5 ms·

> maybe find someone who's a fan to write the piece Objectivity in journalism may not exist, but most poor quality journalism I find is directly correlated to

by Andrex 4y ago

> maybe find someone who's a fan to write the piece Objectivity in journalism may not exist, but most poor quality journalism I find is directly correlated to how big a fanboy that person is about the particular subject. You need intelligence when approaching criticism far more than reverence, is I guess what I'm saying. If someone can intelligently relate to me specifically why they might not like the Beatles, or specific song, in a way that I can understand, I would consider that person more trustworthy than the alternative. But that relies on me, or rather the reader/audience, to be open and receptive to challenging opinions.

skybrian 4y ago
Well, okay, but here's my personal experience. When I created a Mastodon account, I decided to use it to post mini-reviews of accordion-related music from YouTube. (Because I play accordion and I'm interested in hearing unfamiliar kinds of music.) I look around on YouTube for recordings I like. There are lots of recordings I don't like for whatever reason. I don't post them. Why bother? So, nowadays, I'm not sure why anyone should spend time reviewing music they don't like. At all. What's the point? The slush pile is vast. Make the best collection you can of stuff you like. If other people find it good then maybe they'll start to trust your judgement. Admittedly, I have a tiny audience, a newspaper is a little different, and sometimes people like to read a good takedown. But it seems unnecessary?
- galaxyLogic 4y ago
  > But it seems unnecessary? If something is extremely popular but you perceive something wrong about it of course that's a good reason to write about it. At the same time many critics seem to just try to put artists down because that makes it seem the critic is above the artist because he can see the wrongness in the artist. Critics are wannabe artists.
  - skybrian 4y ago
    I don't see any upside in trying to tell people that some music they love is crap. It's different for other media, like an article about how a book or TV show or movie is historically inaccurate is sometimes fun.
    - pbhjpbhj 4y ago
      Why is it different for music, to the situation with movies, say? Music can have a narrative that is counter factual too.
      - skybrian 4y ago
        Can you name a song with lyrics that you'd consider to be misinformation rather than poetry or fiction? Seems like it would be pretty rare.
    - galaxyLogic 4y ago
      > I don't see any upside in trying to tell people that some music they love is crap. I guess it's just the wrongheaded logic of criticism: The critic must prove they are doing their job. They are "critics", right? Therefore they must criticize. :-)
ilyt 4y ago
You still need to be in the know to review it properly tho and that often is married with being the fan of the thing. That happens more in video games reviews than in movies but often reviewer reviews some title in niche genre well but it isn't anything worth attention for actual fan because it doesn't do anything special over different games in the title or is outright going backward. But the "omni-reviewer" that reviews everything that comes their way won't know that, they play say RTS or some strategy game once every 3 years so anything that seems pretty competent gets a good score even if compared to the peers in the genre it might be weak. Ability to communicate flaws doesn't help here really that much if reviewer by nature of their generalism doesn't even have point of comparison.
- lelanthran 4y ago
  > they play say RTS or some strategy game once every 3 years so anything that seems pretty competent gets a good score even if compared to the peers in the genre it might be weak. That's not how it is at all for games, though, is it? I mean, there are very few niche genres that gamers (even if they aren't reviewers) haven't tried. A games reviewer will at least have already played the most popular games for each of the popular genres. You will find it hard to find a games reviewer who hasn't played the top RTS games, the top FPS games, the top Mobile games, the top RPG games, etc. > That happens more in video games reviews than in movies but often reviewer reviews some title in niche genre well but it isn't anything worth attention for actual fan because it doesn't do anything special over different games in the title or is outright going backward. But niche genres don't do well anyway. If the game is not a side-scroller, a platformer, a dungeon crawler, an RTS, an FPS, a point-and-click, an ARPG, a hidden object game, an RPG ... what exactly is it[1]? If the game doesn't fall neatly into a genre, then it's not going to do well anyway, because ordinary players won't be able to review just like the reviewer won't be able to review it - what exactly do they compare it to? [1] This is one of the problems that plagued Brigador, which didn't neatly fit into a genre and was a failure.

by Andrex 4y ago

skybrian 4y ago

Well, okay, but here's my personal experience. When I created a Mastodon account, I decided to use it to post mini-reviews of accordion-related music from YouTube. (Because I play accordion and I'm interested in hearing unfamiliar kinds of music.) I look around on YouTube for recordings I like. There are lots of recordings I don't like for whatever reason. I don't post them. Why bother? So, nowadays, I'm not sure why anyone should spend time reviewing music they don't like. At all. What's the point? The slush pile is vast. Make the best collection you can of stuff you like. If other people find it good then maybe they'll start to trust your judgement. Admittedly, I have a tiny audience, a newspaper is a little different, and sometimes people like to read a good takedown. But it seems unnecessary?

galaxyLogic 4y ago
> But it seems unnecessary? If something is extremely popular but you perceive something wrong about it of course that's a good reason to write about it. At the same time many critics seem to just try to put artists down because that makes it seem the critic is above the artist because he can see the wrongness in the artist. Critics are wannabe artists.
- skybrian 4y ago
  I don't see any upside in trying to tell people that some music they love is crap. It's different for other media, like an article about how a book or TV show or movie is historically inaccurate is sometimes fun.
  - pbhjpbhj 4y ago
    Why is it different for music, to the situation with movies, say? Music can have a narrative that is counter factual too.
    - skybrian 4y ago
      Can you name a song with lyrics that you'd consider to be misinformation rather than poetry or fiction? Seems like it would be pretty rare.
  - galaxyLogic 4y ago
    > I don't see any upside in trying to tell people that some music they love is crap. I guess it's just the wrongheaded logic of criticism: The critic must prove they are doing their job. They are "critics", right? Therefore they must criticize. :-)

ilyt 4y ago

You still need to be in the know to review it properly tho and that often is married with being the fan of the thing. That happens more in video games reviews than in movies but often reviewer reviews some title in niche genre well but it isn't anything worth attention for actual fan because it doesn't do anything special over different games in the title or is outright going backward. But the "omni-reviewer" that reviews everything that comes their way won't know that, they play say RTS or some strategy game once every 3 years so anything that seems pretty competent gets a good score even if compared to the peers in the genre it might be weak. Ability to communicate flaws doesn't help here really that much if reviewer by nature of their generalism doesn't even have point of comparison.

lelanthran 4y ago
> they play say RTS or some strategy game once every 3 years so anything that seems pretty competent gets a good score even if compared to the peers in the genre it might be weak. That's not how it is at all for games, though, is it? I mean, there are very few niche genres that gamers (even if they aren't reviewers) haven't tried. A games reviewer will at least have already played the most popular games for each of the popular genres. You will find it hard to find a games reviewer who hasn't played the top RTS games, the top FPS games, the top Mobile games, the top RPG games, etc. > That happens more in video games reviews than in movies but often reviewer reviews some title in niche genre well but it isn't anything worth attention for actual fan because it doesn't do anything special over different games in the title or is outright going backward. But niche genres don't do well anyway. If the game is not a side-scroller, a platformer, a dungeon crawler, an RTS, an FPS, a point-and-click, an ARPG, a hidden object game, an RPG ... what exactly is it[1]? If the game doesn't fall neatly into a genre, then it's not going to do well anyway, because ordinary players won't be able to review just like the reviewer won't be able to review it - what exactly do they compare it to? [1] This is one of the problems that plagued Brigador, which didn't neatly fit into a genre and was a failure.