A song could be a 10 to me, and a 2 to you. It all depends on the context, who is listening, what they are listening for, and what they aren’t listening for. When I hear a song that surprises me, I get excited. When someone else hears a surprise in music, they might be caught off guard, taken out of the moment. We could easily end the conversation by declaring music to be subjective and leave it at that, but I would like to explore certain aspects of this system a little more..

Times in which a music rating stands out to me are times in which I am surprised by the number. Maybe I was anticipating a release only to find out it had a low rating. What is the value in this experience? Many times, I won’t listen to a project in the same way I would’ve beforehand if I learn that it is supposedly “good” or “bad” before listening myself. These scores create preconceived notions that are based on someone else’s subjective value system. Maybe the reviewer was listening for some thing you wouldn’t have, or hoping for something you weren’t. Or maybe you yourself were hoping for something that the reviewer distained. Even if this was the case, you could see the score and be led astray on your first listen because of it, despite having opposing hopes for the music. This isn’t to say that everyone agrees with every review’s take on a piece of music, but just that we are influenced by them consciously or subconsciously.

to delve deeper into the reasons why you find it enjoyable

In terms of music as a business, should we review music and assign scores in hopes of deterring listeners from what we might perceive to be a lazy piece of work? Or on the other hand, should we rate music in hopes that it will promote a piece that we believe deserves more recognition? I believe in both cases, a numerical score only detracts from the value of the idea that a reviewer might hope to share. If someone is hoping to turn people away from an album, a better goal would be to highlight the problem or blind spot in the work, while recognizing that people may still enjoy it for other reasons. Conversely, I think the best way to promote a piece of work you enjoy is to delve deeper into the reasons why you find it enjoyable, rather than attributing a subjective score which readers will believe you attempted to assign objectively. After all, when a review is written with a big red “3.00”at the top of the page, the number itself doesn’t do anyone any good besides falsely saving readers time by making the written review itself optional. The same is true if the number is 10. Or 5. Or whatever number you choose.

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