Rock criticism’s musical text: Robert Christgau’s writing about words and music in song

The academic study of rock criticism assumes musical works to be interesting for the way the words and music of song reflect history, society and culture. However, how did rock critics approach the musical text? This paper examines Robert Christgau’s writing on the balance between words and music in song, 1970-89. Christgau is then examined as a music analyst, based on a smaller collection of case studies including a sustained passage on DJ Shadow. A productive dialogue is suggested between the study of rock criticism and a music theory attentive to writing as a form of music analysis