I can name thirty or forty music writers, just of the top of my head. But Robert Christgau’s an old favorite. For years, I read his “Consumer Guides” and other writings in CREEM Magazine and then in the Village Voice. I use his three Volume (1970-1999) books of reviews quite a bit.
I don’t alway agree with him, of course. Sometimes he loves stuff I don’t like and vice versa. Yet in many ways, his tastes are similar to my own. His writing has led me toward a lot of music that I love.
He writes primarily about modern popular music. Yet he does have reviews on pre-1970 music. You can look up Chuck Berry, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Thelonious Monk or Fats Waller and he’ll have a few reviews.
He was enthusiatic about early, “old school” rap and hip hop and still keeps up with that. Also, he was into “world music” (especially African) when not many people were.
To quote: “The Consumer Guide database has graded 14354 albums from 6149 artists on 2577 labels, with 12393 reviews.”
It’s easy to navigate, with everything listed by surname or band name.
New reviews are posted on MSN and soon enough end up on his own site as well.
old format: http://music.msn.com/music/consumerguide/2006/12/
new format: http://music.msn.com/music/consumerguide/
I Hear Music 
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