Jillian Mapes

Jill Mapes has worked as a music journalist, critic, and editor in New York for the last 16 years, including eight years on staff at Pitchfork. In October 2024, she and four other ex-Pitchforkers founded the independent music publication Hearing Things, which has since become 100% worker owned and largely sustained by subscriptions. Her deeply felt criticism and artist features appear there weekly. Mapes also hosts the site's flagship podcast, a playful critics' roundtable dubbed Waste or Taste.

At Pitchfork she edited deep dives on everything from TikTok hits to queer nightlife to big ticketing, and wrote prominent reviews and profiles of Angel Olsen, Beach House, Mitski, Big Thief, Caroline Polachek, and many others on the brink of a breakthrough. Before that, Mapes held editorial roles at New York Magazine/Vulture, Billboard, CBS Radio, and the Indianapolis Star. She originally hails from Youngstown, Ohio, and graduated from the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University.

The best thing that ever happened to Jill on assignment was getting unsolicited life advice from Cher (“Always wear black eyeliner and ‘do you’”); the worst thing was getting doxxed by Swifties after giving folklore an 8.0.