The Critics were Right - These albums are FANTASTIC!

[Charlie O.]

AND it depends on what you mean by "the public". Would we all know about The Stooges or The Velvet Underground now if certain critics hadn't flown the flag for them back then?

[quaco]

Oct 28, 2020 16:50:22 GMT toomanyhatz said:

Paul Fucking Simon - Genius or wanker? As I said there, both. A guy who can write "Silent Eyes" either has soul or is a damn good actor. Hey, I'll take either one.

Yes!!

[quaco]

I voted for the three that I would gladly put on today: Bandwagonesque, Pretzel Logic, and Still Crazy... Some other good stuff there.

P.S. I am in the vast minority — I totally dug the Rattle and Hum film. I did buy the CD and promptly never listened to it, but I generally think it wasn't a bad period per se. The Joshua Tree stuff was better live, and them flirting with different influences and stuff made a boring bunch of guys kind of interesting. They went on to become much worse. (The first album is still the only one I would listen to today.)

[Sneelock]

Jan 8, 2024 2:46:24 GMT Charlie O. said:

Would we all know about The Stooges or The Velvet Underground now if certain critics hadn't flown the flag for them back then?

good point. the answer is no. Rock critics can help artists that have not yet found a sizable audience, no doubt about it. Feelies, Replacements, Wilco, I'm sure we can all point to any number of these whose audience has snowballed (some more than others) by critical word of mouth.

I think it's "established artists" who are the most immune to what I'll call critical consensus.

I'm not saying it's useless just that, for established acts, it's drop in the bucket. Robert Hilburn told L.A. record buyers that they were idiots for not buying "Desperado" in sufficient numbers. by "Hotel California" I don't think it mattered what he told them.

I will now return to the example of  Billy Joel's "The Nylon Curtain" did rock critics calling it "Billy Joel's Sgt Pepper" (or words to that effect) help Billy Joel? I think so but only because of Popularity Math.

who bought Billy Joel's The Nylon Curtain when it was new?

People who always liked Billy Joel and had been with him since the beginning.

PLUS: People who had grown to like Billy Joel as he had put out more albums and gotten more popular

PLUS: people who heard the single and liked it enough to buy their first Billy Joel album.

PLUS: people who give a shit what the Rock Critic of their choice had to say about it.

so, did Rock Critics REALLY think "the nylon curtain" and "true blue" were works of merit? yeah, some did.

did Rock Critics try to seem more relevant than they actually were by acclaiming records that didn't NEED their goddam acclaim?

I think some did.