Nit Picks, Pet Peeves and Guilty Pleasures #1: Reviewing the Review

Reviewing the Review: A Critique of Critiquing Critiques Part I

Lately I feel like I hear a lot of criticism of reviews. Not just music reviews, but movie reviews and video game reviews and more. I was discussing Green Day's latest album, 21st Century Breakdown with a friend, and I noted that Rolling Stone had given the album 4.5/5 stars, and my friend responded with something along the lines of, "yeah but rolling stone writes terrible reviews." I have also noted a surprising amount of internet hate towards Video Game reviewer Ben "Yahtzee" Crowshaw (Zero Punctuation) for the amount of hate that he shovels out onto fan favorites such as "Super Smash Brothers Brawl." In light of this, I've decided to start off my "Nit Picks" series with a discussion of reviews in order to give a little insight into how I approach my reviews. 

The Purpose of The Review

With so much hate surrounding reviews and reviewers, its easy to forget what purpose reviews are intended to serve. It's important to remember that just like music, reviews will provide different things for different readers, so I'm going to take this chance to discuss the most prevalent reactions that reviews might bring about. First off, a review is a chance for the reader to get a sense of an album, and its most common function is to help the reader decide whether or not they want to get the album. Unfortunately, this has lead to the common assumption that a review should be the final word on an album, dictating whether or not it is a good or bad album, and thus leading to the mentality that if a reviewer dislikes an album that the reader likes, then the reviewer must be personally attacking the reader's musical taste. This kind of thinking is what leads to the unprecedented amount of hate being leveled against reviewers. That being said, I do think that  lot of reviewers have moved away from the core purpose of a review. Many reviews spend too much time indulging the reviewers previous conceptions of the band in question. An album review is a chance to discuss and evaluate a single album, not an entire discography. 

Back to the point- Aside from providing a evaluation of an album to assist in the readers decision process, many readers read reviews to see what other people think of albums that they have strong opinions about. Everyone loves it when people agree with them, so why not right? This is one of my personal favorite uses of the review, because it often starts a dialogue about an album, especially when the reader and the reviewer disagree. It provides an opportunity to really think about what you liked and didn't like an album and that might stack up against someone else's perception of the same material. You probably wont start talking to the reviewer about their review, but a difference of opinions will most likely lead to discussion with a friend or fellow music enthusiast. 

In Review, a music review should be used to A) Give a solid Evaluation and Opinion on an album and B) Create a jumping off point for a conversation about music. 

Stick Around for Reviewing the Review Part 2: The "Unbiased " Review.