Robert Duncan (writer)
Encyclopedia
Career
Robert Duncan was part of the 'second wave' of writers for CreemCreem
Creem , "America's Only Rock 'n' Roll Magazine," was a monthly rock 'n' roll publication first published in March 1969 by Barry Kramer and founding editor Tony Reay. It suspended production in 1989 but received a short-lived renaissance in the early 1990s as a glossy tabloid...
magazine, becoming managing editor from 1975 to 1976. In Creem's 1977 Reader Poll, he finished third in balloting for "Best Rock Critic" behind Lester Bangs
Lester Bangs
Leslie Conway "Lester" Bangs was an American music journalist, author and musician. He wrote for Creem and Rolling Stone magazines, and was known for his leading influence in rock 'n' roll criticism....
and Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...
. During this time he was also a regular contributor to Christgau's Pazz and Jop poll.
He has written for various publications, such as Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
, Circus
Circus (magazine)
Circus was a monthly American magazine devoted to rock music. It was published from 1966 to 2006. In its heyday the magazine had a full-time editorial staff that included some of the biggest names in rock journalism, including Paul Nelson, David Fricke, and Kurt Loder, and rivaled Rolling Stone in...
, Hit Parader
Hit Parader
Hit Parader is an American music magazine focusing on the genres of hard rock, pop, and heavy metal.The magazine was originally started as a pop song lyric magazine by Charlton Publications in 1942. Charlton sold off the magazine before the company went under in 1991...
, Life
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
and City (San Francisco), and authored three books about rock music, musicians and culture, including The Noise: Notes from a Rock 'n' Roll Era (Ticknor & Fields, 1984), Kiss (Popular Library, 1978) and Only the Good Die Young: The Rock 'n' Roll Book of the Dead (Crown, 1986). His lengthy characterization of Heavy Metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
as "dismal, abysmal, terrible, horrible, and stupid music, barely music at all" has been cited multiple times by academics as evidence of the contempt most critics held for the genre.
He is also the co-founder, co-owner and executive creative director of the San Francisco-based advertising agency Duncan/Channon.