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NPR : Reviewing the Record Reviewers

Posted In: Editorial — January 6, 2005 @ 8:36 am — Peter

NPR : Reviewing the Record Reviewers

This is a great commentary I heard on NPR when driving home the other day. For a while now, I have wondered if I am the only one completely missing what music pundits are trying to communicate in their reviews. Being out of the loop on popular music, I sometimes skim the album review section of the Westword, however, often these reviews go off the deep end with colorful language and philosophical interpretation of the tracks. As the author of this commentary put it, I would prefer to know if new albums/artists bear any resemblance to the artists I listened to growing up. I don’t have time to decrypt audiophile jargon, scouring for the meaning and context of the flowery language reviewers insist on using.

Recently, a new employee joined SunCorp and we somehow came to the topic of music. Coincidently, he happens to share many of the same tastes in music as I do. Granted I listened to these genres over five years ago, I sometimes pop in a Front 242 CD for my fill of beats and syth noise from time to time. It just so happens this coworker has actively followed many of these groups, some of which have split up and formed new groups, and borrowed me a few CDs. So far, I really like what I have heard. This being the case, perhaps I will rely less on the musical tastes of complete strangers in the newspaper and solicit the opinions of those I find liking the same tunes I do. Seems to be less risky, especially since I don’t have any money to spend on CDs and my acquisition of music usually comes in the form of spending hours scouring the Internet for MP3 downloads.

In the meantime, Internet radio shall suffice…

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