The Future/Present/Past of Music Reviews

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paraphrase of an actual review I read this morning in a national magazine of indie culture:

"I don't like this, but you might, so download an Mp3 and make up your own mind."

Is this a good thing or a demeaning thing?

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 7 November 2003 15:25 (twenty-two years ago)

I get the feeling that writing reviews wasn't this guy's first career choice.

― Maxwell von Bismarck (maxwell von bismarck), Friday, 7 November 2003 15:31 (twenty-two years ago)

ha, about half of MRR's reviews have read like that for years: "I didn't like it, but this isn't really my thing, people who like this kinda thing will probably be into it so give it a try!!!"

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Friday, 7 November 2003 15:33 (twenty-two years ago)

I think I appreciate the reviewers' humililty when they do this, but it's definitely misplaced.

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 7 November 2003 15:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Well, on one level it's a bit of a cop-out, but on another it's kinda magnanimous - I think it's great that modern technomonologicalism allows this kind of thing to exist: "Anyway, enough of my yakking, who cares what I think? listen to it yourself!"

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Friday, 7 November 2003 15:44 (twenty-two years ago)

yes, but the reader already knows that. when you read a review you don't expect the guy to say 'but then, who am i? and what do i know?'

― joan vich (joan vich), Friday, 7 November 2003 15:46 (twenty-two years ago)

I disagree with your post, joan, but you might agree with it. Check it out for yourself:
The Future/Present/Past of Music Reviews

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 7 November 2003 15:47 (twenty-two years ago)

when you read a review you don't expect the guy to say 'but then, who am i? and what do i know?'

No, you don't necessarily expect it, but it happens more than you might think - don't forget, people who write for a living often end up saddled with records to review, about which they have little knowledge and with which they have no affinity whatsoever. It's far more honest to 'fess up and say, "Fuck knows, not my cup of tea" than it would be just to be fucking rude cos the record makes no sense to you.

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Friday, 7 November 2003 15:50 (twenty-two years ago)

The old "I don't know much about [...] but I know what I like" option always seems the best to me. I mean, obviously that would be a bit shit in a two-page art spread in the Guardian, but in a quick catch-all CD review it seems the best way of going about things.

― DJ Mencap (DJ Mencap), Friday, 7 November 2003 15:53 (twenty-two years ago)

huckleberry mann, i'm still laughing out loud

― joan vich (joan vich), Friday, 7 November 2003 15:59 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't ever take what a reviewer writes as gospel, but music reviews are an important part of my life. (Thank you, really, to all of you out there!) I'm not really as interested in reviews that are about how clever the reviewer is (I know clever people myself). My need to search out all the great music that's out there relies on mostly the written word (radio is no help here). I have learned to read "through" the reviews to see whether I should "check it out for myself". I don't have the technology available to me to download music. Therefore, telling me "I don't like this, but you might, so download an Mp3 and make up your own mind", doesn't help me at all.

― peepee (peepee), Friday, 7 November 2003 17:48 (twenty-two years ago)

The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy

― Jeremy (Jeremy), Friday, 7 November 2003 17:52 (twenty-two years ago)

woops, wrong thread. That was meant for the punning band names thread.

― Jeremy (Jeremy), Friday, 7 November 2003 17:53 (twenty-two years ago)

I agree that this is kind of a pointless truism to state in a review, but doesn't it get at a real question about the changing role of written music reviews in a world where it's increasingly likely that the reader can find sound-clips online and make up their own mind?

― ara, Friday, 7 November 2003 20:35 (twenty-two years ago)

As opposed to back when there were music reviews and the readers could turn on the radio or go to the store and buy the record or go to a bar and put a quarter in a jukebox or go to a club and dance to it and make up their own minds? what the hell's the difference? and why does hearing a song negate wanting to hear somebody talk about it, or play with it, or make fun of it, or say what it might it might be good for, or say why it's not so good after all, or find something in it that you might not otherwise notice? that's just bizarre to me.

― chuck, Friday, 7 November 2003 20:48 (twenty-two years ago)

New ILM thread idea:

"(Artist): RFI - Go research it yourself, lazyass."

That would be a lot of fun, wouldn't it?

― dave225 (Dave225), Friday, 7 November 2003 20:59 (twenty-two years ago)

if a reviewer doesn't feel they can do justice to the subject, they should tell their editor, not their readership.

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 7 November 2003 21:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Amen.

― Dock Miles (Dock Miles), Friday, 7 November 2003 21:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Yo, I said "changing role", not anything about negating. And the difference is huge. When I was a music-curious kid in the early 80s, there was tons of stuff I could read about in magazines and have no way to hear without buying (and sometimes no way to buy without traveling, for that matter). These days, I can almost always find clips on the net for just about anything I know exists. This changes things. It has to. Like newspaper writing changed when the papers started running pictures. Maybe it frees us from some of our descriptive responsibility, and might make writing about music more important and valuable, not less.

― ara, Saturday, 8 November 2003 04:20 (twenty-two years ago)

I always figured the point of a review was to tell me what the reviewer thought, not what I might or might not think. How the fuck does the reviewer know what I think? The reviewer doesn't even know what I had for breakfast. And who is the reviewer to give me permission to go listen to something? Gee, thanks. Etc.

I like reviews that say something interesting about something (i.e. I don't care what the reviewer had for breakfast either, unless it's somehow really really relevant, and reviewers who think I do get on my nerves), and maybe along the way give me some sense of whether or not I might be interested in the thing at hand. I like reviews that make me laugh or think about something a little differently -- and that impress me by the depth of the reviewer's knowledge only by implication, not by inscrutable "I know more than you do" references that don't do me any good but are obviously meant to impress the reviwer's roommate or editor or something.

Also, I like reviewers who are willing to declare something the best/worst/mediocrest of all time, or of this year or this month or this afternoon, without worrying about whether I'll agree or not.

― spittle (JesseFox), Saturday, 8 November 2003 22:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Most reviews are written in the presence of undeclared restraints.

Just saying what you think isn't alwys the most useful thing to do.
For example, for any album by any of these bands:

U2
Pearl Jam
Bob Dylan
Michael Jackson
Elton John
Bruce Springstein
The Rolling Stones
Coldplay
Lostprophets

If I was to write a review it would say 'this is shit', only in more words.

And most people would agree with me: more people have NOT bought albums by these acts than have bought albums by them.

On the other hand, millions of fans of these godawful chumps would disagree. I am right and they are wrong.

A review should direct people who'd like an album towards it.

Even lots of the stuff I like it would be better for me to say at the end "This is good, but DON'T buy it, but XXX instead. It's better."

― mei (mei), Sunday, 9 November 2003 12:00 (twenty-two years ago)

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