The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

I often times don't understand concert reviews. I prefer to read film reviews, because most of the time, a general layout will be provided, so I can decide whether or not I should pay money to see the film. I'll then look at the critics' overall grade to perhaps place the final push on whether I should see the film in the theater, wait until it arrives on video, or bypass it all together. Most of the time, though, film reviews are productive to an extent, because they give the reader at least a decent outline of the film, so they can decide on their own whether or not to see it. With concert reviews, it's often times a different story. Music seems to be more polarizing than film. I've heard of fights erupting when people argue who's better - the Beatles or the Rolling Stones. If a certain artist's name gets mentioned, one person may moan before fainting, while another will see steam emanate from their scalp and they'll scream with more fury than I imagin...

I'm not going to get into whether or not I felt Grammy Award-winning musician Alicia Keys was right or wrong in creating a jazzy rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" during her performance at the Super Bowl Sunday night. What I am going to get into is a ridiculous article regarding the performance. It was written by Chris Willman of Stop the Presses  and released yesterday via Yahoo . Willman started the "piece" (I use that term ambiguously) by saying, "...Just look at the backlash against Alicia Keys' version of the tune before the Super Bowl if you want a good example of bombs bursting in air." He went on to note that most singers and music critics praised Keys' performance, with Randy Jackson saying that she "killed it." He also noted the positive comments by film director Spike Lee as well as former Survivor contestant Elisabeth Hasselbeck. Perhaps he groups them in with singers and music critics; I really don't know....