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A WHITE, CHART-TOPPING RAPPER criticized as “an avatar of algorithm culture.” A young, major-label rock debut dismissed as “an algorithmic fever dream.” A 20-year-old band’s first release after a five-year hiatus bashed as “more like a streaming algorithm than a coherent album.” A mainstream, established pop-rock group denounced as “the machine learning output of the Lumineers, the Chainsmokers, and a SoulCycle playlist.” Music critics are lamenting the possibility of a machi

(Clockwise from top) Tony Wilson; Depeche Mode; Daniel Miller; The Smiths; Goldfrapp; A Certain Ratio; Ian Curtis Illustration: Guardian Design It’s 40 years since Rough Trade, Mute and Factory Records used an anti-industry attitude to give a voice to the likes of Joy Division and Depeche Mode. The labels’ founders recall why they had to rip things up and start again We did have a minor armed robbery, but nobody got killed,” recalls Rough Trade’s Geoff Travis, looking back on