I suppose what gets me most about this kind of thing is how upset people do actually get. If you notice, the negative reviews I write on EFE are often tongue in cheek in their honesty. A shitty album's a shitty album, why chalk it up any other way? The one person in those ramblings got mad at me for criticizing the album's artwork, and asking shouldn't I be focusing on the music? Pfft. When you get an album, you often review the whole package as it were. And that thing truly had some bad art in it. Then there's the other person who assumes I must enjoy the pop rock flavors of the moment that are played incessantly. Not so. They obviously didn't check out my equally honest review for N Sync on the site. Something they'd probably agree with, ironically (and no, the photos of that "other guy" on that review are not me, either). But these people fail to see that. They get upset because you dislike something they love, yet can't see them exuding the very same so-called "faults" in themselves when it comes to shit they don't like.
Music reviewing is a blast. Everyone loves to hate a critic. They love to tell us how we should write our reviews, and that they could always do it better. But these reactions are merely spontaneous knee jerks. Does it really matter if I think Majandra's album reeks? Hell, no. No more than it matters that people decided that Panic Room was the best movie this past weekend. It's just another slice of entertainment. I get very nice emails alongside all the nasty ones, but it's the nasty ones that are the ones I enjoy because people get so irate about an opinion. They forget that that's all it is - an opinion. So you get called a dick, told to fuck yourself, and have hatred spewed out at you from every pore in a fan's body who thinks you suck because you didn't like their favorite album. Sorry, folks, but that's how it goes.
I don't recall getting pissed off the last time I heard someone say that they didn't like Lou Reed, one of my very favorite artists. But once you get into this business of reviewing, you quickly learn to relax. A lot of people hate Lou Reed, and that's cool. I can't stand U2 and Radiohead. I'll never understand why their shit sells so much. But to allow yourself to seethe with actual anger over a review for a piece of product is amusing at best.
How dare I say such things about this album! Oh c'mon, like you've never had a moment where you just pissed on something someone else liked. It's human nature. Could I have been "kinder" about it? Yes, but it wouldn't have made any difference. Some people will read so far into a review...they'll get to "I didn't like this CD" and then still get angry. So you have to give them something else to keep them reading...something to entertain them. You know you're doing well when people talk about your work. Bad press is great press, even for the critics. It makes people curious in your other work, and gives them a reason to see what else you say. Ironic how a lot of people on that board made assumptions about me based on that one review, when they were simultaneously bitching about me making assumptions about their favorite artist. Look, unless you personally know these people (and not in an, I saw so and so in the parking lot of Hardee's and shook their hand way)...you don't know them at all. So it's best to not get caught up in that mode. Sure, enjoy the music, enjoy the artist as an inspiration. But never make the mistake that just because you know all the words to every song and own every album and saw every concert...that you "know" them. Chances are you don't know squat.
