Who here thinks allmusic.com is a joke?!
Question: If you are a discerning rock music fan such as myself, have you ever noticed that half the bands you look for don't even exist at allmusic? Or by the slim chance that they do, there's no information other that the bands name?
Most serious collectors know that allmusic.com is a joke, and very inaccurate. Their reviews seem to be done by a bunch of punks that haven't even heard half of what they review, and base much of the more obscure bands reviews soley on resources gathered from other sites, blogs etc.
For accurate reviews go here. I've been a member, and have contributed many reviews over the last couple of years:
http://rateyourmusic.com/
I highly recommend joining. Their data base makes allmusic's look like a 2 page flyer! All reviews are done by members themselves, with whom you can communicate if you need feel the need. You'll be able to rate and review your own music, add entries if you can't find them (which is rare). Anyone who truly appreciates music needs to join!
Answers: If you are a discerning rock music fan such as myself, have you ever noticed that half the bands you look for don't even exist at allmusic? Or by the slim chance that they do, there's no information other that the bands name?
Most serious collectors know that allmusic.com is a joke, and very inaccurate. Their reviews seem to be done by a bunch of punks that haven't even heard half of what they review, and base much of the more obscure bands reviews soley on resources gathered from other sites, blogs etc.
For accurate reviews go here. I've been a member, and have contributed many reviews over the last couple of years:
http://rateyourmusic.com/
I highly recommend joining. Their data base makes allmusic's look like a 2 page flyer! All reviews are done by members themselves, with whom you can communicate if you need feel the need. You'll be able to rate and review your own music, add entries if you can't find them (which is rare). Anyone who truly appreciates music needs to join!
Well, I've never been on either site (all my album recommendations/reviews come from Answers) but I see that rateyourmusic.com does not have much information about 34 Satellite, nor do they have many reviews.... I must join to write reviews... I'm off to join now....
EDIT: Hehe... PorcupinTreeHugger was suppose to be my Answers name, but I decided to stick to sarah c, and it seems like rateyourmusic already has a sarah c... grrrr
Well, thanks for the tip. I rarely use it anyway.
I'll look at the other site! I need reviews on artists with bigger discographies.
EDIT: By the way, how does star/rating system work? What would a four be considered? Three? In between four and five? In between four and three?
EDIT 2: That's cool. I joined as IABAS. I wonder who Artist1 is.
I haven't look much into Piero Scaruffi (although his reviews are somewhat odd), but Robert Christgau seems to be biased towards punk rock and doesn't like heavy metal much.
Newsflash: There has never been nor will ever be a fully comprehensive music guide. In any case, Piero Scaruffi's Knowledge Base > rateyourmusic's clusterf*ck of user reviews (the majority of which are less informative than a blurb).
EDIT: Perhaps you're just not as comfortable on the soapbox as you pretend.
Did I say you DIDN'T know who he was, or even imply it? So what if RYM has more "information"? I have been there, I do have an account, and the vast majority of the "information" is useless, rarely telling me anything worth reading and even more rarely telling me something I didn't already know. Not that I need to read a review about an album to come to my own conclusions, but I'd take a small handful of professional music journalists like Scaruffi or Christgau over a legion of amateurs.
"William - you fool...to come to your own conclusion you have to hear the album first."
What a revelation. Who would have thought people might actually LISTEN to music?
"Why not read a few reviews (maybe 20 or 30, as opposed to 1) and get an idea of what you might be in store for? That's what reviews are all about! You really are a total moron!"
As previously mentioned (pay attention next time), I have a small stable of professional music journalists I regularly read. On top of that, I have several communities of musicians and music-lovers I can turn to if I need to know anything about an album. Lastly, and most importantly, I only read reviews to supplement the listening experience, not guide it.
So call me an idiot. That's much easier than constructing a decent argument, I guess.
"Decent argument? More like a copy & paste it seems."
Yeah, that's it. I copied my entire argument from somewhere else and it just so happens to fit this situation perfectly. Lucky, huh?
"I'd much rather read several reviews by a person who knows what he/she likes, than someone who does it for a living.
Professionalism is irrelevant when it comes to listening to, or rating music. I'd rather hear a review done by several average Joe's, than one Ivy league wanker with his self serving diatribe any day of the week. I'm sure most would agree."
Fighting all those straw men must be tough work. Maybe I haven't gotten through to you yet, but I don't hold criticism as highly as you seem to in the first place. When I do want to hear someone's opinion, however, rather than dredging through dozens of amateur reviews by random strangers, I can consult with people I know and in whose knowledge and background I am confident (and just to avoid confusion, I'm not talking about journalists).
"Most of the bands I review I seriously doubt you've even heard of."
When lacking anything solid, just make something up. You're worthless.
As an example of the site being useless, take a look at this review for Renaldo and the Loaf's "Songs for Swinging Larvae":
http://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/r...
Only the review at the bottom even discusses the individual songs beyond calling them "weird," and the only comparison made is to say "they're like the Residents, but weirder," which is practically useless. That also happens to be the only moderately worthwhile review for anything out of their whole discography.
"The hundred or so members I consort with at RYM are serious collectors as am I. Their musical backgrounds and knowledge is unequivocal. If you actually spent some time within RYM I'm sure you would have acquired contacts of a similar distinction. Many of us are, or were professional musicians, and know a great deal about music."
And? I don't find their social networking as easy or useful as other sites. Great, you've found some like-minded fellows there, but like any public site, there's plenty of chaff to sort through and after doing so for a while I found it to be not worth my time.
"That's hilarious! I own over 30,000 vinyl LP's, and several thousand CD's I've been collecting music for over 45 years. I do know a thing or two"
Explain how that justifies making baseless conjecture about what I may or may not know. The difference between us is that I never claimed to know what you know. Calling you a hypocrite would be an understatement.
"Renaldo and the Loaf's reviews might seem useless to you, but very helpful to someone else."
Except they're not. If I had absolutely no experience with any of their work before reading that review, I would be no better off afterward because it is intellectually barren. There's nothing to learn, so nothing is learned. If it's not useful to someone without prior knowledge, nor someone WITH prior knowledge, then to whom is it useful? No one.
"I have a question for you Willie. If you're so opposed to this site, then why are you a member? Why not step up to the plate?"
I tried it out, didn't like it, and moved on. There are better music communities out there and more interactive ones.
I agree to the point..But there is a large OZ music section..reviews by Bruce Elder..60+ years now..are well done and respected..I am a little amazed they have what you and I both know,a fairly decent list of these artists..even a Mackenzie Theory comp. CD of "Out of the Blue",Buffalo,Lobby Lloyde etc etc this are the times I seek out old records..Haven't been outside OZ selections..so I don't know and rely upon /respect your judgement ..I do visit Midas Oz ..Thanks for Co. Caine and Ariel..and rate your music tho for your recommendations etc..so I'm a happy little camper..