by Vortex management
Mon, 14 Jun 2021
Read in 3 minutes
Through the chaos, a new paradigm appears
Since the dawn of time, humanity has argued about the goodness of what we know as music. Artists, critics, and casual listeners define a cultural landscape reflecting society as we move through the ages, stirring fiery, controversial debate and pushing new boundaries. But as those discussions continued, it was inevitable that arbitrary posture, gatekeeping, idolization and many other factors would obstruct constructive debate.
When analyzing art, and especially music, the goal is not to reach objectivity, as so many people assume, but rather to admit our own subjectivity. Analyzing our tastes, biases, and weaknesses to understand them and bring to light how we come to like and dislike things, and what can bind people across different genres, instruments, artists, or albums. This is a clear and attainable goal.
Instead, objectivity should be pursued by means of a rating scale. By having a common scale between different people, you can compare each other’s subjectivity. It is true that some people will not judge music on the same criteria, or weigh them equally; that’s why explaining and discussing the music, between more or less civilized people, is an interesting and important activity. By knowing how you and other people judge music, more accurate recommendations can be made. When stepping into unknown territory trying to discover a new genre, it is always better when others can guide and motivate you to expand your horizons.
It is with all this in mind that the Interdimensional Vortex of Conspiratorial Tastemaking (the Vortex) was brought into the world, by people that really like to argue too much about music and wanted data to back up their claim. Using the power of our overlord Google and it’s magical Sheets, a small but active community started to frantically rate albums from the current release years. This soon expanded into other projects. Many have come and gone, understandably drained by the high level of scrutiny. At the same time many have joined, attracted by new possibilities, and have allowed their confirmation bias to be shattered without mercy.
Now we enter a new era. With this website, we want to talk about music in other ways, far away from the usual “promotional blurb hiding as an independent critic” or the pressure that writers face from fans and labels alike. You can help us with that. The first step is to join our discord and participate by rating albums and discussing music with us. Then, if you want to share an article with us to be published on the website you will be able to do so, as long it is related to music (not only albums), carefully written, and interesting. We will not have a clear editorial line, or a strict number of articles to be written following a tight schedule. We are a community-based project with a strong passion for all things music and a disdain for the unjustifiable blowing of smoke up every musical project’s ass.
We hope you’ll find something of your interest here. Welcome to the Vortex.