[mplpost] Reviews Blues

[Jesse Kumagai]

Having spent some time working as a publicist I've seen my fair share of 
lukewarm media reactions.  The best spiritual approach I've ever seen came 
in the form of an ad in eye weekly for Lucinda Williams, where they quoted 
several glowing reviews.  They then proceeded to quote Tim Perlich's bottom 
barrel rating of one "N" for her disc, followed by the line: "On second 
thought who gives a shit what Perlich thinks?".  Don't get me wrong, I'm 
usually quite fond of Tim's writing, and think that he's one of the best 
critics in town - do I agree with him all the time?  No.  But that brings 
me to my point.  A music critic acts as a point of reference.  As a reader 
gains familiarity with a reviewer's mind set and tastes, it becomes easier 
to relate their words to your personal preferences.  If critic "X" always 
pans the music you love, and praises the music you hate, words like 
"awful", "pathetic", and "lousy" in a review might prompt you to run out to 
your local record store and buy the disc.

So ultimately, there's no such thing as bad publicity.

Jesse

>Here's a topic!  This morning I accidentally discovered a negative review 
>of my work (well, it was mixed really, but not exactly glowing) on an 
>Internet site that, to my knowledge, I didn't even submit to.  The shock, 
>the horror!  I'm feeling a little blue about it and wonder how any of you 
>have coped with negative reviews (that is, if you've ever gotten any 
>;>).  Do these things matter?  Does anybody care?  Does anybody know any 
>assassins?

Jesse Kumagai
Administrative Coordinator, Music
Harbourfront Centre
Tel.  416 973 3735
Fax. 416 973 8729
mailto:jesse@harbourfront.on.ca
http://www.harbourfront.on.ca
235 Queens Quay West
Toronto, Ontario
Canada  M5J 2G8

-
To unsubscribe: mail majordomo@icomm.ca with
"unsubscribe maplepost" in the body (not the subject line)
Need help? mail owner-maplepost@icomm.ca