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| Topic - BDSM - Bartosso's Daily Saturnine Musings Posted: 03 Oct 2014 at 1:08pm By bartosso |
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Table of contents: *** #1 - Can you actually RATE a work of art? I USED TO RATE not only albums but TRACKS INDIVIDUALLY AND PUT THOSE RATINGS IN REVIEWS! Phew, there I said it. I'm deeply sorry as I think it was unwise of me and just unnecessary. Not because no one wants to know that shit. Not because it's impossible to be THAT objective. No, I'm sorry because rating anything that is art, even whole albums not only doesn't do them justice, it hurts you as the audience. Yes, I think rating music (or books or paintings and other pure arts (movies ain't pure ~art nazi  ) harms you and makes your perception of art pragmatic where it should be spontaneous and well... not hampered by cold reasoning in the first place. Numerical rating forces you to asses something that can't be assessed precisely. What's even worse it makes you wonder if the rating you've given is objectively justified: "Do I like it as much as this other album? For what reasons?". Also, it often changes the way your review is perceived or even discourages people from reading it - they just check the rating and they're done. First of all, however, the ever present rating system creates a global, common conviction that art is a product to be rated with cold calculation in mind. A product to be sold. YES, I know it all already happened long time ago, it's by no means a reason to think it's right! We live in a world where hotels, fridges, restaurants, TVs and works of art are all rated with the same 5-star scale. And I think it's wrong and corrosive to culture in general. Does that mean I think reviews are bad too? Hell no! I think reviews are a good way of sharing your opinion about a work of art, explaining how you perceive it, its core elements and influences, why do you like it or why you don't. But a numerical rating is a different story entirely. That's why I'd prefer reviews with no ratings attached to them. Just that. Write a review, say what you think and use your extensive knowledge about the music to track the artist's influences. Share your opinion and make people read and think for themselves. EDIT: A good way out of this is the binary recommendation system - you either recommend it or not, end of story. EDIT 2: I've moved it to blog section as I've been thinking about writing something on regular basis and also because nobody was interested in the discussion.
Edited by bartosso - 05 Nov 2014 at 1:35pm |
