Members audioicon Posted January 6, 2007 Members Share Posted January 6, 2007 In my un-solicited minority opinion the best way to get your song critique/rated is to get people you have no relationship with listen to it. People who don't even know you do music/sing/play. Barry Gordy did quality check/marketting by asking his panel "will you buy this song or a sandwish if you were hungry and only had enough for one item?" Even though I tend to like specific factors in a song, like a solo guitar, sax or orchestra session, I never buy a CD for that reason. For example: I record a song, I go to a club/bar/party and just gave the disc to the DJ or students, tell them I bought the disc on the web or at a concert, let them listen. I'm not refering to technical know how just rating songs. I'm not saying it's wrong to put your song in forums and let people listen and rate your work. But if I had a label/production company and wanted to know what songs to release, I'll have a panel that knows nothing about the musicians, have never met them and never seen them sing in person, it's like a "blind test." To me thats the only way you can get the "best ratings." IMHO! Some of the songs I'd say sounds technically horrible have turned hits! A song being good/bad can be very "subjective" to the pros.IMHO, the pros tend to look at individual factors, while most average music listener might focus on the overall appeal of the song and not pay attention to the little harshness on the horns. What's your thought? Would you say knowing an artist affects how you rate their work? Lets discuss further. Audioicon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted January 6, 2007 Members Share Posted January 6, 2007 I'm not sure how much it affects my estimation of a given work -- but it CERTAINLY affects my willingness to take a few minutes out to listen to it. If you give me a choice of listening to a new track from, say, Modest Mouse, and one from, oh, I dunno, Nickleback, I know which way I'm gonna go. And I'm almost certain to give the MM a more sympathetic listen... That's not to say that if I heard a dynamite song by Nickleback (heh... yeah, right) I wouldn't appreciate it. In fact, I have a special rule I developed in the 70s... I allow any band I hate one song that I actually kind of like before I force myself to substantially re-evaluate them and possibly rehabilitate them. So, when Billy Joel (are you listening Stranger? ) turned out some piece of fluff I didn't hate (I'm thinking "Uptown Girl" but it's all pretty hazy), it didn't force me into a major paradigm shift. Per my rule, if he'd ever turned out another song that didn't make me want to rip my ears off my head and blue label them to Antarctica, I might have had to re-evaluate him. But... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members the stranger Posted January 6, 2007 Members Share Posted January 6, 2007 Waiting for the quality of yore will be about like waiting for a paradigm shift. Do check that other thread. I added some more cryptic self-humoring drivel in there. -~ I usually do the same. I've bought albums I didn't really like and pulled them off the shelf later to decide "wtf was I thinking?". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kurdy Posted January 8, 2007 Members Share Posted January 8, 2007 I'd say it has. There's this guy I used to go to college with who was a really great performer, and I'd seen a few of his shows on campus a bunch of times, but I really couldn't get into his music at first. The more I got to know him, though, the more respect I'd gained for him, and my opinion of his music changed, to the point where I would play his CD everyday. His CD became sort of the soundtrack to 2003 for me. But I'm almost certain this wouldn't have happened had I not known the guy personally. So yeah--I think knowing someone does affect your perception of their music. Per my rule, if he'd ever turned out another song that didn't make me want to rip my ears off my head and blue label them to Antarctica, I might have had to re-evaluate him. But... Slightly off-topic, but I never really understood the passionate distaste many people seem to have for Billy Joel. I can certainly see why he may not be everyone's cup of tea, but considering how much drivel came out in the '70s and '80s, I'm not quite sure why he's such a frequent target. Hey--at least he never did disco. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted January 8, 2007 Members Share Posted January 8, 2007 Originally posted by the stranger Waiting for the quality of yore will be about like waiting for a paradigm shift. Do check that other thread. I added some more cryptic self-humoring drivel in there. -~ I usually do the same. I've bought albums I didn't really like and pulled them off the shelf later to decide "wtf was I thinking?". Oh gee -- who hasn't?!? That is one very BIG reason I'm so happy with my subscription service... When I was moving I went through a lot of my LPs and CDs (about 1200 and 500 or so respectively) and there were WAY too many I'd played twice or less. And some I'd never even played all the way through -- including some albums I knew from the past but realized I just was not going to need to hear more than once a decade or so... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members audioicon Posted January 9, 2007 Author Members Share Posted January 9, 2007 I have been thinking why musicians just don't say "the tracks/songs sounds good/okay. I don't think it's because they are trying to critisized a projects. I believe it's because musicians/producers/engineers all have a different ways of doing things and would result to the way they would have recorded or mixed the songs. But I still think that the best way to get an honest opinion is from the people doing a blind test. I have learned to put my personal preference aside and just just hear the over all song. Like when Quincy Jones wanted to cut the intro of Billie Jean, he said it was too long, "you can shave through the intro" but Michael said it was wonderful and he liked it that way so he can do his dances. So I guess my question should be, will your personal preference affect how you rate another artist work? Audioicon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MorePaul Posted January 9, 2007 Members Share Posted January 9, 2007 Fencing is an interesting sport to travel with guest fencers are welcome to visit, are encouraged, to visit other salles ("halls" basically western fencing "dojos") it's cool b/c you get to fence the unknown, they can have different styles and philosphies and they don't know your tendencies and tricks - you don't know theirs Fencing at home is good too b/c you refine -- they know your tricks, they know your timing, they know your weaknesses I think it's really just a question of what you are looking to get out of the beta(FWIW - software dev, it's really good to have betas that kind of cover the "latin square") You can use the "blind listeners" to maybe get an idea of how much popular appeal a work has those who know you or know music might point out inelegancies, tritenesses, etc -- things that might not show up on first blush or in particular listening contexts, but that might be not-so-good elsewhere think of it like SQA-The blind listeners are acceptance tester and the firends are white boxing, guys with whom you've worked...PCR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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