I’ve always been pretty good at accepting criticism. Being a music critic, I’ve become accustomed to it. Recently I have received some slack from friends and co-workers for my lack of “hip-hop ” or “rap” reviews in the good ol’ State News.

I understand where a lot of people are coming from when they accuse me of not representing students’ tastes equally based on my Grooves every Wednesday. Obviously what floats my boat isn’t going to float everyone else’s.

I’ll openly admit I don’t listen to these music genres. It’s never been my cup of tea. In my opinion, a lot of it sounds the same - someone talking creatively with a machine in the background and a thumping chest-rattling beat holding it all down. Sorry, but that’s just not music to me. People using their limbs to strum a guitar or bang a drum to create something amazing is my definition of quality music.

Now if you want to talk rock and roll, that’s my bag. I perform it, I listen to it, I live it. So naturally I’m going to be able to back up my reviews with more concrete information instead of pulling material out of nowhere if I were to describe the latest “DMX” joint.

If things go my way, I will be following in the footsteps of Cameron Crowe in the major motion picture “Almost Famous” and writing for Rolling Stone magazine (that is, after my stint as a rock and roll god, but that’s another column).

I realize that’s never going to happen unless I get some background in this other type of music so many others find fascinating.

I also consider myself to be very optimistic. It’s not that I hate rap, I’ve just never given it the time of day because I’m so infatuated with rock, except for back in sixth grade when I was a fan of Vanilla Ice for a week.

I want to expand my horizons and do some reviews of up-and-coming hip-hop artists, but the problem is simply that I don’t know anything about them.

Press releases work wonders, but if I don’t have any general knowledge about these artists, I’ll be doing reviews that most of you will think are pathetic and uneducated. I don’t want to look ignorant and write something that is completely wrong.

What many people don’t realize is that most (if not all) of the discs that review are sent to me by record companies. They don’t send me rap albums very often, if at all. I try to review artists I think others would dig based on what I receive. I’m not going to go out of my way to purchase a hip-hop CD for a review because I’d be out $15.

The hip-hop and boy band craze is plastered over every type of music media in the world right now, so much more than rock and roll. Besides, don’t you want to hear about groups you’ve never heard of instead of reading a review that every magazine and publication is going to cover already?

Let me know if there’s something you want me to review or if you disagreed with one of my opinions. I need your help to become a better music journalist in my quest for Rolling Stone.

I vow to make more of an effort to get a hold of record companies to request hip-hop and rap albums to review them.

I will pay better attention to hip-hop news and music, but the point of music reviews is to give notice to amazing artists that a lot of record companies wouldn’t give the time of day.

As I stated earlier, I’m open to criticism. If you want to write me and tell me my reviews are the worst you’ve ever read, please do so, and tell me why. If there is something you want reviewed, let me know and I’ll consider it. I respect all of you as readers and if I’m doing something wrong, I want you to tell me.

Then again, if I’m doing fine the way things are right now, you can always let me know that too.

Rock on Spartans, and hopefully I’ll be hearing from you.

Dan Julian, State News music reporter, can be reached at julianda@msu.edu.