"I think the feeling right now with criticism and reviews is that it's rare that someone is actually critical. It seems more about discovering it, and you judge for yourself whether you like it or not. Before, you used to have to spend seventeen bucks on a CD so you wanted someone to tell you if it was good or not. Now, you don't need a review, you just download it and throw it away."I never thought about that before. She may be correct about the weight most readers (myself included) give reviews nowadays, but I disagree about reviews rarely being critical anymore. Pitchfork is notorious for its pretentiously critical reviews (see their staggeringly low score of 1.2/10 for the Dandy Warhols' Odditorium Or Warlords of Mars), often to the point that readers may wonder, "Why do they even review X album or Y artist in general?" And for a more recent example, check out Tiny Mix-Tapes' review of Blondie's latest album.
I could pick and choose negative reviews from various publications all day, but I know Marnie isn't saying critical reviews don't exist at all anymore. My point is just that maybe it's just the reviews I happen to read, or maybe I just have "bad" or unpopular taste in music (although much of my taste consists of some of the highest-selling artists of all time, so the latter isn't the case), but reviewers definitely aren't afraid to voice their criticisms, however unnecessary those reviewers' voices may have become in the digital age.
Click below to watch the video for Marnie Stern's "Transformer":
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