Top Ten Worst Things AllMusic Does When Rating German Language Music
You know, I initially liked AllMusic very much. Mostly because unlike the biggest German critic website Laut.de, they are not so quick on the lowest ratings, and often find a spark of positivity in albums that are widely panned. I like this attitude.But every once in a while decide to review German language albums - or even worse, give them ratings without any review.
People who come from German language countries can sometimes only shake their heads about how the website sees their big stars. This also includes me.
Here's what some of the biggest problems with those reviews and ratings are.
Stop treating Rammstein like a nostalgic relic of the 90s, and don't write about Die Toten Hosen like a bunch of dudes pretending to be punks. In fact, they have both written music history and sold multi-platinum for three or four decades respectively, with acclaim raining down on them in Germany. They are legends.
Nina Hagen Band's self-titled album is one of the most essential albums every music-loving German household owns. Its impact on German-language music is that it has paved the way for both punk and Neue Deutsche Welle, which would essentially be the 80s in Germany. Both Hagen and her former band, which would later be renamed Spliff, are highly respected stars that have released praised masterpieces every German music website will award 5 stars, including this record.
AllMusic awards it 2 stars without any review.
"The German lyrics, the prog rock tendencies, the classic metal guitars, and the ridiculous basso profundo vocals."
AllMusic in their review of Rammstein's "Mutter."
You do realize that the German language in their music is just like the English language for American artists, don't you?
Also, the "ridiculous" vocals? Are you kidding? They are in the tradition of old German schlager chansons.
Since I dug deeper into Xavier Naidoo recently and concluded that as a singer and songwriter he is great but his beliefs in conspiracy theories go to extremes that are dangerous, I wanted to see if AllMusic reviewed anything by him.
Yes, they reviewed one album, "Alles kann besser werden" from 2009, and gave it 4 and a half stars and more praise than I have seen in most 5-star reviews. They acclaimed the variety of styles, moods, and the overall musicality - nothing about the lyrics.
The album is a 3-disc set, two "bright" sides and one "dark" side. The bright sides are harmless. Their lyrics are poetic, spiritual, and about universal topics everyone can relate to. The dark side, however, is basically a full album-length soul version of B.O.B.'s "Flatline" and even worse threatens explicitly named individuals.
But I must give credit to Naidoo, as he put the conspiracy theory tracks on a separate disc and even warns the listener on the first track of said disc that they may not like what they are about to hear.
AllMusic is right in that the album deserves such a high rating since the music on it is indeed great and Naidoo is highly gifted as a singer and songwriter, and you at least get two discs full of magnificent music. But when reviewing an album like this, you should always mention its lyrical content.
Mostly Rammstein again... AllMusic claims that after "Sehnsucht" nothing by them managed to be equally hyped and exciting.
Each of their albums except for their debut "Herzeleid" topped the German charts, including live albums and compilations, was released to universal praise, and spawned a handful of hit singles.
AllMusic doesn't know that in Germany, albums that have a certain humor, self-irony, and wit (often in addition to serious sociocritical content) are usually considered very intelligent and great, not filler material. Especially when the humor is kind of random, as with Die Toten Hosen or Die Ärzte.
Rammstein, however, are far from being humorous, even though AllMusic doesn't seem to realize that. To them, their overall appearance is funny, while for Germans, they are dark yet highly poetic.
They awarded lukewarm to bad star ratings to almost all albums by Die Fantastischen Vier, probably because they are white dudes making light pop rap. But obviously, the website doesn't know that they were what German hip hop in the 90s looked like, that they were huge, and that they are as important to German rap as Dr. Dre was to American rap. AllMusic probably thought of the reception of Vanilla Ice in the US, but forgets that German rap was neither street nor migrant-based until Bushido's 2003 breakthrough.
The German music industry has a completely different evolution, and even if it sometimes sounds like a US genre, it is different. Falco and Nena aren't synth pop. They are Austropop and Neue Deutsche Welle, respectively. And Rammstein are Neue Deutsche Härte.
Sido may have some common traits with Eminem as both use a very raunchy and intelligently tasteless alter ego, but the fact that he is white is one nobody ever talked about, as that is normal. Also, German music artists being gimmicky is nothing unusual and nothing to be hated for. Pop rap still is hip hop, and German punk was never really simplistic.
When reading their reviews of Die Toten Hosen, they treat them like some little band trying to sound like a big one. They even awarded one of their albums only 1.5 stars.
They are a legendary punk band that have a very big legacy and released classic albums every music-loving household owns and that receive 5 stars on all German music websites.
Also, I have a feeling they hesitate giving German music artists that aren't Kraftwerk very high ratings, even though they have had maximum impact, high acclaim, and are simply very good.
That German artists are regarded as legendary, have something to say, and are respected in German-speaking countries in the same way some great American artists are in the US doesn't come to AllMusic's mind. Falco is a legend in Austria, much like David Bowie or Michael Jackson. Die Toten Hosen have a huge legacy of infamous albums, and Rammstein are megastars and acclaimed lyricists in Germany. This is obviously unknown to AllMusic.
I bet they do the same things with French language music.
Jeanny by Falco is not about prostitution. Like, not even mentioning or implying it. It is about a psychotic man's obsession with a 19-year-old woman called Jeanny that leads to her implied killing as a crime of passion.
And Augen auf by Sido is definitely NOT an ironic take on his standing as a bad role model that amusingly makes use of a children's choir. It is a serious song addressing the issue of child neglect, and the children in the song sing about how they don't want to die because they try to compensate for their lack of parental attention with dangerous and self-destructive behavior.
What leads AllMusic to think the songs were about something entirely different?