CD Reviews Rules (READ) {update: Oct 27}

[mx]

1) The name of the thread should be the band name - album name, with the genre in parenthesis

Ex: (Metal) Metallica - Load
(Alternative) Nirvana - In Utero


2) FIRST CHECK TO SEE IF A REVIEW HAS BEEN DONE. To do this, check both the Reviewed List (http://www.musicianforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=139438) and the Rolling Stone Top 500 Albums list (http://www.musicianforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=285650). If a review has been done, find that thread, and make a new post in that thread, rather than making your own.

3) Please make no miscellaneous comments besides comments that contribute to a review.

4) Never just say 'this cd sucks', or 'i love this cd'.

When doing your descriptions, describe:

Some History of the Album/Band
The Sound of the Album
Who the Band Sounds like
Your favorite songs

etc

The more in depth you go, the more valuable of a review it will be for people looking for music.

FINALLY, GIVE A RATING OUT OF 5 STARS

Posts and threads that do not follow these guidelines will be deleted


Thanks

[Kithkin]

Any Review that does not adhere to this criteria will be deleted.


Good Reviews:

http://www.musicianforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=128925

http://www.musicianforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=130080

http://www.musicianforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=127725

http://www.musicianforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=129710


Try and emulate these reviews

[sting-ray]

it has a 5/5 it had better be mindblowingly good. A must own... even outside of the genre. Something that could change the opinion of someone who didnt like the genre.

A 4/5 would be Exceptional within the Genre. Something good for introducing someone to the genre but probably wouldnt change their mind about it.

3/5 would be something someone who likes the genre should probably pick up.

2/5 would be something someone who is diehard for the genre should at least know about.

1/5 terrible, terrible stuff..



This is the scale to follow when rating an album. Biased ratings are worthless.

[sting-ray]

New Rules:

- The same criteria must be followed if a DVD or Concert/venue is reviewed.

- try to put as much information as you can

- keep your review as tidey as possible, try not to leave it all in one paragraph.

- NO unintelligent, obtuse, brainless disputes on other peoples' opinions will be accepted. This will result in a ban without warning. And remember, this is not a debate forum; it is an informative one.

- Give your rating some thought before posting it. Follow the chart that i posted in the above post.

- Titles of your review should be formatted in the same fashion as the others. Look at the first post in this thread if you need guidance.

- Avoid using colours (font) in your posts.

[sting-ray]

DVD Reviews (review the following):


- Purpose of the DVD (autobiography, biography, live concert, etc.)

- Some History of the Band/Artist

- The Sound of the DVD (quality, etc.)

- What the Band/Artist Sounds like

- Your favorite things about the DVD

- Rating out of 5


Concerts/Venues Reviews (review the following):


- The name of the venue along with a brief description of the venue itself

- The featured bands/artists

- A Review on each band's performance

- You must include the intended age group of the audience, somewhere in the review

- Rate the overall Concert/Venue out of 5 (you can also elect to rate each band in addition to the overall rating)

note: Concert/venue reviews must be formatted the same way as CDs and DVDs; see below for details.


New Format For Titles of DVD and Concert/Venue Reviews:


- DVDs must have a "[DVD]--" before the other information.
ex. [DVD]-(Pop-Punk) Blink-182 - The Urethra Chronicles

- Concerts/Venues must have a "[C&V]--" before the other information.
ex. [C&V]-(Metal/Alternative)Various Artists - Summer Sanitarium Tour

[sting-ray]

IMPORTANT:


Absolutely no violations of copyrights will be tolerated (copying any reviews from other sites). The review will be terminated, and the reviewer may be banned at the moderators' discression.

[Bartender]

About time this was stated explicitly in the rules:

Reviewing albums before they are officially released (i.e. downloading supposed tracklists and so on from p2p programs) is not allowed. Any reviews which do so will simply be deleted.

Qualification - this isn't a ban on reviewing albums which you only have through downloaded files, provided you're sure that what you are reviewing is what appears on the physical format. It also is not a ban on taking dibs (in the Request a Review thread) on albums not yet released, though any dibs only have a life of two weeks or so.

[Bartender]

Threads you should know about

First of all, any stickied threads in the forum.

How To Review a CD (http://www.musicianforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=200503)
- hybridofsound's guide to CD reviewing. It's not a method set in stone by a long way, but it's still recommended that people new to the forums have a look at it, to get an idea of what kind of quality of review we generally expect.

The Rolling Stone Top 500 (http://www.musicianforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=164699)
- Brought up by YDload many moons ago was the idea that maybe we could have a review for every one of the albums on Rolling Stone's Top 500 albums of all time list. Use this thread (and the Reviewed List) to check which albums are on the list, and which have already been done.

This'll probably be updated.