Why no Tori Amos

I agree, Wildoats; constructive criticism and comments about music can certainly provide some guideance in the vastness of what is out there. However what I was suggesting is that you need no one to tell you "Kate blows Tori away". Were you to follow such advice and just listen to only one, you'd be missing out on some very rich possibilites of musical enjoyment IMO. A compass is fine if you know how to use it , and where you are, and have some idea of where you may like to go. I would suggest that following advice to the nature of some of the criticism I've objected to in this thread would be not at all like using a compass, it would be like putting on a pair of blinders and being lead on a path like a donkey.

Regarding your equipment: Precisely! The point I was making there is that absolutely NO ONE can tell you what DOES sound good to you. ONLY YOU know that. What sounds good to me in gear may not sound at all good to you. If you put my speakers into your system, you may think I was nuts for listening to them, yet I think they sound wonderful. So again, what use would it be to follow my lead if I were to say "Horns are the only way to go as far as speakers are concerned", with the caveat that I've been in this hobby for twenty plus years. Following such advice on face-value is absurd. However I do believe, as I said, with the gear there is a greater degree of objectivity, so an educated guess may be more helpful than an "educated" guess in the realms of enjoying music (far more subjective IMO)

Marco

Marco I've had a few glasses of wine tonight,I'll get back to you tomorrow with some thoughts............

Apologies as this thread has now went off topic.

Marco there is a lot of different angles to this,really well written criticism/analysis is an art form in itself.
Admitedly these types of music books are few and far between but I would cite the likes of Greil Marcus Mystery Train and Ian McDonald's fantastic Beatles book Revolution In The Head as two examples of how good the genre can be.

It's a personal thing,part of my personality I suppose however you need to understand it is only for information it does not affect at all the experience of listening to the music.
It amazes me at times on Audiogon how uninformed many members are about what music is available to them, this doesn't neccesarily relate to what is new in the music world but also in many cases the best available recordings/reissues of classic material.
Indeed on my music of the year thread a fellow member didn't even know one of his favourite artists had a new record out.

My take on music Marco is that I try to hear a lot of what is available and test my tastes,see how far I can go and I found a lot of great music that way.
Of course there are many "mistakes" along the way,artists and records rated highly by the press that do nothing for me.
I just love to hear new music and keep myself informed,I do it for myself and have done for the best part of 26 years during which time I've never stopped reading the music press.
You would be wrong also if you thought I considered them to be great all the time,they aren't a lot of the time but that's a different subject in itself.

I would consider you are missing out on a lot of music with your approach.

The historical aspects,biographies are just an off shoot of the fact I enjoy learning about the context in which great music was created,it's very seldom that it adds much to the enjoyment of listening to the music.
To me this is no different from reading anything else,there is good and bad writing.

I'll finish with a story, I kept reading about Nick Drake over the years in the music press,seemed like a lot of hype to me but eventually I bought a compilation of his.
I fell in love with his music,I love it he's now probably one of my favourite artists.
However I get lost in the music when I listen to him now and how I found him is irrelevant but what is undoubtly true if music writers hadn't kept writing about him he'd be lost in obscurity.

Reading about music and putting together a high end system are not the main thing for me.
It's the music that counts.

Thanks Ben - that's a much clearer explanation of your persepective to me. I have to take a look at what gets me stuck on the 'criticism' aspect of this. I think it has something to do with the idea of critics playing God. Regardless, thanks for the thought provoking responses and taking the time to write them. Off-topic or not, it is certainly an interesting thread to me. I hope others get something out of it as well.

BTW - Someone introduced me to Nick Drake only a few years back. Picked up "Way too Blue" (a great compilation CD) and absolutely love it and play that one a lot. I think it was actually one of those Amazon recommendations that got me to him.....I'm often looking into resources and comments I do read that are of the nature of, "If you like banannas you should definitely check out strawberries as well". But I rarely follow such advice blindly, I usually try to cross-reference to find out more about strawberries and who likes them and why. Again it is simply the intent behind the types of statements I've already noted more than once that rubs me the wrong way, and strikes me as not constructive.

I just last night watched an fascinating film which does delve into literary criticism to some extent. Most of all it is about the enjoyment of literature as a lifestyle. That kind of enjoyment could be seen as parallell to the enjoyment of music. See the film if you can find it Ben, I think you may like it, as might anyone hear interested in the direction of this thread, and or literature. It's a documentary film titles "Stone Reader".

As far as missing out on music that is out there, I'm sure you are right in some ways. I have my own resources I look to, and most of those are in seeking out resources who have similar predilections as I do and pursuing directions that may come up there. Yep, some are reading criticism. I don't object to all criticism by any means. I won't go on as I think I've made the point I wanted to.

Regards,

Marco

Marco I'll try to check out that movie.

I understand anyone who has problems with music criticism,I live in the UK and grew up with some of the most eletist tribal nonsense right after punk.
For a while the music press became unreadable in the UK with it's insular take on what was and wasn't cool.
Believe me Marco I like a lot of music that is rated as very uncool.
As such you live through trends you see the bands who were ignored or hated now given the credit they deserved all along,these things go in circles but I lived through a lot of snobbery and indeed a lot of mediocre music that was lauded at the time never washed with me.
You also get the odd bit of nutty revisionism.

Indeed much of the music that is touted as happening right now has it's roots in the kind of music hated by the same people post-punk.
Go figure.

But as a teenager who grew up liking "uncool" music just after punk I haven't forgotten these things so I always take anything I read with a pinch of salt.
You make your own judgement in the end.
Thanks for the discussion.