll   Dean's List
1998: La-Di-Da-Di-Di? Or La-Di-Da-Di-Da?
  Critics Poll   Dean's List
1999: Flak on Both Sides
  Critics Poll   Dean's List
2000: Albums While They Last
  Critics Poll   Dean's List
2001: Not Just Your Old Man's Takeover
  Critics Poll   Dean's List
2002: Party in Hard Times
  Critics Poll   Dean's List
2003: Reasons to Bother
  Critics Poll   Dean's List
2004: Freedom for Every-Which-Where!
  Critics Poll   Dean's List
2005: Listening in Real Time
  Critics Poll   Dean's List
2006:   Critics Poll   Dean's List
2007:   Critics Poll   Dean's List
2008:   Dean's List
2009:   Dean's List
2010:   Dean's List
2011:   Dean's List
2012:   Dean's List
2013:   Dean's List
2014:   Dean's List
2015:   Dean's List
2016:   Dean's List
2017: Personal, Political, and Otherwise
  Dean's List
2018: The Dean's List
  Dean's List
2019: The Dean's List
  Dean's List
2020: The Dean's List
  Dean's List
2021: The Dean's List
  Dean's List
2022: The Dean's List
  Dean's List
2023: The Dean's List
  Dean's List

Note that the year-end lists published here are as they were published at the time. These lists have been subsequently revised in the Consumer Guide books.


The Pazz & Jop polls were a logical successor to the polls published by Jazz & Pop magazine in the late 1960s.