Despite this, I had to wonder why even the most revered albums were judged like this on a 5 star scale, when this didn't seem to be the case with other well-known sites such as AllMusic that used a similar but more concrete rating system furthermore, even when thinking of the ratings in more relative terms, I also had to wonder why certain other albums that are typically more positively received still held lower ratings. I eventually found it easier, personally, to think of the ratings as if they were out of 4 stars instead of 5, so the albums that go above 3 are considered good, solid works, 3.5 are seen as extremely good and great albums, few that go above 4 stars are be seen as going above and beyond, you get the idea. On the subject of relativity, I found that that was ultimately the key to using this website, more on that later. The ones that do break four stars, such as MBDTF and Illmatic, barely do so, sitting at 4.06 and 4.18 as of this writing, despite being considered some of the greatest albums of all time (obviously, one might not agree with my opinions personally, but those are examples of albums that are usually very highly regarded in most music/critic circles).Īfter using the site for some time, I later realized that the star ratings were much more relative and not to be looked at like you normally would, in that anything above 3.5 essentially means it's extremely good and anything above 4 is phenomenal (for reference, the top album of all time on the website is Radiohead's OK Computer with a 4.23). Melodrama by Lorde, considered by many (including myself, personally) to be one of the best albums of 2017, if not THE best, sits at 3.58. ( ), also regarded very highly and typically as Eminem's best work, currently boasts a 3.65. To give an example, The Blueprint by Jay-Z, regarded by many as his magnum opus, as well as a classic in hip-hop history to the point where it was chosen to be added by the Library of Congress for preservation for being 'culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant, doesn't even break four stars (it currently sits at 3.82). What surprised me was were what seemed to be relatively low ratings on albums often considered classics. Those of you who are familiar with the site (likely most of you) will know that on the surface, it uses your typical five-star rating system, assigning an overall rating based on the average ratings given by users. One of the things that stuck out the most to me when I first started using the site was the rating system. I immediately noticed a few things that stood out when I started using the site.įorewarning that I'll be using many hip-hop albums as examples, as not only is that the genre that I feel like I'm familiar with, but I've always personally seen it as a very album-based genre, as opposed to other genres like pop albums being more singles based, and the site being most tailored for album reviews. With a large userbase, data on almost every artist imaginable, personalized profiles, a number of lists, and open forums for discussions, it seemed like just what I was looking for.

Lo and behold, I eventually discovered RYM, apparently one of the most popular internet forums for just that. I found RYM a while back when I was looking for music based forums to get recommendations and opinions on different albums that I enjoy and/or have listened to, as well as new ones (for context in that regard, I mainly listen to hip-hop, pop, with some alternative indie and electronic here and there, though you could argue that pop today gets much of it appeal from merging with other genres, namely hip-hop, country, and alternative especially, but that's a discussion for another day). With that, here's my overly long take on my experience with this website! As stated before I've also included a tl dr at the end which very briefly summarizes my key points, as well as reference links throughout. To help organize and make reading this easier for all two of you who might take the time out to read this entire thing, I've divided it into sections to organize, as well as bolded any key or important points throughout this long essay. I do however, have a couple of issues with the site in my experience that I want to talk about. In fact, for the most part, I think it's an interesting tool to use to get recommendations and other opinions on the works of artists of different genres. A) this gets rather long (like, two hours to write long) so I left a brief tl dr at the end that very concisely sums up my main points which you can read if you so chooseī) I don't hate this website at all.

Rym broken social scene