2008 Pop Conference Bios/Abstracts

Georgia Christgau

Georgia Christgau teaches English at a public high school in Long Island City, New York. She''s worked as an editor, rock critic, journalist and teaching mentor. Recently she''s learned how to build a Web site; hers is http://pratt.edu/~gchristg/Panel(s):
Feminist Paradigms
Friday, April 11, 2008, 2:00 - 3:45Abstract:

"Just Like a Woman: The Rock Criticism of Ellen Willis"
The 1960s, Ellen Willis said, were a time when magazines saw that "there was this thing called youth culture, and they were interested in getting authentic young people to write about it." Willis was one of these. Right out of the box, her rock criticism was as unsentimental as it was passionate; her 1967 essay "Dylan" is still, for me, a paradigm of what it means to be analytical and still pass oneself off as a fan. Her readership and influence was felt immediately, and the New Yorker hired her as its first rock critic, where, between the years of 1968 and 1975, she published the bulk of her writing about music, producing articles after those years only occasionally. What was the reach of Willis'' criticism? What risks did it take? When did she fall short of expectations -- including her own? How does Willis'' contribution to journalism about rock ''n roll hold up today?