Comments on: New Music-Reviews-In-A-Flash Site Says “LOL WRDS”

By: Catbirdseat

Catbirdseat — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 01:42:18 +0000

Can't they just go ahead and listen to my iPod and enjoy my music for me, too? I mean, in this day and age, who has the time? I know I certainly don't!

Also ISO: someone to eat my food for me, go to the bathroom for me, and worry about the economy for me.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 11:03:13 +0000

Oh the heck with this. I've been doing music reviews in 140 characters or less since this summer via Twitter! [twitter.com]

By: DavidWatts

DavidWatts — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 09:32:12 +0000

@2ironic4u: [www.areyoucrappingme.com]

By: Maura Johnston

Maura Johnston — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 06:32:01 +0000

@Invisible Circus: how many people like that are left in america? in the world? for serious? and like... the quotes above are specifically ranting against music *bloggers*, who are, for the most part, hobbyists.

i'm all for the masses talking, but there's something about the semaphoric, nuance-free aspect of this venture that leaves a very bad taste in my mouth.

By: Invisible Circus

Invisible Circus — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 06:26:08 +0000

this is similar to blip.fm, blipr.com etc where your 140 characters summarize an entire song, book, movie or album. It doesn’t take the piss out of a magazine review or a critics opinion but in Web 2.0 youtube speak, everyone has something to say and most people take the opinion of their web savvy peers than they do someone who still listens to CDs sent to them by interns.

By: Maura Johnston

Maura Johnston — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:59:47 +0000

@Marth: (and i think 'the last word' is a bit different, because it zeroes in on a very specific aspect of a review instead of just blindly grasping at a clutch of words, and i hope it encourages people to click through to the full piece. plus, i don't cut off critics' thoughts at character no. 141 when i'm pulling the package together...)

By: Maura Johnston

Maura Johnston — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:58:26 +0000

@Marth: well, the whole 'what's being voted on here' trickiness is part of the problem too. (and it's also part of the problem with the whole digg paradigm in general, in which conventional-wisdom-affirming listicles get patted on the back and rewarded with traffic that's not much of a reward since it's ultimately pretty low-quality and cheap but anyway i'm rambling.) it just turns into a gigantic clusterfuck of people waving around upended and downturned thumbs, with no one really sure why there's a voice in their head telling them to have an opinion.

By: Marth

Marth — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:49:08 +0000

Sorry to post again so soon after my stupid long first post, but this was something on my mind: What are the +’s and -’s actually representing here? Approval of the album? Approval of the review’s writing? Agreement with the review’s opinions? Seems like something that could get awfully messy without specific guidance.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:40:34 +0000

I think a better idea would just be “Check the one that applies: KEWL or SUX”

By: Marth

Marth — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:35:40 +0000

I don't see the big deal. It doesn't seem terribly different than Metacritic or Rottentomatoes doing essentially the same thing, albeit focused more on blog-based reviews. Hell, Idolator itself has "The Last Word" which is also paring long reviews down to their basic theses. All it's doing is added a 'user vote' aspect to the organization of the whole mess.

I think there's actually something to be said for being able to read small chunks of many reviews at once (a la Metacritic) to try to get some sort of bigger picture of an album or movie. Sure, one reviewer may have a wonderful, eloquent take on a particular piece of consumer entertainment (and despite the annoying Radiohead review featured above, I actually find Cokemachineglow often offers fantastic long-form reviews), but that's just one reviewer. Being able to get many different opinions from many different writers helps round out the picture of "what's the deal with this album, and is it worth my time?" And this could just as easily act as a portal for a reader to go more in-depth with one review or another, and even discover new favorite writers or sites.

100 monkeys with 100 typewriters, right?