Ann Powers, meet Ann Powers.

Ann Powers, you were the subject of a good profile by Ylan Q. Mui in the Oct. 11 Washington Post Magazine. Your real name is Jayne Lytel, and you chose your blogger handle by mashing together your middle name and your grandmother’s maiden name.

Ann Powers, you are the rock critic for the Los Angeles Times, a writer so prized by your employer that you have kept your job despite having recently relocated to Tuscaloosa, Ala.

Read More “UPDATED: Post Profile Brings Up Touchy Subject: What Claim Do Writers Have on Their Bylines?” »

Apropos of nothing, a former Washington Post classical writer and a current Washington Post pop writer recently weighed in on the meaning of music criticism. J. Freedom du Lac claims that influence is no longer a widespread possibility—and hasn’t been since the era of Boston—but that it’s still possible put a subject under a new light. And Tim Page argues for professional criticism as a bulwark against factual errors and unnecessary meanness. Both are worth reading if only because, while technology has no doubt changed the pursuit (see: blogs and MP3s) and made it more difficult to do it professionally, music criticism predates recorded sound and will probably outlast its current low ebb.