Towards a Popular Music Criticism of Replenishment

Attitudes of popular music critics are analyzed so as to identify the various “exhaustion” narratives which have arisen in the wake of the post-Beatles dissolution of rock and pop music into a multitude of genres and sub-genres. It is argued that criticism might better serve audiences by focusing less upon narrow, nostalgic treatments of canonical rock music and more upon a narrative of replenishment for which critical nomadism and the labyrinthine nature of the contemporary musical landscape are central themes.