Jason Gross over at the periodically interesting blogzilla, Pop Matters, has complied his list of best and worst music writing of 2009. Gross writes a well-reported recap on music media in 2009 (the deaths and rebirths) and outlines his criteria for good, the bad and the ugly. On the side of goodness, Gross mentions an interesting rumination by the Washington Post's Anne Midgette, “Do Critics Matter?” ; the fun multimedia extravaganza, “Countdown: Top 10 Most Metal Classical Music Pieces” by Earfarm's Matt “Ignores Black Metal” Tyson; and a shout out to Greg Tate's “Michael Jackson–the Man in Our Mirror penned for our universal overlords, the Village Voice. As for stinkers, take a minute with the “From MTV to YouTube: When the Net Pays Everyone But the Musician,” by the Huffington Post contributor Jeff Price. The piece starts off strong with insightful critiques about the music industry, then, like an M. Night Shyamalan movie, Price reveals that (SPOILER ALERT) he's the CEO of a company to fix it all. Classy. If you feel like you could write better than these selected works, Popmatters is taking on new music bloggers/ critics right now. Just remember the underlying message of this music journalism critique: Content is king.

Hey, look at these singing dogs! (after the jump)

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