Which comes first - being a music critic or a music fan? Writing and performing music is one of the most personal and creative things a person can do. Therefore, is it acceptable for another person to write an article criticising what this musician has put so much of him/herself into? This is the struggle that every music journalist must face as they put pen to paper.
I vividly remember watching an interview with the late Jeff Buckley on the now-cancelled music show "No Disco." It had always been my dream to be a music journalist but he said things that made me seriously question the whole practice. He criticised the whole notion of reviews. "I don't really understand why they even exist. What purpose do they serve? I don't get why someone can sit in an office and listen to this music that is so important to whoever has made it and just say "no, that's garbage, and I"m going to write about it so everyone else knows." He made one point in particular that really got me thinking. "Music is an art form. It is not spoken, it is not written, it is composed and it comes from somewhere unknown. For this reason, why should a person try to describe it using words?" I had always thought that music reviews served a very important purpose. They were a great way of letting people know about new music and basically advising them as to what is worth buying that week. This interview made me question everything about it though.
I decided to speak to a few musicians to see how they feel about the culture of reviewing. Gary Dunne is a singer/songwriter from the Midlands. He started off by playing around the smaller venues in Dublin and quickly achieved one of his earliest aims - he played to a sold out crowd in Whelans. Gary released his debut EP called "Good Things" in May 2002. "I had saved so much money and was so excited about the release of the EP. I was very conscious of what the reviews would be like.