Music critics pass up reviewing major pop artists over fear of backlash

[Cavadour 2,099]

Alas! One among many backlashes of the stan culture and the abuse of social media - the toilet of internet.

[Levine 23,033]

So they just attack Gaga? lmao we became very soft

[Guest]

I personally wouldn’t care it’s not that deep 

[StrawberryBlond 14,268]

Nice to see that I'm not the only one who's spotted this over-praising of pop albums for quite some time now though I didn't expect it to be for this reason. It's bad enough when crazy fans act like this by their own volition but the way some artists (not naming names, but they know who they are) weaponise their fans and goad them on to harass anyone who they deem to have done them wrong is appalling. But I've said for a long time that critics are very sheeplike for the most part. It's like they think that if they don't agree with each other, then their review will stand out like a sore thumb and they'll be mocked by the professional community for not getting it. Robert Christgau, who I think has retired now, as much as I didn't agree with a lot of what he said, never held back with his personal opinion, even if every other critic thought different. We need more of that because music reviewing now has been rendered utterly useless when all critics give roughly the same score and the same party line for music that clearly doesn't deserve it.

And "jingle played during an ad break on Love Island" was gold.

2 hours ago, huttont said:

Who even reads these reviews? I just let the music speak for itself and use my own ears and opinions 

I do too and I say that as someone who used to do amateur reviews. Critics are designed for citing parts of songs that a regular person with no music credentials wouldn't have picked up on. But it's becoming more and more common now for the professionals to completely miss glaring issues with songs to the point where I don't know how someone who studied the art of music and got a degree in it could possibly find some songs acceptable as they go against everything that good music should stand for. That's where I say that bribes were involved and, with this article, maybe some of them are scared too.

2 hours ago, Chesescake said:

What's the attitude music critics had before these stan riot phenomenon begin? If I remember right, the majority of them always holding nasty attitude to every poppy catchy things teenagers adore.

Bullying and doxxing is wrong, it shouldn't shouldn't be held as an effective weapon by musician fans, but neither do critics have right to literally tear others down.

Exactly, a lot of them just didn't get pop music and were very dismissive of it, especially if it came from women and especially if they were young women making their breakout. The obsession of painting every female who came onto the scene as a fake, manufactured product engineered by a greedy record label was rampant. Lana Del Rey was the worst victim of that. Critics were so harsh on her likely because they thought she'd fade away in a year or two so I love how the public rubbed the critics noses in it by making her debut a rip-roaring success to the point where critics did a 180 (not a 360, that came a bit later) on her next album and were a whole lot kinder to it and reception for her albums has got better and better with every release, with her even finally getting a Grammy nomination for AOTY. It's partly because critics hate looking like fools (if the public gets it, why can't we?) but I think it partly came down to the public's love for her making them take a second look and wonder if anything went over their heads. Even those who don't like her at least understand by now that she writes all her own material and is the real deal. But why they didn't realise that from the start is what confuses me. But sexism has a lot to answer for. I think maybe Lana walked so the other new girls could run in that regard because she was probably the last female to debut that had to endure untrue accusations of not being genuine and suchlike. Basically every one since is given a fair shake, even if they're young, came out of nowhere and make commercial music. It's nice to think that we've realised the error of our ways and are prepared to do better.

[LaLuna 12,732]

Stan culture is so disgusting. Newsflash, not everyone has to like your fave's work.

[27monster27 11,755]

3 hours ago, Chesescake said:

What's the attitude music critics had before these stan riot phenomenon begin? If I remember right, the majority of them always holding nasty attitude to every poppy catchy things teenagers adore.

Bullying and doxxing is wrong, it shouldn't shouldn't be held as an effective weapon by musician fans, but neither do critics have right to literally tear others down.

Exactly this. There is a review from NME for Britney's debut album where they said that they wanted her to grow up on drugs or something like that.

[Economy 47,840]

The critics can't handle the backlash while the fans can't handle someone they never met not having something positive about their fav (which in most cases they also never met) which doesn't affect them personally in any possible way.

 

Human 21st century sensitivity is truly reaching new heights 

[Wet Fire 6,841]

Is this also why some ridiculously mediocre albums are getting 80+ on metacritic nowadays? 

[Corous 301]

Unpopular opinion but since musical taste is subjective I think music critics are not necessary at all 

[KORG 4,756]

Metacritic is a CON.

They include some, not all.

They give more weight to some.

Obvious unprofessional  bias is ignored.

It's a joke of a business.

[Rahrahbitchson 17,588]

I am truly sorry for whoever made that Bey critic, Jay Z and Beyoncé on their way

 

[Jollibee 3,179]

5 hours ago, NicoB said:

Luckily they didn't comment anything about gaga

Publications are pretty fair to Gaga, tbh compared to Taylor, Adele, and Beyonce. Maybe, except for Slant and NYT who always drags her music.

[Poker 3,653]

The whole idea of a review of an album doesn’t make sense to me. I think it needs to stop.

[Future Lovers 6,587]

5 hours ago, alfio said:

If a critic refuses to write an honest review over fear of backlash, they should just quit???

Absolutely not. 

Nobody should have to choose between their job and their mental health and safety. The issue does not lay with the critics, it lays entirely with stans.

Nobody should be made to quit, threatened, told to kill themselves, harassed, and doxxed for doing their jobs. The solution is not telling journalists to quit, it’s artists and other fans with sanity not letting stans behave that way. Call them out, hold them accountable, give them consequences, not the journalist. 

[ManuelColon 702]

Well, when House Of Gucci was released a ton of critics and journalists started receiving death treats, got told that they should k*ll themselves, got insulted for their weight, for their age, etc. 

And a lot of fans actually excuse that kind of behavior, I made a thread about it and without paying that much attention gave an opinion about the film that wasn't really needed and most people instead of acknowledging the harassment decided to gang up on me for saying something negative about the film without having seen it.