Friday
Sep172010
Tell That Critic to Shove It
Friday, September 17, 2010 at 12:01AM
Have an album you really love but critics just love to hate? That really gets my blood going. Everything I love is basically hated by critics. Not that I let someone else's opinion dictate what I like. Yet, there's a certain vindication - an affirmation if you will - of others agreeing with your opinion.
We don't always agree here and I like it that way. If we all always agreed, there would be no point to come here and have a chat. I like certain bands many of you despise and vice versa. Yet this doesn't bother me...but when some writer picks on something or someone I like, it hurts my feelings a little. It's not even all about music. Heck, my NFL team is the Bengals. Anyone can be a fan of the Cowboys or the Patriots. Try being a fan of the Bengals season after season and you'll feel my pain.
Does it bug you when critics knock something you love, especially music?
Reader Comments (19)
suck it!
oh yeah, Go Dolphins!! (i'm from ohio)
Tomorrow I'm going to an 80s party dressed as full, Theatre of Pain-Era, Nikki Sixx... and most of the people there will laugh. And I'll laugh too - but for a different reason. It genuinely doesn't matter to me that other people will think I'm stupid, because I'll be having a ball while they're worried about whether they look cool enough.
Embrace your uncoolness. Ironically, that's what makes people truly cool in the first place. :)
great comments! \m/
Oh, and I despise U2, musically. Totally UNROCK!
My fave NFL team is The New York Jets (since '68 when my Dad used to take me to see Namath play)! Talk about perennial pariahs!
With ya, Brian C., and your selection, Ratt, "Out Of The Cellar" houses the greatest Hair/Glam/Sleaze Metal song of all time, "Round And Round"!
Scott... Did you see "Up In The Air"? There's an example of a **** movie that actually is worth ****'s. If you don't agree, your taste is, indeed, f*cked! Watching it will be a good test for you. I'm kidding...
As big of an a*s as I tend to be, I do realize that people are entitled to their own opinion (as long as it's not the result of brainwashing from the fear mongering dissemination of divisionary, hateful, false and inaccurate misinformation by clowns like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh and their disciples of doom in the minority party and it's new faction, the ever kooky Tea Party).
John... Allyson's right... Hinder totally blows!
Bryon and Gary, you are sooooo right as you can see by my comments here, I couldn't agree with you more.
Fletchy Wetchy! What the h*ll? That's all well and good but what is YOUR actual OPINION?
It also has a lot to do w/ the filtering process. Example: I couldn't tell you what a good "pointy letter death metal band" is cuz I'm not into that kind of music. So why would I review one of these types of bands? I think it's important for reviewer to review genres of music that they are familiar w/.
But overall everyone's a critic at some level and you'll never be able to please 100% of the people 100% of the time. Speaking from a musicians standpoint I respect everyone's opinion of my music. There's nothing wrong w/ any kind of feedback. As long as it's a persons honest opinion (good or bad) and presented respectfully I don't have a problem w/ critics knocking music I like.
screw 'em. Life is to short to not listen to what you dig, makes you happy, and gets you fired up!
Why would anyone mention let alone read that magazine?
Shadow, you are so right about The Ultimate Sin. It's the best Ozzy record and I love Jake E. Lee. Jake's work in Badlands was incredible.
The best example I can give of liking a record that was panned by the critics (and most people in general) has to be Van Halen III. DLR fans wouldn't give it a chance and apparently the Hagar era VH fans wouldn't either. I think it's a great record.
Metalboy, got your message today from a previous post regarding picking up a Maiden record. It's hard for me to pick a fave, but Piece of Mind ranks toward the top. BTW I agree with you on comments that I've seen you make about Dickinson's efforts outside of Maiden. It's good stuff. Sorry to take so long to get back to you on that but I'm out of the country doing some work in the UK and haven't had a chance to surf the web much. Another BTW - radio over here is absolute crap. How did so many great rock bands come out of the UK when all around me all I seem to hear is crappy club music?
Rich, believe me, Rolling Stone has p*ssed me off to no end since I first started reading it in '72 when I was twelve, (argh!). and they are still really so out of touch in that they don't cover more different types of Pop and Rock.
They seem so set on whatever sells dictating what they cover.
But there was a time when they covered stuff and helped break bands.
They did a superb story back in the day covering the whole Glam Metal scene on the L.A. Strip with incredible photography including a fantastic cover photo of Sebastian Bach.
I believe there were many relatively positive reviews of some of our fave bands in the 80's. Their coverage of Nirvana and the interviews with Cobain were very well done. You can't knock the writing.
In the magazine's prime, it broke the story on Patti Hearst and her kidnapping by the SLA. Their coverage of politics over the years is well done, whether you agree with it or not. Even recently, their coverage of The Gulf Oil Spill and also the gaffs of General McChrystal (Hey, there's a great name for a Glam Metal band) has been superlative.
And they are the ones who first published the great writers, Tom Wolfe and Hunter S. Thompson. And there are others, too, who I would have to research to recall. There have been some horrible ones, too, obviously, opinion wise, but still great writers, regardless.
Yet their bad side has existed since they dissed Zeppelin.
I will check out "Piece of Mind", Rich! Thanks for the tip. It's always good when people disagree to keep the discussion going as that's what makes life interesting.
I have discovered a lot of great British Glam Metal bands recently, and while you are in the UK, I strongly suggest you scour the Record stores for great CDs and DVDs.
I scored some incredible stuff there when I was there last like a lot of NWOBHM that I like such as some Saxon rarities, picture sleeve singles, DVDs and CDs of Priest, Tygers Of Pan Tang and Whitesnake. Also, had I known what I know now, I would have picked up stuff from Raven and Wrathchild, but to name a few. I scored a lot of UK Punk CDs, singles and posters, too. Yet, had I been more aware at the time that my real love is Glam Metal, I would have scored more of that.
Bands like Skin and Mr. Meana from the early to mid-nineties. In fact, it was Skin that was recommended to me by someone commenting on here. And they are fantastic. And Mr. Meana is superb, if you can find them. They are pretty rare and out-of-print, but over there you might be able to find them and for a lot less $$$.
There are probably a lot more bands to check out, if you researched a little, maybe even ask the shop owners. There are such cool indy shops there. I spent two days solid in London going through the bins. Had I only known what I was looking for a little bit better. Good luck, if you have time to check 'em out.
I bet you could find a lot of Maiden stuff over there, too, including a lot of highly collectable memorabilia.
Also, man, our kinda music is big in the Pubs over there. I remember walking into a Pub in the countryside and they had Ozzy crankin' in there. Wild! And if you're in London, you can almost always find a show. There really is a big Metal scene there, both old school and new school!
EPIC FAIL
I want what they're on. I've never bought a copy and prbably never will, but they were good once, but so was Mtv.
That would be an interesting topic...
"The Top 100 Greatest Glam Metal Guitarists"
I might not put Van Halen at the top of the list of "The All Time Greatest Guitar Players", but I might put him at the top of a "Greatest Glam Metal Guitarists" list.
p.s. I realize there are some who do not think of Van Halen as Glam Metal but as Classic Rock or Hard Rock and even the later Van Hagar stuff as AOR, but I think they are Glam, particularly all the stuff with Roth, which is the good stuff.
I might not like most of the stuff they've got on music though they killed it with that latest cover of Ga-Ga. So cool. And their stuff on the war, the oil spill, politics and The Tea Party, is all very well done, whether you agree with how the topic is handled or not.
It's still some of the best writing out there, along with The New Yorker and The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Harper's (not Harper's Bazaar, just Harper's -- btw, check out an essay by Ted Nugent in Harper's from like '90 or '91... Just Google, "Ted Nugent Harper's Magazine article" and it should pop up), etc.
Again, I'm not talking about viewpoint, Rich and Co. I'm talking about the quality of the art of writing.
I just don't need the heralding of Daughtry, Taylor Swift and crap like that. They really need to do a makeover and not just a cosmetic one. Where is the Glam Metal, besides a little thing of The Last Vegas, here and there.
It's probably in there, because they don't realize The Last Vegas are Glam Metal. Wait, is The Last Vegas Glam Metal?....