The Merits of Bad Reviews

Many years ago, my little brother wrote a lead for our college newspaper that said: Jesus has been crucified again, this time on a Lafayette stage.

The copy editors thought it was sacrilegious and didn't want to let it run. I was the managing editor and overruled them. I've been thinking about the merits of that lead since reading a short essay about bad reviews by my Twitter pal Jason Gross, the editor of the online music magazine Perfect Sound Forever.

I still think my brother's lead for a review of a community theater presentation of "Godspell" was clever. In retrospect, though, I wonder how much value there is in trashing amateur actors.

On my blog, I rarely write bad reviews of albums or performances. My goal is to point friends, students and fellow music fans to albums I think are good. Over the past four years, I've panned only a few albums, most notably The Rolling Stones' "A Bigger Bang," which most critics seemed to be comparing to "Exile on Main Street." I liked the music on "A Bigger Bang" just fine, but I thought the lyrics were trite and amateurish ... and I said so.

Newspapers, magazines and Web sites such as Popdose don't have the luxury, as I do, of ignoring releases by major artists just because they don't like the albums. Nor should they ignore them. In fact, I appreciate reading negative reviews of clunkers by artists I admire.

But too many music journalists, and especially music bloggers, write negative reviews simply for the sake of snarkiness. Moreover, there's often a mindless pack mentality. My best friend, for example, stopped reading music blogs after seeing one mean-spirited review after another of Vampire Weekend's debut album last year.

Here's some advice I often give in seminars to college students who write music reviews:

• There's no point in writing a bad review of an album by a group no one's ever heard of.
• Don't review albums if you hate the artist or the musical genre. (I'll admit, for example, that I'm a music snob who sees no value in releases by Kenny G and Celine Dion. Others do, though, so you won't find me reviewing CDs by those artists.)
• Never get personal.
• Be consistent. I often find value in reviews with which I disagree if I have a historical sense of the writer's preferences.
• Always remember that you're just a reviewer; not a rock star. As I survey the world of music blogs, I see one writer after another who's more concerned about ego than craft. Those are the writers who see their readership dwindle with every review.