Concerning Music Criticism

Unsomnambulist

Unsomnambulist

Staff member
Zeeba Neighba said:
80's Throwback Day for Me:
Started with an 80's playlist then moved to:

Bryan Adams - Reckless (1984)

220px-Bryan_Adams_-_Reckless.jpg


I often go to allmusic to get my album cover art (RYM still not coming up at work) and, lo and behold, Adams did not pop up on their website. Surely I had mistyped his name or maybe I was blanking on something completely about it.

Then I found this:
https://sonicmoremusic.wordpress.com/2013/08/29/whats-going-on-between-bryan-adams-and-allmusic/

Article from 2013 - I never realized it but I guess it's been an issue for awhile
Curiouser and curioser

Anyway, moved on to:
Madonna - Madonna (1983)

220px-Madonna%2C_debut_album_cover.png
Click to expand...

I just checked and Bryan Adams is on RYM, so his beef is specific to Allmusic, it looks like. Maybe he got pissed about a review.
 
Zeeba Neighba said:
80's Throwback Day for Me:
Started with an 80's playlist then moved to:

Bryan Adams - Reckless (1984)

220px-Bryan_Adams_-_Reckless.jpg


I often go to allmusic to get my album cover art (RYM still not coming up at work) and, lo and behold, Adams did not pop up on their website. Surely I had mistyped his name or maybe I was blanking on something completely about it.

Then I found this:
https://sonicmoremusic.wordpress.com/2013/08/29/whats-going-on-between-bryan-adams-and-allmusic/

Article from 2013 - I never realized it but I guess it's been an issue for awhile
Curiouser and curioser
Click to expand...
I'm with Rick in guessing it's due to a unfavorable review. More like, several.

One thing I've disliked about AMG for a long time is how, especially in the early days, it appears some reviewers were responsible for large swaths of genres. Sometimes a single reviewer reviewed nearly every album in an artists'/bands' career. When that reviewer turned out to be ... not particularly a fan of that artist, unfavorable review after unfavorable review litters that artists' AMG discography. It's especially unfortunate when it appears the reviewer is not only not a fan of a particular artist, but not a fan of a particular sub-genre.

Smooth Jazz is but one example that pops to my mind. Take the saxophonist Najee, who could be aligned as a next generation Grover Washington Jr. He's sold millions of records and has had a nice career. If a music fan went to AMG to discover Najee, that fan would never give his music a try. Najee's first two albums are rated 2 stars and don't even have an official review to go along with the official ratings. His third album was a huge hit and AMG gave it 3 stars. The official reviewer, obviously disdainful of everything Smooth Jazz is pleasant yet dismissive, providing backhanded compliments that never result in more than 3 stars.

That's my only problem with the site. I like the site and think it's a great resource, but they should not allow official reviews to stand when it's obvious the reviewer doesn't appreciate the genre of the album.

I'd guess that Bryan Adams had a series of bad reviews written by one or two reviewers who simply don't like the type of music he made. And he told the company to either have someone else review his work or remove him from their site. If that's what happened, I'm with Bryan, I'd love to hear from Bryan what happened.
 
Last edited:
JazzyRandy said:
I'm with Rick in guessing it's due to a unfavorable review. More like, several.

One thing I've disliked about AMG for a long time is how, especially in the early days, it appears some reviewers were responsible for large swaths of genres. Sometimes a single reviewer reviewed nearly every album in an artists'/bands' career. When that reviewer turned out to be ... not particularly a fan of that artist, unfavorable review after unfavorable review litters that artists' AMG discography. It's especially unfortunate when it appears the reviewer is not only not a fan of a particular artist, but not a fan of a particular sub-genre.

Smooth Jazz is but one example that pops to my mind. Take the saxophonist Najee, who could be aligned as a next generation Grover Washington Jr. He's sold millions of records and has had a nice career. If a music fan went to AMG to discover Najee, that fan would never give his music a try. Najee's first two albums are rated 2 stars and don't even have an official review to go along with the official ratings. His third album was a huge hit and AMG gave it 3 stars. The official reviewer, obviously disdainful of everything Smooth Jazz is pleasant yet dismissive, providing backhanded compliments that never result in more than 3 stars.

That's my only problem with the site. I like the site and think it's a great resource, but they should not allow official reviews to stand when it's obvious the reviewer doesn't appreciate the genre of the album.

I'd guess that Bryan Adams had a series of bad reviews written by one or two reviewers who simply don't like the type of music he made. And he told the company to either have someone else review his work or remove him from their site. If that's what happened, I'm with Bryan, I'd love to hear from Bryan what happened.
Click to expand...
Back in the day, I was invited to write reviews for AMG. That was way before I had anything published, so they were just looking for warm bodies.

The pay? Some tiny amount per word that was less than minimum wage. I was given a huge number of country artists from which to choose. Doubtless I could have slimed Merle Travis and no one would have cared.

Ultimately I decided that I was better off to write about music for fun and not for profit.
 
I have a thought. One of many, I hope.

I'm very interested in this train of thought, but feel we will lose it in and to the WAYLT January 2019 thread, as the month turns over. Could we move it to a criticism of music criticism thread, so that we could add to it with a view toward posteriority posterity?
 
I imported the comments from the WAYLT thread, because all threads don't deserve to die.

Below was said with reference to Ryan, but Bryan, Adams:

Nickyboy said:
He's got a beef with AMG.
Click to expand...
Unsomnambulist said:
He loves it when people request "Summer of '69" at concerts!

Edit:

https://people.com/celebrity/ryan-adams-and-bryan-adams-celebrate-birthdays-on-nov-5/

Also this:

Ryan Adams on his 'beautiful' bromance with Bryan Adams.

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/q/blog/ryan-adams-on-his-beautiful-bromance-with-bryan-adams-1.3973882
Click to expand...


For more on the Bryan Adams tiff with AMG, you could try to slog through this kerfuffle.

https://rateyourmusic.com/board_message/message_id_is_4827788

I tried, but came up empty-headed handed.
 
Last edited:
I have a solution. Currently, AMG has one (sometimes zero) official review per album, and possibly one or two fan reviews whose ratings do not factor into the official reviewer's rating. One of the positives of the AMG site is that its ratings aren't generated by "the ignorant masses". Of course, one of the positives of RYM is reading the reviews of the ignorant masses ... but I digress.

I understand why AMG originally limited each album to one official review. They were having enough trouble attracting enough official reviewers to review all the albums in the world. It would not make sense to allow reviewers to review any album they wanted. If that were possible, every Beatles album would have 100 official reviews and no one would ever get around to reviewing Sonny Stitt. And the site would suffer for the lack of attention to non-top albums.

But now that the site has reached a critical mass of reviews, maybe it's time to open up the reviewing process. Allow at least 2 official reviews per album. Maybe even three. That way, if the first official reviewer really doesn't like Ryan Adams but ended up with the assignment, Ryan Adams doesn't have to suffer with one unjust review being that album's legacy on AMG. It's quite possible the second or third official reviewer to take up the task would be a fan of that particular album.

Ultimately, AMG should allow any reviewer cleared to review a certain category to review any album in that category. There's no harm in having 7 reviews for A Hard Day's Night or It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back, or The Joshua Tree, or Mary, or Duotones. Somehow, the same official AMG reviewer got the task for all five of those seminal albums across varied genres.

It can only help the website and its users to see more official opinions about each album, than having only a single review. The official AMG review ranking could factor in all official reviews rankings.
 
Last edited:
Interesting thoughts, Randy. Prog Archives seems to follow your suggested model of fans writing for fans. I enjoy reading different opinions too, but find sifting through them to figure out which ones are worthwhile to be time consuming.

AMG is a peculiar creature. It was started by music geeks, who were the guys in charge when I was involved. Subsequently, it has been the subject of several big money leveraged buyouts, most recently to Blinkx. Here's their press release:

"All Media represents an important step forward in the Company’s strategy to build a complete digital advertising platform for brand-safe, cross-screen advertising at scale. Owning and operating a sizeable, high quality audience enhances the Company’s ability to continuously test, filter and score its aggregate supply to enhance traffic quality and performance. All Media includes desktop and mobile properties, with a growing user base. The Acquisition also brings a close-knit and tenured team with decades of experience in building and maintaining consumer web properties – providing the infrastructure and leadership needed to grow the Company’s organic presence."

So, they are strictly in the business of attracting eyeballs. The reviews are just the "supply" that allows them to "own and operate an audience" (that would be us). Sounds like either a drug ring or a 13th Amendment violation to me.
 
Ojai Sam said:
Interesting thoughts, Randy. Prog Archives seems to follow your suggested model of fans writing for fans. I enjoy reading different opinions too, but find sifting through them to figure out which ones are worthwhile to be time consuming.

AMG is a peculiar creature. It was started by music geeks, who were the guys in charge when I was involved. Subsequently, it has been the subject of several big money leveraged buyouts, most recently to Blinkx. Here's their press release:

"All Media represents an important step forward in the Company’s strategy to build a complete digital advertising platform for brand-safe, cross-screen advertising at scale. Owning and operating a sizeable, high quality audience enhances the Company’s ability to continuously test, filter and score its aggregate supply to enhance traffic quality and performance. All Media includes desktop and mobile properties, with a growing user base. The Acquisition also brings a close-knit and tenured team with decades of experience in building and maintaining consumer web properties – providing the infrastructure and leadership needed to grow the Company’s organic presence."

So, they are strictly in the business of attracting eyeballs. The reviews are just the "supply" that allows them to "own and operate an audience" (that would be us). Sounds like either a drug ring or a 13th Amendment violation to me.
Click to expand...
We don't need no steenking badges and incidents of slavery!
 
Ojai Sam said:
Interesting thoughts, Randy. Prog Archives seems to follow your suggested model of fans writing for fans. I enjoy reading different opinions too, but find sifting through them to figure out which ones are worthwhile to be time consuming.

AMG is a peculiar creature. It was started by music geeks, who were the guys in charge when I was involved. Subsequently, it has been the subject of several big money leveraged buyouts, most recently to Blinkx. Here's their press release:

"All Media represents an important step forward in the Company’s strategy to build a complete digital advertising platform for brand-safe, cross-screen advertising at scale. Owning and operating a sizeable, high quality audience enhances the Company’s ability to continuously test, filter and score its aggregate supply to enhance traffic quality and performance. All Media includes desktop and mobile properties, with a growing user base. The Acquisition also brings a close-knit and tenured team with decades of experience in building and maintaining consumer web properties – providing the infrastructure and leadership needed to grow the Company’s organic presence."

So, they are strictly in the business of attracting eyeballs. The reviews are just the "supply" that allows them to "own and operate an audience" (that would be us). Sounds like either a drug ring or a 13th Amendment violation to me.
Click to expand...

Sounds like somebody trying to bullshit venture capitalists.
 
Unsomnambulist said:
Sounds like somebody trying to bullshit venture capitalists.
Click to expand...
Just more personal information peddling.

Via the login information each user provides, data aggregators can link your AMG account to your IMDB account, to your Yahoo fantasy sports account, to your forum for car enthusiasts account, to your LinkdIn account, to your Zillow account, to your Trivago account, to your genetic research account. Then they can determine that divorced middle-aged dentists from Portland who travel in airplanes 2-5 times a year have online trading accounts and like the Rolling Stones and Pixar movies are more likely to prefer South American wines than microbrewery beers from the midwest.

Pop Quiz: Take the same profile, remove Pixar and Portland, insert documentaries and Cleveland, and the beverage of choice would be ..._____________

Ch-ching. They just made another .00350 cents!
 
JazzyRandy said:
Just more personal information peddling.

Via the login information each user provides, data aggregators can link your AMG account to your IMDB account, to your Yahoo fantasy sports account, to your forum for car enthusiasts account, to your LinkdIn account, to your Zillow account, to your Trivago account, to your genetic research account. Then they can determine that divorced middle-aged dentists from Portland who travel in airplanes 2-5 times a year have online trading accounts and like the Rolling Stones and Pixar movies are more likely to prefer South American wines than microbrewery beers from the midwest.

Pop Quiz: Take the same profile, remove Pixar and Portland, insert documentaries and Cleveland, and the beverage of choice would be ..._____________

Ch-ching. They just made another .00350 cents!
Click to expand...
You know more about me than I like. :thumbsdown:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Old Uncle Toe
The MG Album Club - #45 - Mahalia Jackson - The World's Greatest Gospel Singer
Replies
5
Views
603
Ojai Sam
Ojai Sam
Zeeba Neighba
A Century of Music
39 40 41
Replies
810
Views
67K
Unsomnambulist
Unsomnambulist
Zeeba Neighba
Music Gourmets Presents 60 Years of Great Music - 1963
2
Replies
29
Views
3K
Mattafett
Mattafett
Back
Top