Support
Looper's Delight
|
Support |
|
|
"Freedom of speech" is OK in principal, but there can be other factors that influence a review as well. I used to write the occasional review for Showcase, an arts & entertainment magazine in the Seacoast New Hampshire area (midway between Boston and Portland, ME) and I definitely had an agenda regarding local artists: in the interest of supporting the "scene" and helping local acts build a following, I was reluctant to say anything negative about local acts. If the CD was "good", I would praise it, while if it was just plain bad, I would pass on the review and not say anything at all. While weaknesses would be mentioned, I'd always make sure to balance them by finding and emphasizing the artists' strengths as well. Maybe the sense of community we share at LD has caused me to see US in the same light; we're local, but just not necessarily geographically close! Also, with the right to an opinion, the reviewer also has the responsibility to have his facts straight. A review for an album that I played on harped on the fact that the singer was using a "phony British accent", and dismissed the whole album on the basis of one song, or rather, one *word* in one song. Turns out that his opinion was based on mishearing the word "glossy" (describing photographs) as "glassy" which didn't even make sense in context, so he slagged the album, which otherwise got very positive reviews. The band posted the bad review on their site all the same, though, because it looked really funny next to the others. No less a pundit than Gene Simmons once said regarding critics "I don't care what they're saying about me, as long as they're talking about me." -t- --- Scott Hansen <scott-a-hansen@uiowa.edu> wrote: > i do believe in "freedom of speech". a reviewer has > the right > to say what ever they believe-whether good or bad. > freedom comes w/ good and bad. > i always say: freedom is a dangerous thing. > also, one must take things in stride too. __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com