> What does he listen to then? Is he passionate about music? Is he knowledgeable? Or does he just like music in general and listens to the radio and his Spotify

> What does he listen to then? Is he passionate about music? Is he knowledgeable? Or does he just like music in general and listens to the radio and his Spotify library? I mean, Ted Gioia is probably the foremost jazz critic and historian in the country, so I’d warrant that his listening is fairly broad, and he’s definitely knowledgeable. But it’s likely broadest only within that particular sphere. I’d absolutely trust his opinions about jazz. I’d moderately trust his opinions about music more generally (except, probably, for pop). And I’d only marginally trust his opinions on culture as a whole. I’m sure he’s generally “cultured,” but that doesn’t make one an astute critic, as this piece rather illustrates. The problem with the list of theses he’s produced is that he’s trying to parlay his expertise in a fairly sheltered part of culture into an expertise on culture generally. Some of his pronouncements aren’t entirely off-base; they’re just issued with a confidence that is probably unfounded. What’s weird is that, as a jazz critic, you’d think he’d be more in-tune with forms of culture outside the mainstream, since he spends most of his time thinking about one of them…