There are no 1-star albums, are there?

Like many who have contributed to this thread, I prefer to rate & review albums that I like; I'm all about promoting & heralding the good stuff I hear. 

Well, to be honest, as someone who spent many years doing A&R for record companies like EMI, l had to be critical of what some artists were presening to the company.I didn't like hurting poeple's feeling but sometimes songs and/or lyrics just didn't work. The thing is if these poeple could do better, you just had to tell them. And usually they did.I feel same about reviews. It's not about being a fan to me.

Edited by SteveG - October 25 2020 at 16:54

SteveG wrote: Well, to be honest, as someone who spent many years doing A&R for record companies like EMI, l had to be critical of what some artists were presening to the company.I didn't like hurting poeple's feeling but sometimes songs and/or lyrics just didn't work. The thing is if these poeple could do better, you just had to tell them. And usually they did.I feel same about reviews. It's not about being a fan to me.

If one star means I don't like it, there are many of them. However, the fact I don't like them doesn't mean they're not good, they just don't appeal to my taste. As an example, most prog metal falls into this category.

Cristi wrote: I would rate (and have rated) only albums from artists I know and like, genres I enjoy.  I would never rate poorly an artist that is not my thing, that i would never listen to anyway.

So if you auto-buy a new release of your favorite artist/band and it's a stinker you would not rate the album?

Grumpyprogfan wrote: Cristi wrote: I would rate (and have rated) only albums from artists I know and like, genres I enjoy.  I would never rate poorly an artist that is not my thing, that i would never listen to anyway.  So if you auto-buy a new release of your favorite artist/band and it's a stinker you would not rate the album?

^Well said. It should be a reviewers obligation to warn others about the quality of the release. No reviewer should only review what they like.

I sometimes try an album, find it absolutely not in my taste, but I don't give it a poor rating. It feels a bit unfair for me to rate albums with music styles that I don't like. The album may be very well received by fans of that particular genre, so I'd rather not rate it at all. That may give it a more accurate average rating than if I gave it 1 star.

If you buy something, and that purchase makes you mad: You simply have the urge to express your pain. I'm not talking about albums and books and such stuff here, but things that are malfunctioning or lacking decent quality. You want to have the revenge and warn people not to buy that product.

If you listen to something, and that disappoints you: You generally ignore it. But if you listen to some awesome stuff, you want others to listen to that too. Some people do it out of their goodness, some want their "idolized/iconized" album to get more attention, which would indirectly satisfy their ego and reassure that they have good taste/understanding in music.

This is why "complaints" are more abundant than "compliments" in the marketing sphere, about the products' physical or functional aspects; while it is almost the contrary regarding the cultural productions that enrich and reflect people's "tastes" and/or apprehension.