 Antennas wrote:
My current pet peeve with reviews is that a lot of folks don't seem to understand that giving three stars to an album actually means that it is GOOD, hence why there are so many 4- and 5- star ratings being given out - even when in the actual review, there's a complete litany of 'why this album isn't perfect'-reasons given!
Even I myself have fallen into that trap more than once (will adjust it when I feel like doing so), as I feared I wouldn't get rightly understood if I'd give a 'GOOD' album 'only' three stars... |
I feel your pain man, been saying that since I got here. Some folks feel like 3 stars is a diss and pretty much start at 4 for anything they like. But don't lose sleep, just stick to your own system. Eventually regular users figure out how people rate and they can pretty much predict what that persons rating means to them. They might say....oh that guy gave it a 4, so its probably a 3 for me, etc.
I know I've both under-rated and over-rated albums myself based on excitement or disappointment, we all make mistakes, but eventually I check albums again and "adjust' as necessary to what I believe the real rating to be. This is kind of an ongoing thing, there's probably still a few clunker ratings out there. Time can change your views, some albums hold up over the years, others not so much.
Some people just rate more conservatively, others less so. But the important thing is to try to follow the guidelines and use 3 for a Good album, 4 for excellent/awesome, and 5 for the super-rare masterpiece. My view is that 5% generally, of a large and diverse collection, is 5 stars. Sure that could vary, but thinking of the best/top 5% of all albums gives one general definition of "masterpiece" for people to consider.
Edited by Finnforest - October 13 2010 at 20:55
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Pet Peeves I Have With Reviews
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