Blog 15 Blogging on Assignment #3

Music Criticism: "Are Music Critics Too Nice?"

For my third blog on assignment choice, I decided to listen to the podcast called Cannonball with Wesley Morris. The episode was titled “When Did Music Critics Get So Nice” and featured Wesley’s friend and critic Kelefa Sanneh. Throughout this podcast episode, both Wesley and Morris took time to reflect on the state of the music industry, specifically the way that music is criticized in this day and age. Both speakers note that there has been a change in the way that listeners and critics evaluate the music that they are listening to, even arguing that critics have become almost too nice over the years. This discussion goes on throughout the duration of the podcast as they reference specific pieces of media, music, film, and television to demonstrate their points.

After listening to this podcast, I have many thoughts and feelings about what was said. The topics of discussion even sparked other rabbit holes of thought, but I will try to keep my reflection as concise as possible by giving some of my key takeaways. However, the biggest takeaway that I got from listening to this podcast was that music criticism needs to return to the form of mean criticism and saying what you actually feel. I completely agree with this argument, and this is something that I have actually noticed recently. God forbid you don’t like a song or an album especially if it is made by a pop artist, you will be eaten alive. For some reason, pop fans have developed cult-like followings even claiming that their favorite artists could put out anything and they would still listen and support them even if it is bad simply because they love the artist. Fans won’t even claim to dislike the music when they don’t like it and critics are shamed for not liking what they like to listen to. When people don’t like what is popular, it is almost like they immediately jump to the idea that that person is just trying to be different, rather than them actually having an opinion on the art of the music itself.

Taylor Swift is a huge example of this with regards to her latest album release and all of her music really. There was a lot of controversy over her latest album. People either really hated it or really loved it. For what felt like the first time in a long time, Swifties were actually claiming they disliked her music. This created a discourse of who was a real fan and who was not, or even who was a cult fan of hers. This demographic of listeners specifically does not respond well to harsh criticism, and so critics have in turn softened their criticism of Taylor as well as other major pop figures that are prominent right now. Don’t get me wrong, there are always outliers; however, people are predominantly no longer saying how they really feel when it comes to popular music.

My quick rabbit hole segway that I thought of when listening to this podcast was an experience that I had in one of my music industry classes. One of the classes that I took last semester was an A&R class. A&R stands for artist and repertoire and involves the processes of artist discovery. This was a very opinionated discussion based class, which was very refreshing. In this class, I brought up to my professor exactly the point that the speakers in the podcast were trying to make that music criticism is not as critical as it used to be and it affects the music that people focus on. For example, in A&R in the stage of TikTok and technology, labels will put money towards crappy music just because they have these large followings with no regard for the actual quality of music. This is something that actively makes me mad because I fear that we as consumers have lost the point of music itself.

Another big takeaway that I got when listening to this podcast was when they discussed whether or not people who aren’t the intended demographic of music be allowed to critique that music and to add to that are they always allowed to praise it but never allowed to dismiss it. I thought this was a really interesting topic of conversation that I am surprised I haven’t seen more discourse around. There could be various different takes and opinions on this one, one being that if you don’t experience the content of the song how can you judge the song in its entirety accurately, or why should that opinion be relevant. I understand where this perspective comes from, but I still believe that you can listen to music that you have no relation to and freely claim that it is good or bad and that opinion still remains relevant. Another take on this discussion is that people should be honest about how the music makes you feel regardless of your connection to the content of the work itself. Now this can depend on what the critique itself is, but generally speaking I do believe this opinion to be true because at the root of it all, music is art. I believe that art demands to be critiqued in order to experience growth, reflection, and create conversation.

 

There are many more takeaways that I found to be interesting from this podcast, but I want to conclude with discussing a piece of music that I listened to today, and giving my honest critique of the music itself and the artistry. The piece of work I listened to today is called “One More Time.” This is an EP or extended play that includes 5 songs. Each song is a collaboration between musical artists, Aerosmith and YUNGBLUD. Aerosmith is a known classic rock band and YUNGBLUD is an on the rise rock and punk artist who has been making music for years. 

I was so excited for this EP to come out. They released the first track of the EP in advance titled “My Only Angel,” and I loved it. This track was exactly what I wanted it to be, a perfect blend of their musical styles and a new musical opportunity for YUNGBLUD to showcase his talent. YUNGBLUD is an incredibly talented singer; however, I feel as though his artistic choices have always set him back. In my somewhat industry professional opinion, his voice is best suited for punk, metal, and hard rock. This has been shown as he covered some of Ozzy Osbourne’s and Black Sabbath’s songs in recent performances. Because of these performances and his connection to Ozzy and now this release with Aerosmith, YUNGBLUD has gained mass popularity in the rock scene lately. I think people, myself included, loved hearing him sing other genres than what he usually does with music that is not recognized very well and deemed very niche by some critics and industry professionals. Therefore, when I heard him sing in a different genre it was game changing. 

The EP was disappointing because there was this expectation that it was going to be this crazy body of work that reflected his journey into a new genre and music scene. However, this extended play sadly fell short for me. I enjoyed some of the songs, but I did not love any of the songs other than the first single. I also strongly disliked two of the songs and there are only 5 so that is not a great ratio. Lastly, something that pissed me off was that parts of the EP were country inspired. Everyone and their mother in this industry has been leaning into the country the last two years because the country has been doing well. I understand that they are opportunists and trying something new and I'm all for that. However, for some artists it just makes absolutely no sense and makes the music sound cringey. That is how I felt with this EP’s country inspired tracks. Overall, the production and musicianship was still great, I just had higher expectations for what the final product would look like. The last thing I will leave my review with is a ranking of the songs on the EP (1 being the best and 5 being the worst).

"One More Time" EP by Aerosmith & YUNGBLUD

1. “My Only Angel” - My Review: Amazing, No Notes

2. “Thousand Days” - My Review: Great quality music, a good slow rock record 

3. “Problems” - Review - My Review: Quality is there it is just meh

4. “Back In the Saddle” My Review: I am kinda scared, I kinda hate this

5. “Wild Woman” - My Review: I am scared, I hate this