Engine

That's plain idiocy. Do you think critics are scared they may get shot by a Little Wayne fan if they don't praise their hero? Do you think critics get a cut of Little Wayne's income?
One thing I like about Music Banter is that bullshit ignorant threads like this usually get locked and forgotten pretty soon.

lieasleep

don't put words in his mouth, i don't agree with him but i think he has a point

storymilo

What kind of point does he have besides that he thinks rap is overrated?

Urban Hat€monger ?

every since the NME in the 1980s it's been the law that every indie publication has to hype a token Hip Hop album every now and again.
It's to show off just how culturally diverse they are.

Although why you'd want to take recommendations from someone who hypes rubbish in their own genre they listen to (Hello Fleet Foxes & Black Kids) , let alone one they don't listen to much.

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Engine

Yeah - his point is that professional music critics feel pressure to give rap albums good reviews not because they honestly like the albums but because they are afraid of "upsetting that audience". I don't understand what he means by that so I asked. Maybe you can explain his point to me?

I disagree. It's hard for me to believe that critics care that much about how they are perceived by their readers but I don't read the major publications so maybe I'm missing something. It's the job of critics to review whatever falls into their lap (which is the main reason I would not want to be one) but why is it so hard to believe that they sometimes actually like what falls there? Lord knows, people love to read negative reviews so aren't critics just as susceptible to writing bad reviews of rap just so that they don't "upset" the presumably large segment of their audience who hates rap? I dunno. As someone who likes rap I can understand occasionally liking the flavor of the month rapper so writing good rap reviews doesn't seem like some sort of disingenuous plot.

lieasleep

i like rap too, but i will be the first to admit that 99% of it today is garbage. i think his point is that when you seen publications like pitchfork throwing rap albums into their top lists (which seems curiously misplaced) it makes you questions their sincerity. he doesn't like rap, which kinda convolutes any decent point he has but still i think its a good question. its also weird because i have heard most of the top rap albums that pitchfork and others have been hailing as amazing and personally think most of them are ****. its just interesting...

dark shadow

I think the point is that critics DO hype bad albums because they have achieved a popular status. People like reading negative reviews of music they don't like, and prefer glowing reviews of that which they do. So, for popular albums in any genre of music it is possible that critics highlight the positives and minimize the flaws to protect the magazine, so to speak. This is not solely relegated to rap music though. Case in point, nearly every Nickelback CD is given great reviews regardless of worth. Of course there are critics out there who are honest, and there are critics who will give negative reviews for the shock value and sake of being different.

storymilo

Well, it is possible that magazines are making a genuine attempt to be more diverse. It could be some big scam but if that's true then it's not going to accomplish much. Nobody reads Pitchfork for rap reviews and starting to like more rap isn't going to change that.

Engine

I don't think that it's so weird for Pitchfork to put rap albums in their top lists. Don't they also list black metal and electronic albums in there? I admit I look at Pitchfork's album ratings and have for years. Even if we're going to peg these indie publications as written by and for elitist indie-nerds, I think they hype a lot of really bad music of all sorts (I dislike a huge percentage of the indie-rock they hype). There's nothing wrong with them reviewing black metal, electronic dub or rap. And there's nothing weird about some of them liking some of it. I don't see why the reviewers would be dishonest. People like different stuff.

This thread may have just as well ended with..

Jason86

Some people like rap, why is it hard to believe some critics honestly do? You obviously don't like rap much, since you only like one classic album, but for other people there are great rap albums.