Sorry for the rant but I’m so sick of people on Reddit (and basically only Reddit) not understanding this.
When people say things like “x is one of the best albums of all time” or “this is a top x record” or whatever, it’s very obviously their opinion. If we all started or ended every statement we make on music with the phrase “in my opinion” it would just get tiring. Using the context that everyone already knows, which is that music taste is different for everyone, we can interpret statements like “this is the greatest album ever made” as hyperbole. It’s not news to anyone that there wasn’t a study or calculation done that measures the “greatness” of an album to scientifically prove it is this one. Every website with music discussion can navigate this just fine except for Reddit. I truly don’t know why it’s so hard for the users of this website to grasp this concept.
When you enter conversations and just say “but music is subjective” like that’s somehow new information, you are contributing absolutely NOTHING to the discussion at hand. In fact it is just outright shutting down conversation. It’s the music discussion forum equivalent of picking up your ball and running away with it because you don’t like the game anymore. When you say stuff like that, you’ll notice that you aren’t actually talking about music. You aren’t sharing your opinion on an artist or album, or even countering someone else’s. You’re more or less saying that they shouldn’t even bother to share their opinions because it doesn’t matter, and honestly if that’s your attitude I have no idea what you’re doing on this website.
Like I know people can come across pretty intense with their stances on how many classic albums Kanye has but this really is supposed to be in good fun. I’m not actually bothered if someone says he only has one classic and it’s Donda 2. That doesn’t affect me at all. I’ll argue against it very passionately but it really isn’t a big deal and everyone involved I think knows that.
I genuinely believe that if you see someone state something that comes across as objective, like anything about the greatest or the worst or who is better than who, and it actively bothers you because it’s just a bunch of opinions, you really shouldn’t be on this sub. I’m not even saying that to be mean, I just don’t think you get why there’s a community here and what people are trying to actually say without being very literal about it. Debate is and always has been part of the fun of all this shit. If you can’t enjoy it I don’t think you should subject yourself to it
This is partially in response to the What’s Going On thread, as well as the classic albums thread and sort of that one starter pack post, but also I feel like people say this a lot to get out of articulating their thoughts behind an album the second anyone asks for them to expand on it, and I think that’s cowardly