Friday, March 29, 2024

Letter unfair to bash SN reviews

In a recent letter to the editor (”Paper reviews unpopular music,” SN 11/28) Dallas Smoke criticized The State News for reviewing “unpopular” music such as Blink-182, Marilyn Manson and Joni Mitchell.

Calling this collection of artists unpopular seems a little odd to me, especially considering Blink-182 currently has the No. 3 modern rock song in the country, according to the Billboard charts, and Joni Mitchell’s discography contains about 25 albums.

Perhaps instead of unpopular, Dallas should have labeled this group “Artists Dallas Smoke Doesn’t Like.”

Smoke also singles out the soundtrack to the new film “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” as a particularly bad choice and points out the prior failure of The State News to review the last release by ’N Sync.

Perhaps he missed it, but ’N Sync actually has a track on the Grinch soundtrack (along with far more talented artists like the Barenaked Ladies and Ben Folds). Imagine that. But, then again, the facts have never stopped someone from writing into The State News before.

And, yes, it isn’t a whole album devoted to a group of boy wonders, so I suppose Smoke could still feel somewhat justified in his complaint.

Smoke, in his closing sentence, suggests The State News should review a “superior” album (for example, the Backstreet Boys’ latest effort) that will sell a million copies in its first week.

On a basic musical level, I question his assertion that a boy band’s album is “superior” to just about anything. But beyond that, why review an album that will already sell a million copies?

If someone already likes the Backstreet Boys, a bad review won’t stop them from buying it, and if someone hates them, a good review probably won’t cause them to race to the store to pick it up.

Andrew Hungerford
astrophysics and theater senior

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