Often decried for its snobbery, cultural criticism is said to have no effect on public choice. Other hypotheses maintain that instead of this supposed impotence, the power of prescription of certain figures or institutions alone could lead to the success of an artist or cultural good. However, because criticism is embedded in specific spaces containing their own power relations, its effect in and of itself is incommensurable. This article explores the power of prescription, its distribution in the “field of criticism,” and its circulation in “chains of prescription,” using a case study of rock music and the American webzine Pitchfork.