I quite specifically remember wanting to contribute as a student around the turn of the century because the site lacked, to my eager and inconsolable mind, a few things: considered writing about hip-hop and dance music, and reverence for anything pre-1974. So voting in the year-end polls, writing several dozen rap reviews, contributing work for things like the 1960s Songs feature, and later 15 or so entries in The Pitchfork 500 felt nice, even though so much of that work makes my face hurt now. On a more granular level, a lot of the grunt work done—mostly in the late, lamented Tracks section (or TRAXX), which Nick Sylvester edited, curated and co-conceived—represents a bit of lost legacy. It was there that reviews (often inscrutable, effortful, and “post-grad” but at least working to be fun—you know, bloglish, har) of Paul Wall mixtape cuts ran beside Optimo mixes and Will Oldham singles. Many people who wrote there regularly would go on to become friends (some dear!)—Pete L’Official, Zach Baron, Tom Breihan, Ryan Dombal, Pete Macia, Jamin Warren, Nick, Marc Hogan, and others. That section was unceremoniously killed at some point for some reason, doesn’t matter. What does, I think, is a lot of the wall-demolishing that took place with regard to genre and taste, notions of pop, what could written about on the site and how. Lots of mistakes were made. The fact that the section is not archived anywhere is both gift and curse. Not sure I want to read my thoughts on some middling Aloe Blacc song from 2005; though I do want to re-read the 10-song ode the TRAXX staff compiled the day after Dilla died. That was criticism as tribute and as art project and it was a lot of fun. And un-prescribed and a bit unpredictable.

Point being, since writers like Douglas Wolk and Tom Ewing have come aboard, the site, in some eyes, has gained some credibility. For others, often ignorant, it remains not just a “hivemind,” but an ostrich-headed conglomerate of ideas. That’s not right, but legacy breeds perception. If Pitchfork has become more predictable in recent years (trying to remember the last “prank” review…), it’s also built a wider berth. And that took a lot of growing pains. There’s nothing wrong with wanting something to be better.