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Due to overwhelming volume, OpeningBands.com regrets that is not accepting CD admissions at this time.
| by steve sobel | |
OpeningBands.com Review Guidelines
The following information is the guidelines we have for our reviewers when they write for us. However,
we see no reason why this should not be public information, so feel free to read it:
At OpeningBands, we want to strive to be a happy medium between and amateur 'zine, and a professional
publication. That means we need to avoid the pitfalls of both as much as we can, and try to only exhibit
the positive aspects of each. As such, we have established some guidelines, both semantic and philosophical,
for our CD reviews:
1) We want material from diverse genres! We are not a punk publication, a rock publication, a techno publication,
or any sort of genre-based group. We welcome content from all artists, be they folk, hip hop, goth, metal, industrial,
punk, rock, or any of the zillion genre labels there are out there.
2) Whenever possible, two people will review each CD. The reason for this is that nobody's "press" should be based
solely on dumb luck (or a lack thereof). Maybe 20 people on our staff would really love a CD, but the one person who
gets to review it hates it. How horrible would it be to publish only the negative review in that case? Therefore,
we will provide two reviews for each CD, assuring that at least one reviewer is familiar with the genre of music that
the CD would fall under.
3) Large publications often review primarily the CDs that will cause rabid fans of those bands to buy their magazine.
This will not be as much of a problem for us since we will review a large quantity of local and unknown talent, but
it's worth reviewing things that people will want to read. After all, we want them to be interested in coming to
the reviews page so they check out our reviews of unknown bands. As such, we will try to review some amount of popular
content in a timely manner.
4) OpeningBands is not a group of indie rock elitists, and must try not to come off as such. Negative aspects of CDs
should certainly be described and mentioned, but our purpose is not to demean or insult someone. Inevitably, feelings
will be hurt when we make negative comments about something, but we must maintain our integrity and not stoop to the level of insulting
bands. Remember - these local and independent artists are attempting to follow their dreams. This is something they love.
If a reviewer thinks they're not good at it - he/she may say so, but will be sure to express ways in which the artist could improve.
We realize that there's real people on the other side of the monitor. This is not to say that we will hold back all or even ANY
criticism - just that we will attempt to word it in a professional manner.
5) Whenever possible, we will provide website or email information on the band you're reviewing.
6) We ask our reviewers to listen to CDs AT LEAST 5 TIMES, preferably several more. Nothing deserves the review it gets
upon first quick listen. Many songs take some time to stick and eventually impress a listener, and some songs take a few
times through to realize that they're repetitive and will tire easily, too. Everyone sending us material deserves a fair
review, which means that the disc needs to be listened to more than just a couple of times.
7) If we're unfamiliar with the genre of music that the CD you're reviewing falls under - we will often say
so in our reviews. Honesty is much more important than being "in the know". It is in fact our hope that we will be introduced
to new types of music that we're not familiar with.
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