I really didn't want to post this, because press is press and I appreciate the coverage, but this editorial was so well written and so scathing of the writer's points, that I had to show it a little love...enjoy
Here is the original article written and published in the OCweekly:
http://www.ocweekly.com/2009-01-29/music/sound-guy
Here is one of my fan's response to that article posted on the ocweekly site..haha...whoever you are, thanks and good lookin out!
Lets review the person doing the review? Maybe Chang, a non-native himself is anxious to bolster some type of communal peer support by by blindly defending the region in which he currently resides, evoking some "kudos" and "hoorays" to defend the O.C. Its somewhat ironic that an editorial concerned with the artists one sided view of a particular subject matter seems to present a rather one sided view of the artist falling victim to the same execution he critiques.
Chang is not to be blamed however, because I suppose in his journalistic career his skimming an artists tracks has previously entitled him to make assertions many readers accept as truths. Unfortunately in this case, the artist, Apoetnomadali, whom he reviewed is too endeared and loved by his fans to go unscathed himself. He [CHANG] even goes further to quote the sister paper SF Weekly and their commentary on the OC. Call me a purist, but I'm not interested in hearing the family feuds the writers of OC Weekly and SF Weekly have at the office, or having it bleed into what is suppossed to be an unbiased account of an artists work. Chang further goes on to say, "I've been here long enough to know that, while there's a grain of truth to these stereotypes, only the intellectually lazy think that's all these parts has to offer." A grain of truth huh? Are these hormonally enhanced grains the size of Grape-fruits? Would a grain of truth be enough to prompt 5 network television series? He further writes, "stereotypes I figured were a creation of embittered screenwriters and Bravo execs"...oh, so you are familiar with the shows? hmmmm.
Probably the most concerning review about Changs story is this simple question, "How can one be a music editor and never have heard the entire album from which the editor samples quotes and sound-bytes?" Maybe that is common journalistic practice, but where I come from, that could get you in a lot of trouble. It's what we like to call "cliffs-notes journalists". Those who seem to have the basic "facts" but lack the true theme of the matter. If Chang would have dug a little bit further or done himself the service of reviewing the album in it's entirety instead of the lazy browsing of online snippets, (which these so called journalists so often do), he would have encountered a much more holistic vision of the album. Moreover, when did it become common practice to review an artist, yet consistently use his birth name instead of his artist name. I have yet to see any reporters refer to Snoop Dogg, as Calvin or Broadus or Game as Jaceyon or Taylor. I would love to see that fly in accredited periodical circles.
My problem is with half-truths, which is where the media excels unfortunately. What Chang doesn't cover, is the communities to whom this album rings true and their necessity to confront the issues and eventually overcome them. He [Chang] even qualifies the claims that much of OCD's testimony holds true in the first line of the article, "My friends...had spend time here...had much to say about Orange County", implying that even the locals acknowledge the pitfalls this little slice of paradise has. Yet he contradicts himself by saying, "things they had learned from TV". Uh, question, if someone is a local, why would they need to turn to the TV to inform an outsider of how Orange County is? Are you smelling inconsistancies? Me too...It must be nice for Chang to come into a county (I did my research, he moved here a year or two ago) during a time of exceptional growth and change, where the face of Orange County now is diversely different from the climate that shaped much of the artsits whom he writes of's youth. Those who have been here know, and have endured the melting pot (a lot more melting and a lot less pot-luck.)
My advice to Chang is to go flex his intellectual apetetite on artists whose work is not nearly as well thought out and defined as Apoetnomadali and to thank his lovely Orange County stars, he is not nearly as concerned what others think as his fans. Hopefully, his cultural view of the county (of which he ridicules just as much, in his article on the OC Music Awards for a lack of diversity stands when him or his friends can't get into the local night club because they might have the wrong shoes, baggy jeans, a t-shirt on, or simply skin just a shade too dark (all suppossed signs of danger here). So here is a "journalist" concerned with a young artist perpetuating a "stereotype" the outside world has of Orange County. Chang, please visit 10 bars and 10 nightclubs in Orange County and tell me if its TIME to shatter the "shallow image many outsiders have of these parts". He further goes on to write, "none of those other places inspired him artiscially the way his home county does". That seems to be a pretty bold statement with someone not familiar with a single piece of work, outside the snippets of tracks he's heard from OCD. This guy is digging himself in a pretty big hole.
By the way, if any of you publications are hiring real journalists out there, who can not only write and wax intellectual, but provide concrete examples to support there points, I am looking for a job.
Sincerely,
M.M.M.L.C. (music makes me lose control)
Comment by Musicmakesmelosecontrol from San Juan Capistrano on May 31st, 2009, 16:43 pm
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