Reviewers Cooked And Served On The CMT Hot Dish

Hazel Smith over at CMT has posted an article blasting reviewers for their failure to include some of the top selling acts in their “best of lists” for 2006. She cites Rascal Flatts and Keith Urban as two artists snubbed on said lists. According to her, the lists are only compiled based on what what the reviewer likes, not what the fans like.

The article riled me up, both as a fan, and a reviewer. I’ll attempt to knock some holes in her logic, but will leave the decision up to you, the reader. In the end, I know it doesn’t make a difference, but hey, I’m here to entertain.

Hazel had this to say (emphasis mine):

See, I compare every country song by my personal choice of greatness — that being George Jones’ 1980 hit, “He Stopped Loving Her Today.” [...] Using this measuring stick with albums, I began to chastise myself — but others mostly — when some of my favorite albums failed to make it to the year-end “best of” lists compiled by the so-called experts. I was literally scalding…

Alright, fair enough, she’s highly opinionated, as most people seem to be when it comes to music. She lays out her measuring stick and like everybody else, her “best of” list would have been a compilation of her favorite albums.

Reviewers are only human, but a lot of them have a know-it-all attitude and tend to enjoy bragging on what they prefer — and not what the fans necessarily like.

Hmm, in the very next paragraph, she seems to negate what she said above. It’s about the fans now and not her favorite albums? Reviewers aren’t fans? I’m confused.

Rascal Flatts’ Me and My Gang is the top-selling CD of all music acts for 2006, and I don’t recall one outstanding review of the project. Me and My Gang sold 3.4 million copies, but I didn’t see this act on a single “best of” list. That’s my beef. As far as Rascal Flatts goes, young people have adopted this pop-country trio [...] And Rascal Flatts’ CDs are selling like hotcakes in spite of being omitted from the “best of” lists.

Ohhh, so now the “best of” lists should be about the top selling acts? The thing is, when it comes to country music, a lot of country music fans (and reviewers) consider Rascal Flatts to be more pop than country, thus not worthy of their “country” lists. Hey, they have some good songs, but they just don’t quite cut it when it comes to country. From another perspective, Britney Spears sold a boat load of CDs in her day, but she didn’t wind up on anyone’s best of country lists. Oh, and I believe the CDs sold before the “best of” lists came out, so they didn’t sell in spite of them, they just had good sales and were simply omitted for the above reasons.

The experts’ Top 10 list is more likely to be topped by Joe Such-and-Such from Austin, Texas, or Mary Who’s-It from Phoenix. Who are these people? Who listened to their albums?

Now this is just kinda ridiculous. It seems as though you can’t be good unless backed and promoted by a major label. Did George Strait suck until a label picked him up? Obviously the reviewer listened to their albums and they made the cut for their “best of” lists based on the reviewers own criteria of what constitutes a good album.

Others can go ahead and write about Joe Such-and-Such from Austin, and Mary Who’s-It from Phoenix, but it’s like a poot in a whirlwind: It’s here, and it’s gone. Nobody cares, and that’s because it didn’t bring a smile or a tear to fans like Garth Brooks, the Dixie Chicks, Shania Twain and others have.

It’s pretty dang naive to state that only artists backed by major labels can touch people emotionally. Some of the best music this ol’ fan has ever heard definitely wasn’t mainstream. So here’s to all the other people out there expressing their opinions and giving us a lot of good music, keep up the good work, your opinions are appreciated. Even yours, Hazel Smith.