Are Music Critics Dangerous?

‘Everybody in the world has a second job: movie critic’ is the supposed ‘ancient saying’ that can be found in my spinoff magazine The Empire Five Star 500 – The Definitive All-Time Classics!. This Bible like film collection has been in my possession since 2010 now. Admittedly; I am getting through this alphabetical film list affably, picking out random films and ticking them off as I go along. I am now nearing the 200 mark out of the 500 (at this very moment of time I am at 181 films) in which this personal hobby can be very pleasant at times but can be very excruciating. Having to watch exaggeratedly respected films like Gone with the Wind was not enjoyable at all (from my perspective) which was due to the biased blatant racism, unpleasant characters and long overbearing lengths of film time, which frustrates me as a modern viewer. Of course the film can be seen importantly for the cultural standpoint, being the highest grossing film of all time until Ben-Hur took that title 30 years later.

However, the medium of criticism is an ever-changing format in which the saying at the start of this somewhat lengthy essay really resonates with myself personally. Everybody is a critic by nature; that is an absolute fact. The internet has allowed people to have a platform to express their opinions like films sites Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb. We do not have to watch television to watch Roger Ebert’s or Jonathan Ross’s opinion on a new sequel that has come this summer, we can just look online. While there is comparative similarities of ‘music criticism’ and ‘film criticism’ on the accessible modern tech world, there are definitely a lot of contrasts. For example; The Shawshank Redemption or The Godfather Part II are by default, fantastic magnificent masterpieces. Everybody I know enjoys and love them. Why? Because they are great films with fantastic characters who have interesting arcs and development, motivating plots and solid grade A* acting.

Well let’s look at In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel, that has received a mixed messy amount of praise and criticism over the years, which the internet has been a major part for this. An album that was given a 6/10 by NME but was the 98^th in their 100 greatest albums of all time. The comments for this lo-fi project from the general detractor audience on blog sites, threads and YouTube comment sections include the words ‘pretentious’ ‘overrated’ and ‘garbage’ which can be viewed as insinuated attacks of music snobbery. However, of course the main reasoning behind this infamous hoarding chants of ‘I don’t get it?’ (A bit like watching David Lynch’s Eraserhead for the first time) behind the album comes from Pitchfork changing their already high score from 8.7/10 in the year of release to a 10/10 in 2005. Neutral Milk Hotel’s success of the album really sources from the internet’s massive appraisal of this album. The marmite album is an example of the large spectrum of music. We like different interpretations of art, this is what makes us human in which Mark Richardson reviewing the album in ’05 states ‘In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is a personal album but not in the way you expect’. The album has really generated a mass of memes and has somewhat become a symbol of ironic (or in some cases un-ironic) ‘patrician’ music.

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/5758-in-the-aeroplane-over-the-sea/

This is not the first time the internet can ‘make’ an artist, which this was typified from theneedledrop aka Anthony Fantano’s very rare 10/10 scoring of The Money Store by Death Grips. From henceforth, it is literally impossible not to see a Fantano comment in a Death Grip comment section or in a cult thread especially the superlative praise Fantano gives to other projects by them.

The Ebert of music (as I dub him) however is not a stranger to controversy, in which while he can help the growth of an artist (Danny Brown, Remo Drive and the newly highly ranked 9/10 BROCKHAMPTON), he can also ‘break’ an artist. This was seen a couple months ago where the rapper Wale started to respond publicly at Fantano’s negative tweets leading up to his actual review. This begs the question, are music critics dangerous in sabotaging an artist career? I mean an actually artist with over 5 million twitter followers actually decided to respond back at the critic, this critic being one man with a YouTube. I find it absolutely amazing people can get really worked up about Fatano’s opinions and take so much time to tell him ‘he’s wrong’. Should Wale really care about someone on the internet opinion at all his album Shine debuted at number 16 on the US Billboard 200, selling about 28,000 album equivalent units in its first week? So should musicians really be terrified of the internet? In some aspects, yes. The internet is now a vast field of music opponents. Pitchfork (of course), Complex, NME, Noisey, Piegons and Planes and Fader. There’s also other YouTube review and react channels including Dead End Hip Hop, BigQuintIndeed and Shawn Cee. And let’s not forget everybody is now a critic too in which tweets and comments can be sent to an artist, in which they are most likely going to read them.

So maybe artists should be a little scared in what critics say but they should embrace it too. Why artists make their best works with reproach, it’s a stepping stone of developing and creativeness. Of course, there are exceptions. Ed Sheeran’s latest album ÷ (Divide) received large amounts of criticism (including a 2.8 from Pitchfork and 2 stars from the Guardian) yet it do not influence his record sales at all. I want to link the YouTuber I Hate Everything on a video of his, in which he shows emails from the filmmakers and their films in which he has previously criticised and analysed. He perfectly explains it all better than I can.

But on the contrary, should critics be afraid of musicians? I remember hearing about Rock Sound having to apologise over a less favourable review of the Avenged Sevenfold album Nightmare. I always wondered they should ever apologise over such a petty disagreement which they issued an apology to ‘both the band and their fans.’ I feel that no critic should ever have to apologise for their ‘opinion’, in which this was bad part for Rock Sound which they should stand up for their onions because it’s their right.

https://www.rocksound.tv/features/read/avenged-sevenfold-nightmare-first-review?

Criticism of general art is really in a new era due to the liberties of personal taste and free speech. We are now streaming music on Spotify or Soundcloud instead going to the shops to buy a CD or generally reading the latest paid magazine of the NME. We are now in short attention span of the entertainment era, in which you have present the best effort until the next big thing takes over. Perhaps now artists realise the influence of the internet in which they may now have step up their game.

The Endurance of Venue Closure

Over the recent years of Plymouth’s expansive city wide appeal, the town is becoming a spur of fast motion change. New buildings, shops, cafes and bus stations are all the new wave of transformation which come for a newly identified ‘student’ city. While Plymouth’s tourism is one of the basis of the local economy, it seems that students and university are now the new frontiers of economical and finical hold. Students cannot be ignored at all as it was estimated that a massive number of 25,895 people came to Plymouth University from 2014 to 15 (making Plymouth the 22nd highest enrolled Uni). And we cannot forget that Plymouth Uni also shares the terrestrial with St. Mark and John’s (aka Marjons).

New student blocks of flats are being built everywhere, attracting criticism from the local people despite bringing masses of opportunities to a declining Naval based city. Indeed, the businesses in Plymouth in the summer struggle without the crowds that the city draws. These businesses includes takeaways, fast-food, pubs, taxis, cafes, shops, shisha bars and especially the biggest of all them all; night clubs.

The impact of the night clubs in city can be seen from North Hill to all the way to the Barbican. Over the summer of 2016 year; these club are being stripped down and being refurbished to become more appealing. This includes the refurbished Fresher Professor, Odd Bar turning to Manhattan (which has now closed down), Bang Bang turning to Switch and the old relapsed Oceana updated as Pryzm .

However there is a massive problem with local venues now being destroyed or converted to make way for the more popular clubs. Over the last few years, local scenes where DJs, bands and artist could perform to play a variety of styles and tastes are now being moved to the side for these nightclubs. Places like Tiki Bar where bands could play in the basement is now converted and joined up with the already established PL4 and turned into a café.

Looking towards places like White Rabbit (located at the previous Brentonside bus station) has been closed since 2014 despite masses of protest including vocal support from people like Frank Turner. It was closed as part of a £42million redevelopment scheme which includes to build a new Cinema despite the city already having two. White Rabbit brought reputation for being the Plymouth spirit of DIY ethos in which locals and worldwide artists could come and perform. The only large established venue in the city is Plymouth Pavilions which holds shows for ever popular artists including James Arthur or comedians like Ricky Gervais. Clearly a disadvantage for the smaller local or national artists to come through.

However not all hope is lost. The ever growing popular, once a month, event of Casa which plays Tech/Deep House (with local talented DJ’s) has found an advantage way around this after their announcement of their venue being closed down to be converted to a local club. They now will hold the events around the city in different venues which includes the Guildhall, The Hub (which also holds events for electronic DJ’s and a few national bands) and the recently sold out record breaking event at the Reel Cinema. Factory is also holding strong which holds events of Drum ‘n’ Bass/Jungle, Grime and House which they showcase local and international established DJs.

While local bands (especially Indie, Rock etc.) will have difficulty in having to find venues for performances, the DJ’s in the country and the county can now rely on Plymouth for events (for the time being). Of course, however, the UK as whole has experienced a massive wave of venue and clubs cessations. Cardiff has just lost The Moon Club and the Fabric club also closed last year, but has luckily reopened due to massive support against the shutting. While the Weatherspoons and Pryzm  clubs keeping being built in the major cities, it will attract the bigger and ‘popular’ crowds due to playing ‘safe’ pop music with clichéd and uninteresting DJs and events. While these major establishments are here, the local venue will have major competition.

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