We recently reported on POP ETC (@popetcetera), the newly named band formerly known as The Morning Benders. Along with the name change, the band issued the POP ETC Mixtape for free download. The mixtape was reviewed by Listen Before You Buy (@ListenB4YouBuy) and in a candid exchange on Twitter the band and the website shed light on how reviews are crafted and how a band reacts to a “bad” review.
gonna chat on here for a minute. tweet @ us if u got a question or just want to say hey.
@ hey! i got a question for U
@ whats the mindset behind having someone give a mediocre review when u have a writer that loves/supports what we’re doing?
@ It’s pretty much just writer opinion. The reviewer who took your mixtape I guess didn’t agree with me and a couple of others…
@ …we have a process where you can claim reviews and the reviewer “claimed” it before @ did….but yeah…
@ yea i know it’s the writer’s opinion. i would just think as a publication, where u all have mutual respect for each other
@ as a collective. youd go with a positive take rather than a negative take. especially for something that’s free.
@ not like you are warning people not to waste their money on something ;)
@ …it can definitely be inconsistent, and we’ve toyed with having a “collective” voice but it was shot down. For the record…
@ …the rest of us on the team loved the mixtape, which only lends to the confusion more I guess.
@ everything we do for a while seems like it’s going to be divisive, given the circumstances around the name/ our music…
@ since most started as just posting songs and championing things they liked.
@ That’s exactly how we started too, just me posting what I liked, and we still do. But with the amount of content I want to…
@ …post on the site I can’t do it all myself, and my writing blows, so I bring on other people to do what I can’t (write well)
@ And I guess if someone wants to write a review it’d be unfair for me to say “You need to give this a good review”
@ of course some people arent going to like it. more just curious about how music blogs/sites see themselves
@ as music lovers? critics? etc? dif than b4 a magazine reviewing things being sold/on the radio crammed down peoples’ throats
@ When they don’t like it themselves, then the writing would come off as disingenuous. Maybe it’s a fine line between…
@ Me being fair to my writers, and the site being fair to the music we promote. Question for you, though…
@ How is it for you when big sites with pull will post your songs and then give you a poor review? Same when small ones like us?
@ the discussion for when a negative review is warranted, is a different conversation…
@ doesnt matter how big the site is
@ my question was more just why you chose a writer to review who didnt like it, when you had a writer who did, that’s all
@ Maybe I SHOULD start picking & choosing. ;) Incidentally, is there an email I could hit you up at? I have a somewhat related Q.
It’s not often this type of frank discussion from both the band and website takes place out in the open, showing once again one of the many benefits of Twitter. It’s clear from this exchange that at least some bands very much care about how their music is reviewed and that some music websites take the role of critic very seriously. Props to POP ETC for taking this dialog to the public and constantly engaging and responding to their followers on Twitter.
![]()
![]()
![]()
