Why do you review music albums?

[Kiki]

First of all if you're going to spend time writing a great deal of paragraphs on what you think about a music album you are bound to be a big music fan. Some may not agree and say you're not listening to enough music to be a big music fan yet in your own mind this doesn't matter. You like your music. That's enough for you.

Some people write music album reviews and get paid for it. I think it is safe to say the majority here have never had such a privilege. It's done as a recreational thing.

So what do you think is the main appeal to it? Is it used to know what you are getting yourself into with a new album? Do you like to read and trust some peoples music reviews over others? Do you believe reviewing is always more about writing for the reader than for yourself? If it was for yourself only, everything could be wrote in a book by the side of your bed.

Also, most of all, do you find it a fun thing to do?

[JMan]

You make some darn good threads, Outlaw.

I love reviewing things, and I hate it when I can't find the right words to make a multi-paragraph review. Usually, my reviews go like so:
1. I talk about the band and the influence they've had with a couple of opening sentences, and then finish the opening paragraph by comparing the album with the band's other works.
2. I list all of the good points.
3. I list the bad points. Sometimes they go in the same paragraph if there aren't enough of either.
4. I write a track by track description, leaving out a couple of the worst tracks if necessary.
5. Closing paragraph talking about the good points again, and closing with a sentence which may either recommend the album or tell others to ruin for the hills.

That's the form I try to follow. I'd love to be payed for writing reviews. The only problem is that I would have to "keep up with the times" when I review everything I can find, no matter what year. I make a hobby out of it, but I view it to be more than a hobby. It's good writing practice. As a hopeful future novelist, I review anything.

[SuedeSwede]

I like expressing my own opinion about an album.

[NickVolos]

I'd like to keep my reviews brief and to the point attempting to covey as much as possible in as a little as possible.

I read reviews as a guideline only, never fully trusting the reviewer - it is his/her opinion after all.
_________________
"And can’t you see you’re in on it?
You were born though you need not
And is that not some cause
For worship, being born among these trees?"

[Norman Bates]

It's a good exercise - helps you see if your ideas are clear; if they aren't, your review is bound to be messy (which is not necessarily a bad thing). Putting into clear form the host of things I can be thinking of sometimes is a good way to see if these thoughts are worth anything at all.

Also, I'll only write reviews if I know they'll be read (e.g. the pending BEA 1000 collection, or lethal's future blog possibly), so it might be that I'm looking for something in return (I don't know what really - general agreement? debate? vain recognition of my musical culture? all? none?).

Finally, it's a challenge for me, as English is not my native language ; it also occurs to me it's a challenge in French anyway, as this language is somewhat to close to the bone and I'll generally get overemotional or will ponder for days on what to write.

[Guest]

I do it for fun. I like writing and I like music, and I like the sound of my own voice (or, in this case, the look of my own text). Sometimes you think you can hear something in a piece of music that others may have missed, and want to elaborate on that. Also, attempting to articulate what you do or don't like about a piece of music can offer you a better understanding of why that is. Sometimes a piece of music just doesn't work for you, but I feel that much more often than not that there are good reasons for why something turns you on or off - getting your thoughts down on paper (or, in the case, on the computer) and trying to arrange them into something cohesive can actually help to provide you with a clear explanation of why exactly that is, and can help to teach you more about your own musical enjoyment. But yeah, I mostly do it for fun, and because I have way too much free time.