Am I A Music Critic?

I have been publishing this music-focused blog since the fall of 2011. Most of the blog posts are album reviews. For several years, I have augmented the blog with Instagram and mini reviews (and lots of other stuff in my life). I originally started the blog as a musical diary – documenting the music I was listening to. I quickly found that blogging about music caused me to be a more engaged music fan. Another benefit was that friends, knowing I was a music head, would ask me what was new on my music radar, and I would generally draw a blank. Once I had a blog, I could easily refer to the blog to remind myself of what I was into. A final motivation was to promote music that I am a fan of in the hopes that others will listen. I rarely post a negative review because I don’t have the energy to listen and write about something I don’t like.

When I think of a music critic, I think of a professional writer employed by a publication or website. These professionals are typically assigned an album to review; therefore, their reviews are both positive and negative. A handful of music critics are like sports columnists—they write about whatever they want. I have read many music reviews (although fewer these days because of streaming), and I sense that the reviewer can be a fan, but they don’t have to be. In fact, there may be an advantage to not being a fan to have a more journalistic detachment with the subject.

If you regularly read this blog, you will notice that it is often in the first person with extensive use of the word “I.” My wife, who edits my blog, frequently teases me that there is too much “I” in my content. I recently wrote a post where I deliberately wrote in the third person and avoided using “I” (however, I failed in the postscript and fell back into the first person). The fact that I write my reviews so much in the first person makes me a blogger vs. a music critic. As a music blogger, I am a fan first and a critic second, whereas for a music critic, criticism is the priority. My music posts are less critical reviews than memorializing my relationship with a recording.

My blog posts are almost autobiographical, so I conclude that I am not a music critic and have no desire to be one. I am a music enthusiast (AKA music head) who wants to write about my relationship with music, especially new music. You will continue to get a lot of first-person narratives and the word “I” if you read Catchgroove.com.