Winning Critical Acclaim

Alex Reynolds writes "'Are pop critics doing a good job? What does it mean to do a good job as a pop music critic? What is the difference between good and bad pop music criticism?' Loren Jan Wilson's innovative Pitchformula project takes the archives of music criticism and journalism from the popular Pitchfork web site and analyses them for commonalities in content, determining what attributes make for a 'good' or 'bad' evaluation. From this data, Wilson sculpted his compositional and performance technique to write rock music that should win critical acclaim."

Comments

Application to Slashdot maybe?

[Anonymous Coward]

Could this technique be used to construct Slashdot posts guaranteed to garner critical acclaim?

Hmmm.....

[Anonymous Coward]

I've started a website to track the way that comments are moderated on web forums. The patterns jumped out immediately with even the most cursory examination - say good things about Linux, Apple or socialism, get moderated up. Say good things about Microsoft or the US, get moderated down. "Truth" had absolutely no effect on the moderation.

Let me gaze into my crystal ball and see how this comment will be moderated..... Hmmm.....

Re:Hmmm.....

[Anonymous Coward]

You should have started your post with "Mod me down if you will ..."

That way, you're guaranteed to be modded up.

Re:Hmmm.....

[Anonymous Coward]

Hmmm Safari can't find the page. I'd mod you down just for that alone. Will I get moded up because I use Safari?

Knock off the pop, join the metal people!

[Lord Graga]

I have found metal reviews a lot more interesting to read. Especially the reviews at Gothmetal.net has been good reading. It might just be because of the VARIATION that metal has brought with it. Pop music, rap, dance, techno, whatever you call it, has allways had a bit of repetition in my eyes.

When in Slashdot, do as the slashdotters...

[MissTuxie]

1. Rock band
2. Pitchformula review
3. ???
4. Profit!
So much easier than actually making a comment.

What if NME developed it?

[keefey]

Well, if the NME had developed it (a music rag in the UK), it would simply go like this:

if (band_name == "The Strokes" || band_name == "The Libertines")
printf("10/10");
else
printf("%d/10", rand()%10);

On an honest note, it annoys me that there should be some generic formula for critically analysing music. It's this kind of thing that makes all music follow a generic pub-rock path like it did in the mid-late 90's (Oasis anyone?). Or generic R&B/Urban path like it does now...

Eargh.. Pitchfork..

[chewy_2000]

I think SA has a pretty good take on Pitchfork Media.

Here.

Spot good music by watching the video...

[n0rr1s]

The better looking the artist, the worse the music.

Seriously, surfing the music channels I have lately found myself switching channels before hearing the song, if the people in the video are too pretty. Perhaps I'll become classically conditioned to dislike beautiful people.

Hmmm. This is beginning to suggest a Pavlovian psychology study. Also reminds me a little of A Clockwork Orange.

Bayesian approach to music likes ?

[Animaether]

It's a single genre - pop. This is e-mail ;)
Now there's good elements to pop - ham
And bad elements to pop - spam

So now using the same method that a spammer would use against you if they had your bayesian datafile to create a ham e-mail, he can create 'good' pop.

Or so the theory goes. After all, when 'good' elements in womens' faces are all combined together to make the theoretically 'perfect' face, the result is something not too attractive.

And besides.. POP = very mainstream = pushed by labels = RIAA milking cow

Re:...Like Dancing About Architecture

[Anonymous Coward]

What the fuck is the difference between a 6.7 album and a 7.3 album?

.6

Re:...Like Dancing About Architecture

[Profane MuthaFucka]

The only review that meant anything:

Emperor: Your work is ingenious! It's quality work! And there are simply too many notes! That's all! Just cut a few and it will be perfect. --From the movie 'Amadeus'