There are so many albums released in a year that it’s almost impossible to actually listen and give attention to all of them.
Still, best albums of the year lists are compiled by any serious publication or critic. The pressure to curate these lists and streamline the process has become so widespread that it reveals a major intrinsic problem with the coverage of music.
Many of the same albums make appearances near the top of the majority of these lists with an unusual consistency for something as subjective as music. To help trim the field, varied music critics have all included what can be referred to as “event albums.”
An event album is usually one of two things: a long-awaited record from a historic artist, such as seminal 90s band Sleater-Kinney’s reunion album, “No Cities to Love” or a defining release by an artist who is on the rise, like the debut album of young rap star Vince Staples or indie darling Grimes’s latest release, “Art Angels.”
While some may be deserving of the near-universal adulation, the process by which they are all chosen disregards quality in favor of keeping with the expectations music publications have set up. These albums are anticipated in such a way by the very publications that will later have to review them, thereby creating self-fulfilling prophecies. Because magazines and blogs spend so much time telling us how great these albums will be, they feel the need to confirm this by their own reviews.
Sometimes this is fine: magazines like Rolling Stone told us Kendrick Lamar’s “To Pimp a Butterfly” would be philosophically deep and musically experimental, and it mostly was.
However, there is no way many people would also find Vince Staples’ “Summertime ’06” to be a top 10 album – while lyrically strong, Staples’ flow and beats leave much to be desired. That’s somewhat subjective, but by the critical consensus of what makes good hip-hop, those same critics should not enjoy this album this much. But Staples was heavily marketed by magazines like Billboard and LA Weekly as the next big thing in rap music and they refuse to go back on it now.
After all, when Complex hyped up Iggy Azalea and then gave her album a negative review, they were blasted by Lorde as symptomatic of magazines “(profiling) interesting artists in order to sell copies/get clicks and then (expletive) on their records.”
Music publications are just as much about promotion as they are about criticism, if not more. This is why magazines like Rolling Stone will give every release by a Bob Dylan or a Jack White 3.5 to 5 stars out of 5 because they sell magazines and if they say those musicians happen to make a bad record suddenly they don’t.
The real problem is when such rigid expectations are pre-subscribed, shutting more deserving artists out. Critics’ chose their golden boy Father John Misty’s new album, “I Love You, Honeybear,” to be the 70s pop-style throwback album for the year like Mac DeMarco’s “Salad Days” was last year. However, the exaltation of Father John Misty’s release has blocked out the at least as deserving “Goon” by Tobias Jesso Jr., which has only appeared on a couple smaller publications’ lists.
These self-fulfilling prophecies have exposed the problems inherent in music publications. Their loyalty to popular brand artists and types of albums, not seen in something like film or literature, prevents great works from receiving sufficient attention.
When end of year lists are put together, names and expectations must be left at the door, and the album looked at only on its own merits.
Mark DiBona is a senior television, radio and film major. His column appears weekly. He can be reached at mdibona@syr.edu and followed on Twitter @NoPartyNoDisco.
