On what a music critic can do

I have a weakness for music criticism.

I find myself…easily convinced. A compelling review can send me listening through an album multiple times, even when I’m certain on first listen I don’t like it.

Knowing this weakness, I try to keep in mind a few things that a music critic may aim to do:

• Change my mind.
• Support or strengthen my opinion.
• Tell me about something new and convince me to give it a shot.

A lot of popular music criticism, in fact, boils down to a simple sentiment: Try this out.

But there’s a flip side to the above menu of critical options:

• Weaken my opinion.
• Tell me about something and convince me that it’s not worth my time.

There’s a validity to this form of criticism, too.

And there is plenty of criticism that does the work of strengthening AND weakening opinions, though this depends on the reader.

But what can be dangerous about criticism is the invocation that something is not worth the reader’s time.

A convincing critic can get me to ignore entire artists or even sub genres based on a quip.