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ivan@stellysee.de
| From | "John L. Micek" <jlmicek@mindspring.com> |
| Subject | Re: doughboys, big takeover, critics |
| Date | Thu, 17 Jul 2003 10:12:02 -0400 |
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Morning, all.
I've been reading this thread with great interest, and couldn't resist
weighing in.
I can't speak for my fellow Big Takeover scribes, but I know I strive to
make my reviews as accessible and honest as possible.
Now, the audience that reads BT is not the same as the audience that reads
the reviews in, say, Rolling Stone or Blender, so you do have a little more
leeway to make obscure, rockist "High Fidelity"-like comparisons in your
reviews.
But I've always found gratuitous name-dropping a little annoying --
particularly by low-grade Lester Bangs who're trying to prove their streed
cred.
Me, I have a fool-proof method of making sure that I don't disappear too far
up my own backside. I give my reviews to my wife to read.
She's pretty up on music, but not excessively so, and if I make a reference
that makes her shake her head and go, "Huh," I know I've gone too far, and I
reel it back in.
As far as this whole accepting CDs debate goes, I'll add my 2p as well.
I keep the CDs I review, but I can honestly say the fact that they're
freebies has utterly no effect on whether I slam or praise someone. It's
strictly on artistic merit. I've been lucky, so far, to like more stuff than
not, but I have administered severe beatdowns in the past to artists who
deserve it -- comped CDs or no.
An earlier poster noted, correctly, that most of us receive no monetary
compensation for the discs we review. This is a labour of love for many of
us. There's no way we'd devote hours and hours of time to interviewing and
reviewing for free if it weren't.
John Micek.
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