The Debunking Classics Series: A Small Announcement on my Part Dec 06 '06    Write an essay on this topic. Tweet Popular Products in Books Rick Bragg - Somebody Told Me: The Newspaper Stories of Rick Bragg From $6 260 Drum Machine Patterns From $8 The Bottom Line Another beginning of those never-ending series you really hate. It has come to my attention, after some heavy thought, that I’m not as frequent nor quite as enthusiastic about writing here as I used to be. I don’t have as much time or commitment, and I’m frustrated by not being able to say what I mean about an album lately. So, rather than continue trying to slug it out waiting for inspiration, I’m going to take a whole new angle on the music section at Epinions. I’ve always found it of interest that nobody really cares if you dish the dirt on many an album coming out today, but as soon as you mention the word ‘classic’ anywhere in that, people start to get their backs up (look here for just one example). “There was nothing like it when it came out,” is the most common claim, or “It’s influenced so many of today’s bands.” And I guess there’s something in that that bugs me, because I find many of them to be overrated. So, I’m going to pull all sorts of albums considered to be vintage or ‘timeless’ off the shelf in the next year or so and assess them as if they came out today. Pulling them apart, track by track – not just the icon that represents them. Would they be worth anything if they came out today? Maybe I’ll take them from Rolling Stone’s Top 500 Albums of All Time or something, just to prove how inaccurate that list is. And I’m calling it The Debunking Classics series, in case you hadn’t guessed. I also may not publish them very regularly, because I believe in proper digestion if you’re going to give proper judgment and respect in regards to them, so if that means losing my Top Reviewer hat, so be it. It's probably not very good to try and hold onto titles like that for a long time. I’m also doing it in part to improve some of my own limited knowledge from back yonder. I probably will still write a couple of reviews from the present as I go through, especially the ‘big releases’ of the year, but seeing as there’s nothing much I can see coming out in the near future that truly excites me, I may as well take the opportunity now. I still will rate in the music category as often as I can, however. Brian’s “Show Me Your Worst” write-off may have been some influence in this decision of mine, so I give credit to him for that where it’s due, and I’ve also done a short section on this before (see my profile for more details), only now I’m really opening up the floodgates and taking a critical look at some of the so-called best music that bands have made for themselves in the last 50 years. It is not a hate mission, please note, I’m genuinely curious. If anyone’s got any recommendations in this department, please, please share them with me in the comments section. It’d be a great help and I’ll be sure to give you a shoutout. Happy reading and writing to all of you and I take my partial leave from Epinionating herewith, hoping that I can breathe some creativity and interest back into myself in relation to the site! Black Star 40.

Read all comments (28)|Write your own comment

Write an essay on this topic.