(I am not going to show examples of my writing or link profiles on other sites.)
I am not talking about reviewing single songs on Newgrounds, which I did solely for the review for review thread. I mean music outside NG, usually albums or EP's, sometimes compilations. Tangible qualities like rhythm, production, composition are easy to talk about, but then making a value judgement (good/bad) or using adjectives such as "eerie", "meaty", "introspective", "violent", "atmospheric" feels like I'm talking straight out of my ass. I don't know what I mean when I say these words and I wouldn't expect a random reader to know better than me.I could word my subjective preferences as "It touches my soul" or "It offends my ears". Or assume the artist's intention and talk about "ham-fisted attempt at mixing genres" or "blatant trend chasing". Or mention a seemingly unrelated life experience I had and then draw an analogy to it.
But why am I doing any of this? I am not trying to recommend music, be a guide, or cater to any particular audience. Iin fact, I should be one of the last people to do that since I am aware of the bizarre and unrelateable views I have. I usually read reviews of critique of media (not just music, but films, books etc) after I've consumed it. And I don't even care about the actual content of the writing, because 1) I am not looking for someone to validate my opinion and 2) Most media just isn't that deep and there are only a few trains of thought on it, so I am not going to see unpredictable opinions. I read criticism to analyze its writing style and see if I can take anything from it, because I write too. Pretty much, I value style over substance since unique insight is incredibly rare. Writing for its own sake?
I don't see my opinions as relevant to anyone, because I am not trying to guide anyone - I can't wrap my head around how someone could run out of music to listen to and need recommendations. And when I don't see my opinions as relevant, it seems that much more worthless to even make them public. Keeping them to myself is... masturbatory? Kinda like music or any creative activity I've done.
Actually, I somewhat care about the substance of my reviews. Talking about any music above a certain (rather low) popularity threshold goes against my beliefs, because nothing new can be said about it. I focus on less popular music, and in general, I avoid any topic, not only about music, that's been discussed to death. What can I say that hasn't been said a million times before? Even though I am not doing mere writing exercises, I don't see the point it (read above about how I am not guiding anyone). I can't enjoy writing with that dissonance between the effort I put into it and the value I perceive, which is none.
