Roses and Rants

-COLIN DUNLOP

Who are we really publishing for?

To answer that question, I'm going on a small tangent, but stick with it.

After spending a couple years in a newsroom and on deadline, my brain has become sharp. It's ready to go at a moments notice to beat the pressman. Being on the copy editing staff we were used to getting things late but having to make up for that lost time.

That's why when I started my critical writing class I knew it was going to be different than anything I had really done before. I never really stopped to smell the roses – there was never any time. It's not just me and journalism either. It seems it's all go, go, go in everyone's lives. The stock market's in the crapper, who has time for roses?

Well, gardeners for one.

Don't like metaphors? OK, I'll spell it out for you. The roses are art, like movies, television, books, food and performances. Gardeners are artists, such as painters, directors, writers, chefs and actors.

If you're following along carefully at this point then you've probably found an argument in there somewhere. Yes, I am insinuating that critique is as much for the artist as it is for the viewer. Without the critic no one would know how to get any better. Even the “error” of “trial and error” is defined by the choice words of those judging the merits and detriments of artistic expression.

This dynamic exchange, however, is under duress. As more people become vocal critics through the Internet, the voices coming at an artist become so large in number that the substantive argument is worthless. As a critic I have come to find that most reviews are a mix of the good and the bad. Some sites, like rottentomatoes.com, have begun to oversimplify the arguments into “thumbs up” and “thumbs down” categories. As a copy editor, one of the most potent lessons I learned was that whether something is good or bad is irrelevant without the “why.”

So the critic of the future is faced with a task not seen before. They must fight against the onslaught of simplistic verdicts and challenge their reader. That fight is being fought write here on these pages. The HBFP is a blog devoted to taking critique and articulating it.

This is, of course, in an unproven medium. Some Web sites have been shown to create money, but is the critique of Perez Hilton really substantive? Faced with a gloom and doom economy we may be seeing the decline of the critic with something real to say. They'll reemerge though. If the industry can ever find them a new home.

Taking on the HBFP

- ALEX BERRY

Does “Hipster-Bullshit Feedback-Playlist” even make sense?

Let’s break it down. The coined term “hipster” can be defined across musical genres. It’s about swagger, alienation; it’s pure funk. Anyone can be a hipster, really. It’s about presentation, style, demeanor—regardless of what type of beats you listen to (indie, emo, rap, country, blues!) Anyone who dares to take just one step outside of the norm and explore their own personal realm is a hipster. And “bullshit,” well, bullshit describes everything I just wrote.

Though you won’t find mainstream music on my project playlist, just because a single or artist gets some major radio air time, doesn’t take away their credibility. Merely stepping outside the conformist circle of pop artists singing sing-a-longs doesn’t legitimize any artist. Despite my Rockist tendencies, honestly, music is a form of artistic expression. I sure as hell couldn’t make million-dollar tracks, so who am I to judge?

Now, don’t get me wrong, I think Chris Daughtry’s howling is insufferable and I’d rather drag my knees across concrete than listen to Britney Spears’ single “Womanizer” one more time. However, sometimes personal biases just get in the way of giving music a shot.

Therein lies the difference between reviewing and criticism.

You can be a hater all you want, but if you can’t defend why you detest or adore arts and culture (here, music in particular) then your written opinion is categorized as just another review without credibility.

Check out any interactive website today and likely opinions will be tossed right and left without justification. Anyone can blog. But to truly criticize is to express opinion via thorough exploration of a creative work. Dig Deep. Discover exactly what it is that makes you cringe or scream the lyrics at the top of your lungs.

People rely on other people’s opinions; it’s human nature. Reading a critic’s judgment that shares similar interests, dislikes, and attitudes can heavily influence whether a consumer chooses to buy Kanye’s new album or not (see Jessica O’Neal’s Review).

The snarky attitude behind the “Hipster-Bullshit Feedback Playlist” precisely describes my attitude towards reviewing music—with a hint of humor, slightly racy, and at times a bit rude. And yes, snarkiness comes with a taste of cockiness but with a good argument standing behind my opinions, cockiness is simply a type of writing style.

**Note: Chris Daughtry’s whiny, purposefully shaky voice paired with overdramatic super-hero soundtrack music contributes to my distaste of his stuff. And Britney Spears, well, I’ll save my opinion on her for another review.

Manifesto, it's such an overused word

- BRIAN CREECH

We live in a world where our role is more frequently defined by what we consume and less by how we participate in society or in government. As the power of the unified citizenry continues to shrink in the global economy, and as the culture market becomes flooded and art of all types becomes seen as a commodity, we see the political and commercial become deeply intertwined.

Which is why now more than ever we need critics who are capable of looking at things at pulling apart all the socio-geo-politcal-economic consequences of the art we consume. For so many people the art we consume is an identity-defining gesture, yet critics are operating in a smaller arena as taste-makers, bloggers, and amateur reviewers close-in the boundaries of true criticism.

It might be elitist to say so, but in order for criticism to remain a commercially viable enterprise, it must find a way to offer something unique and significant. Good criticism has to place art in a world that exists beyond the gallery or the stage or the screen. The best of art helps us to understand the world in more poignant ways, and good criticism should do the same.

As media become more integrated, there will always be a need for those who can navigate the world with intelligence and keen critical eyes. A critic's eyes are attuned to the subtleties of the world with a penetrating insight that can help us understand the greater consequences of our actions by elucidating the latent values behind the things we buy.

We live in an age filled with literate and educated people, more than ever before, and while this might increase the amount of voices that are needlessly adding to the critical cacophony, it also notes an increase in the number of eyes and ears looking for smart things to consume. People want to know how the new M.I.A. album relates to the plight of the Senegalese rebels, and need critics to place those albums into the larger geo-political context.

Critics are ultimately the grand educators, who tell us why things are important, how they are important and what to do with the art/food/music/movies/television we consume. In the end, the only thing a critic need do is help the consumer make a more informed decision, and as long as people have buying power, then those decisions are going to be made with dollars. Critics have the great pleasure of always telling us what is good, and what values in our art we choose to support with our dollars.

So then, as the general education level of the population increases, so too will the need and demand for critics. The world's culture machine creates ephemera at an alarming rate, and at the very least there will always be a need for those who are smart and discerning to direct the rest of us to the meatiest parts.

Manifesting the Inner-Hipster

- JESSICA O'NEAL

Maybe it's about who you are.

I have never considered myself popular or interesting. Who am I to define taste and criticize artistic expression? It took me a long time to grasp this concept, but why the hell not? The name of our blog- "hipster-bullshit feedback playlist" might explain my new found self-realization.

I'm a hipster, but not necessarily defined as a contemporary rock type. Through my sorority girl antics and tendency to grab shinny satin over plaid button-ups, I enjoy going against the norm and having a bit of snobbery in my music and style preferences.

I'll take The Roots over Young Jeezy any day. Urban alternatives, indie rap, and neo-soul tell the story of my life. My music doesn't top the billboard charts and is rarely played on music stations, but it challenges themes and goes against musical standards.  

I consider myself the hip-hop and urban critic of our blog. Slight beliefs in rockism can seldom limit musical diversity among my fellow hipsters. In the mist of the local Athens music scene, folk rock tends to out shine underground hip-hop. Maybe through my voice, a better appreciation for hip-hop can grow.

I hate to describe our passion as bullshit, but at the end of the day some people take this music thing too personally.  Subcultures are created. Certain types of idealism can arise from a lyric in one song. Sometimes I stand back and look at my fellow music worshippers with a cocked head saying, what the hell?

I have an amount of sarcasm to my criticism of music. It's usually not intentional. The cynicism easily comes out after making careful observations of parishioners falling over themselves when listening to a particular band or turning into dancing zombies after the first three songs in a set. It's hard not to laugh at other hipsters.

But my comrades and I take music seriously. We don't use it as background noise, or as a simple form of entertainment. Music drives our lives.

As critics and pundits we find it necessary, to search for what is innovative and artistic. This is where the "feedback" originates from. Our site gives you basic feedback on concerts, albums, and whatever else in music we feel like mentioning.  We are critics.

Is the critic important and relevant to journalism? Yes. Is the critic important to music and other forms of entertainment?  I would give that an even bigger yes. Music critics praised Lil Wayne's newest album, Tha Carter III. Their criticism helped his album become more mainstream and helped him grab eight Grammy nominations this year.

The term "taste maker" is thrown around when we define the role of a critic.  The content we select for our site creates particular tastes and music choices. This is our playlist.

The best playlists are random. They don't have a particular sequence or order. Our blog develops it own personality and has a mind of its own. We give it different selections, and it inspires the reader to create his or her own opinions.  

Critical writing reinforced my views on free speech. Everyone has a voice. They have a right to say what the feel and what they believe.  There are people out there even willing to read and accept my opinion, and that's kind of cool.