Quantification

I came across an article over at Magnet Magazine that attempts to list the most overrated and underrated Wilco songs.  While interesting as a time waster, this article made me laugh at the absurdity of music reviews and the "professionals" that review music.  What makes one person better at deciding which music is the most pleasing to listen to?  I personally think that "A Shot in the Arm" is overrated, but maybe that is just because I also think it is overplayed. 

There is a bigger question that this article raised for me and it is a question that bothers me from time to time.  How does one rate anything creative without making up some arbitrary scale that cannot possible be the total be all and end all of the discussion about creative endeavour?  Without going too deep into the philosophy and aesthetics, I believe that there is no way to judge someone on their creative output.  With sports one can easily see who has the better team because most sports crown champions based on head-to-head play.  If I were to take the High School Musical 3 soundtrack and Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited and play them both for my sister she would definitely pick the HSM3 soundtrack as the better album, while I would have the opposite opinion.  Is one of us right?  

So, I personally believe that music reviews, be they in newspapers, online, or anywhere really that attempt to give albums stars or points are garbage.  Yes, please give me your opinion about an album, but don't try to compare one album to another thinking that you can tell me one is better than another definitively.  

Whew.  Glad to get that out of my system.  People need to just enjoy the music they enjoy and just turn off what they do not enjoy.  In fact, take that philosophy and apply it to your whole life.