Is it me or are Americans just awful at forming reasonable arguments regarding music?

Question

I have read a lot of articles, regarding music etc. And one thing I have noticed from some Americans is the lack of argumentative skills they have. They are not able to form valid arguments. Appeal to popularity and the infamous ad hominem argument is their basis. We will look at the soon to be pretentious new artist Lana Del Rey. I have listened to a couple of songs. She sounds talented, genuine, different.

How come anytime I log onto an Americanized music article about Lana Del Rey, the entire content is oozing with self-loathing, jealousy, and poorly formed arguments? As if her lip injection has any relation to her musical talent. People truly believe because she got lip injections she must be disingenuous, and that her music is awful - they do not attack her music, they would rather attack her personally - how does that make any sense? I have noticed this trend a lot. It's one main reason why I discontinue reading any Americanized articles especially towards music. Google that gossip site Ohnotheydidnt, and find any articles on Lana Del Rey, 80% of people will use appeal to popularity and ad hominem arguments to justify erroneous claims.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Answer 1

americans are just bad at everything, gosh darn it

Answer 2

Those who go ad hominem in any argument, be it criticism of a musical artist, political observation or what have you, display a narrow minded sensibility at best and usually a low IQ. However, I disagree that it is any more an American trait than, let's say, Scottish or English. There is a coarseness that has become pervasive in nearly all english-speaking societies and they all share a degree of societal immaturity that is astonishing.



As to your point, unfortunately, physical beauty has become a mandatory component of popular music. That's why so much pop music sucks today. If you are not visually "MTV ready", you are automatically disqualified from the game. In the early years of rock, anybody who was musically talented with a great song had a shot at airplay. It didn't matter if you didn't look good enough, because it was all about the music. After MTV went on the air, it was no longer about music. Image became king and as a result, 90% of the talented musicians were barred from participation (and when the talent pool goes from a 100% to 10%, it only makes sense that pop music became notoriously talentless).



MTV created the type of people and opinions you're lamenting in your post. These are the idiots who actually care that a singer had her lips injected or will dismiss someone's music simply because they put on weight or altered their appearance in some other way.



These aren't music lovers, they are image lovers. Music doesn't factor in with this type of person and they shouldn't be paid a moment's attention. Many of these shallow people are indeed my fellow Americans, but many others are not. In my opinion, it's not an issue of nationality - this type of inane superficiality transcends borders.

Answer 3

Oh those silly Americans! (I'm totally not a American *poker face*)



But yeah, you shouldn't be stereotyping Americans. You're implying that all Americans are like this.



Though some are, we aren't all like that.



And I think Lana Del Rey has a gift for music, even though I'm not that interested in her music, I still can admit she is gifted.



Though I do wonder why she got lip injections, sounds like some sort of insecurity problem, but I don't let that get in the way of how I think of her music.





Also, what are these "Americanized sites" you speak of? Are you sure everyone that comments on those articles are American?



Just a question.





Welp, I apologize for not fully understanding the question. I guess I should "learn to read". Okay, I think I read everything, shall I start again?



Have you ever thought that Lana De Rey is criticized mostly by Americans because well, she's a US singer and is mostly popular in the US? And be honest with yourself, her "Born To Die" album wasn't that great, there's reasons why people don't like her you know.



Where you're getting this personal attack ******** I have no clue so if you would give me an article that personally attacks her would be great.

Answer 4

Well, sir, I think your problem is that you are looking on a site called "Ohnotheydidnt", by definition a gossip site. People that gossip are shallow and are by definition overly concerned with popularity, so it makes sense that they would fall back onto something so arbitrary like that in their arguments.



By the way, I know you said "some Americans", but it still seems you're generalizing this to all Americans. There are people of all nationalities that lack the ability to form well thought out arguments.



Also, you're going to run into that in mainstream media--mainstream media concerned with anything, and from any country. The media are always going to be vicious and critical of everything a famous person does/says/etc. For example, the Japanese media are particularly vicious as concerns their popstars/celebrities (that is, more so than Americans), according to my studies of Japanese popular culture and professors.

Answer 5

Most of the Americans that you hear from are just awful at forming reasonable arguments regarding ANYTHING. We're not all idiots; it's just that the stupid ones tend to be the loudest.

Answer 6

The smarter people are usually spending their time at work and don't have time for arguing on the Internet. So, what you're reading is probably a bunch of lazies trying to get a fight out of people. That's just my theory.

Answer 7

If you find American journalism to be that bad, the simple solution would be to stop reading it.



Isn't it time you find another scapegoat to poke fun at?

Answer 8

I think a good argument can be made in one or two sentences,...

If I had the patience, I'd read your novella.

Answer 9

Yeah, too many people can't think of a valid reason why their music doesn't suck and resort to "HATERZ MAEK BAND FAMUS!!!1".

Answer 10

Couldn't care less

Answer 11

Not really, no. I don't think it's Americans; it's idiots in general.

Answer 12

Why would you read about music at a gossip site called Ohnotheydidnt?



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So I went and read these reviews:



http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/16223-lana-del-rey/

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/born-to-die-20120130

http://www.spin.com/reviews/lana-del-rey-born-die-interscope

http://www.slantmagazine.com/music/review/lana-del-rey-born-to-die/2720

http://www.avclub.com/articles/lana-del-rey-born-to-die,68365/

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/turnitup/chi-lana-del-rey-album-review-born-to-die-reviewed-20120126,0,787378.column

http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2012/01/lana-del-rey-born-to-die.html

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20565242,00.html



and didn't see anything like you are talking about. Are you reading reviews from actual publications or just random people making comments on the internet?

Answer 13

YOu are stereotyping all americans by reading a couple articles?



There are over 300 million people in the USA.



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There are some British and Canadian people who do the same thing tho

Answer 14

Is it me or are all Y!A users assuming stupid shitt?