What does Pitchfork do best?

Phillips: I think what Pitchfork does best is discovering new bands and presenting them in an informed critical capacity. Not just saying “here’s a new band, they’re awesome!” but getting a little deeper than that. How has the site changed? It’s changed a lot. It used to just be Ryan [Schriber, editor-in-chief] in his bedroom. Now, there’s a full-time staff of about 15. There’s an office in New York as well. It’s just gotten way, way, way more content then it used to be. There’s a music festival now and Pitchfork TV, a second website — so just a lot bigger. What are the goals? The goal is to turn people on to new music and engage in informed, critical discussion about that music and to give our opinions about how we feel about music and — from my perspective, I run the news section — just to keep people up on bands they care about, or don’t care about. Pitchfork is often viewed as the tastemaker for underground music. Why is it so influential? First of all, I don’t think we’re the ...  more