Music critics: you either don’t care about them or you hate them. Within this occupation there are very few that are even plausible. I know it’s kind of ironic considering I review music on this column, but I’m not trying to impress people with my musical genius and have terrible takes at the same time. I also don’t consider myself a critic.
I think it really all comes down to how self-centered and smug many of them seem to be. So many will be about an album or song, and the review ends up just being long sentences of nonsense for a majority of it. It almost seems like they’re trying to impress everyone with their taste.
At one point in time, being a music critic was a reputable profession. You weren’t hated by readers and you could make a decent income. However, in today’s day and age, journalism has been expelled to the nearly same respect level as Starbucks at the moment.
I went to The Pitchfork Review’s website and took a look at a couple reviews, since they are a somewhat reputable website. Even when the reviews were positive, they are simply just a bore-fest. It felt like paragraphs upon paragraphs about the music, and then a couple paragraphs about who-knows-what.
Another reviewer that I’ve kind of kept track of for a while is Anthony Fantano. He’s a YouTuber/Streamer/Influencer that obviously reviews music. His ratings have always been up and down and just all over the place. And that’s the issue I’m gonna go over.
Recently, he reviewed Sexyy Red’s Hottest Hood Princess as a “Strong 8”. I’m not a hater of Sexyy Red, but after taking a dabble into the album, it’s no where close to a “Strong 8” compared to other albums he’s rated sixes and sevens.
Here are a list of albums he’s rated less than Hottest Hood Princess:
Ultraviolence – Lana Del Rey (Light 2)
Blank Face – Schoolboy Q (Strong 5)
Deftones – Koi No Yokan (Decent 6)
AT.LONG.LAST.A$AP – A$AP Rocky (Light 5)
Take Care – Drake (Strong 6)
Nothing Was The Same – Drake (Light 5)
Big Fish Theory – Vince Staples (Decent 6)
Watching Movies With The Sound Off – Mac Miller (Strong 6)
Because The Internet – Childish Gambino (Strong 5)
ANTI – Rihanna (Strong 4)
This isn’t intended to be an Anthony Fantano hate post, but he’s just a large reason for today’s media hatred for music critics. This hobby or profession, whatever the writers consider themselves, is dying and it’s kind of sad/funny to see.
Thanks.
