What to say in a comment when listening to another artist's track?

My intention in starting this thread is to simply open an exploration of the listener comments and the kinds of things that might be said. It may be worth developing some guidelines on how and what to leave for the artist to read about your thoughts and feelings on his/her music (perhaps these exist somewhere on the site, so feel free to direct me there too if I have missed something that already exists - no sense re-inventing anything, although it may be worth re-visiting the current guidelines regardless). I think it may be especially useful for new-comers, as well as laying the groundwork for all of us who wish to help maintain MP3U as an active and supportive community of artists.

I will offer the following thoughts to start:

1. Most of us "intend" to be positive and helpful. (Sometimes we don't express ourselves with enough clarity to get that intention across, but I think we generally mean well).

2. We all struggle with listening to criticism ( a human condition, often a musician's Achilles heel), regardless of how well and precisely it may be expressed. So, it is likely best to let a comment sit for a a few days before responding. Taking a deep breath (or two or three) before we load a replying broadside is always a good strategy. If needed, take a week of deep breathing

3. Most "differences" are best expressed in Private Messages" or "e-mails," I think. A PDA - public display of aggression - does not serve any good purpose, I think. If a more public forum is needed for broader input or opinion, a thread could be started on the MP3U Forum, but I would not prefer this route myself. Privacy is preferred (dirty laundry in public sort of thing)

4. Seeking clarification and precision and sticking to observations is more productive than generalizations. For example, "the vocal in the second verse is not as clear to my ears as the first verse," rather than, "your music sucks" - these are hypothetical examples for demonstration purposes only .

5. Let reason prevail over emotion.

OK, that's all I'll say for the moment.

Please feel free to add/subtract. Community is developed by involvement

All the best,
Terry

[James Oakwood]

You can set your comments to be private if ya want and this means only you can see them (from one of your artist management pages). If ya don't particularly want a comment to be seen you can always delete it - again from your artist management pages.

I think if ya can be helpful when leaving a comment then do just that. One problem that arises from this is that if you are listening on decent studio monitors you might hear stuff that another listener (or artist) may not be able to hear.

This is the problem of listening thru a hifi - A hifi will do its absolute best to clean up the sound to make the listener think the hifi is brilliant - hence they sell more hifis. Older hifis tend to be "more honest" but newer ones use digitial sound enhancement to absolutely get the best outta their speakers and this means compression, re-equing blah blah - suddenly a very lacklustre recording sounds great - hey this is a different debate!!!

OK we can all hear "tuning" problems - no hifi I'm aware of can fix these issues but, how far do you go, in telling an artist that their vocal performance (for example) is sloppy? Ditto timing issues, where should the line be drawn? Sometimes, artists cannot hear their own problems in these departments including me ("never" i hear you say lol).

A lot of times (and this also includes signed artists on the radio etc.) I find it difficult to understand what the singer is singing - is this an issue? I remember wuthering heights by Kate Bush when it came out. Couldn't understand a word for weeks then it finally started to hit home lyrically. Is it a big deal if a lot of the vocals are uninteligible?

Personal stuff - I listen to probably twice as many tracks than i comment on and if a track leaves me cold (i.e. has no part that appeals to me musically) I won't comment. Should we all adopt this philosophy?

And finally, the syphantic vote gatherer - are there any amongst us who can truly say they have given comments for no other reason than a genuine belief you were helping the artist or you appreciated the music? I don't think I can say this but i'd like to think that we could all be more honest.

It's dead easy to not comment on a song if it is not your cuppa tea but if you know the artist and, feel they may be upset by you not-commenting then this is a good reason to PM them.

Andy

[Pidgeman]

Here's what we should do:

1. Change the site name to Mp3everyoneisamazingandeverythingtheyuploadisthebe stsongever.com

2. Copy the comment "you are amazing and everything you upload is the best song ever" onto everybody's track comments.

3. Make everybody number 1 on the charts so nobody feels left out but give special mention to the person who did no. 2 the most so they can convince themselves that their song is actually the best.

4. Immediately ostracise anybody who leaves a comment that is different to no. 2 because someone might take offence

5. Sit back and wait for all the millions in royalties to roll in from all the records we're all selling and the phone calls asking us to headline all the world's biggest festivals.

6. Wake up

[Pidgeman]

If anybody was offended by that I'm sorry, what I meant to say was "you are amazing and everything you upload is the best song ever".
Spread the love

[TonyMiller]

No, Craig, you're so right. I agree with everything you said, as long as you agree with everything I say...

[Pidgeman]

Tony did I ever tell you, you are amazing and everything you upload is the best song ever?
No?
Sorry, "you are amazing and everything you upload is the best song ever"
















































except that classical bollocks you uploaded a few weeks back

[James Oakwood]

Now, I would just like to point out that this thread is displaying a distinct tendency to become SILLY. Now, nobody likes a good laugh more than I do... except, perhaps my ex-wife... and some of her ex-friends (oops). Oh, yes, and Captain Johnson. Come to think of it, most people like a good laugh more than I do, but that's beside the point! I'm warning this thread NOT to get SILLY again! Right!

And, that classical bollocks was just plain SILLY. Right! Stop that! It's classically SILLY. Very SILLY indeed! Started off as a nice little idea about old ladies attacking young men, but now it's just got SILLY! His hair's too long for a vicar, too, and you can tell those are not proper keep-left signs! CLEAR OUT, THE LOT OF YOU!

[TonyMiller]

I know that

[TonyMiller]

Originally Posted by James Oakwood

Now, I would just like to point out that this thread is displaying a distinct tendency to become SILLY. Now, nobody likes a good laugh more than I do... except, perhaps my ex-wife... and some of her ex-friends (oops). Oh, yes, and Captain Johnson. Come to think of it, most people like a good laugh more than I do, but that's beside the point! I'm warning this thread NOT to get SILLY again! Right!

Basingstoke

[James Oakwood]

Mornington cresent