"Bad" Music? Really?? - Progressive Rock Music Forum

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Snow Dog

Special Collaborator

Honorary Collaborator

Joined: March 23 2005
Location: Caerdydd
Status: Offline
Points: 32995

Posted: November 03 2010 at 14:14

I would give Asia's debut *****

However, the second album *****

Edited by Snow Dog - November 03 2010 at 14:16

TheGazzardian View Drop Down

Prog Reviewer

Joined: August 11 2009
Location: Canada
Status: Offline
Points: 8676

Posted: November 03 2010 at 14:43

altaeria wrote:

TheGazzardian wrote:

As far as I'm concerned, isn't it sort of the POINT of this site?

I suppose... if the site is designed to encourage reviewers
to simply bash or praise rather than describe and evaluate.

Obviously a review is going to be Subjective in manner,
but should we completely ignore Objectivity.

Let's try not to be the Fox News Channel of Prog Rock.
Big smile

This has been argued before in other topics that there is no such thing as true Objectivity in music - because how good music is ultimately resides in how well it resonates in those that listen to them - you can say a music is a five star album and someone else could find nothing redeeming about it and think it's one star, whose to say who is right and who is wrong?

Just because you like an album doesn't mean a bad rating is wrong.

Just because you hate an album doesn't mean a good rating is wrong.

Just because a reviewer says that he doesn't like an album doesn't mean that he is bashing an album.

harmonium.ro View Drop Down

Special Collaborator

Honorary Collaborator / Retired Admin

Joined: August 18 2008
Location: Anna Calvi
Status: Offline
Points: 22989

Posted: November 03 2010 at 14:56

The guy just doesn't like the bashing, not the ratings. I agree.

rogerthat

Prog Reviewer

Joined: September 03 2006
Location: .
Status: Offline
Points: 9869

Posted: November 03 2010 at 23:23

I went through the collab/prog reviewer reviews for the Asia debut. I thought maybe two reviews out of all those sounded like a bit of bashing was going on. The other negative reviews said the album would not appeal to a proghead's tastes, which is fair enough, I guess. Confused

In any case, I personally reject the weak defence usually offered for this album that it was a breath of fresh air in a stagnant music scene and that it would get a fairer assessment from a pop perspective. I think the examples I gave above show that it was more about what you wanted to listen to. If you - as in the OP - like it, fine, go ahead and review it but surely criticism of an album, especially one like Asia which is not utterly beyond reproach by any means, does not amount to bashing. By the way, the overall rating for the Asia debut is 3.09, so a lot more reviewers like it than you care to admit.

Paravion

Forum Senior Member

Joined: May 01 2010
Location: Denmark
Status: Offline
Points: 470

Posted: November 04 2010 at 15:14

Henry Plainview wrote:

I don't believe that music exists, so I think it's impossible to make any value judgement about it.

Great reply! Nevertheless, [MUSIC] has a dictionary entry, and to avoid nihilism (however attractive it might be), let's assume it exists. At least, I think it safe to say, music has conceptual status and occupies some mental space.

Try and locate it..

About value judgements. I consider those inevitable and no big deal. I'm pretty sure Asia sucks, are very bad, not to my liking, or whatever sequence of letters you may choose to convey such an immediate association. I don't know who Styx and Journey are and havn't listened to Asia for years, so obviously, I'm not very opinionated with regards to this issue. What I generally find strange, though, is how people feel that Asia and others get subjected to some sort of wrongdoing, whenever people write unfavourable reviews. I could't care less about average ratings, on PA and elsewhere - quite a useless piece of information.

TheGazzardian wrote:

Just because you like an album doesn't mean a bad rating is wrong.

Just because you hate an album doesn't mean a good rating is wrong.

Just because a reviewer says that he doesn't like an album doesn't mean that he is bashing an album.

Exactly

Edited by Paravion - November 04 2010 at 15:19