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. But because of the mass interest in CDs, reviewers have to write to be understood by more people. The review, taking on this added educational function, has helped bring up the public's level of knowledge of CDs and musical styles.Preview copies help record, tape, and CD reviewers do their jobs in a timely fashion. Just as film and broadcast/cable reviewers preview their art, so do CD reviewers. The record companies ship preview copies to reviewers once they get on the company's promotion department mailing lists or to generic addresses, such as ''Music Reviewer, Arts Department," at a publication. And there are different levels of lists. Some are more important that is, perceived by the publicists to be more influential than others. To get on a promotional mailing list, contact the record companies with a legitimate request to be included. You will have to furnish the name of the publication you work for and its address, and you may be asked to submit some clips of previous work.In fact, preview copies are one reason many music reviewers work at home. They can listen to the newest CDs on their home systems without distraction. For reviewers and critics for daily newspapers, music and entertainment magazines and newsletters, and online publications, it is not unusual to receive as many as 48 60 new recordings a week. That makes a lot of music to consider. Reviewers cannot listen to it all. There is simply not enough time in the day. Wilker (1993) set a limit of 10 CDs a day. If not, she says, it all seems to run together and "you are not doing anyone a service. I wish I could give these people more attention."There are numerous approaches to writing a CD review. Some writers prefer to read the liner notes the words on the back of a CD case as they listen to the album. Some listen to the album first without taking any notes, just to get a "feel" for the album. Then they listen a second time for technical purposes and for details to cite in their review. And some reviewers like to turn their stereo system high for full effect while others prefer a headset. You might try a variety of approaches until you find a way that works for you. Page 249Regardless of your approach, your basic purpose is to provide a description of the content of the album. After that, you should evaluate the work and provide as much background on the album content and the artist as space permits. At best, you want to be clear and practical for your readers. At worst, you write solely for other record reviewers in a language only the members of the "club" understand. Of course, you want to avoid that because you are serving no one but yourself.Classical music and opera provide exceptional opportunities for recorded music reviewing. Much of what has been said in this section relates to popular contemporary music. Hunt (1972) suggested properly that education is a most important function of reviews of classical music and opera. "Because many readers are unfamiliar with all but the bestknown works of the major composers, the critic must turn teacher when evaluating performances of music by lesserknown persons," he says (p. 136). Hunt also emphasizes the need to analyze the technique of the artist when considering classical music and opera. This is, of course, applicable to performance of established works. A particular challenge, he says, is new works. Changes in styles, techniques, and even instrumentation are worthy of your attention.The information box for a record review usually contains some or all of the following information:1. Name of album and artist or group.2. Record, tape, and CD label and catalog number.3. List price of record, tape, and CD.4. Release date (if appropriate).5. Reviewer/critic rating of the recording.Book Reviews/CriticismIf you enjoy reading, writing book reviews may be an easy extension of that pleasure. There are a large number of daily newspapers and weekly or monthly magazines and newsletters that regularly publish book reviews. These books are often mass market, or trade, books found in most bookstores. There is wide interest in them. On the other hand, there is also a growing market for specialists who write for more specialized magazines, newsletters, journals, literary reviews, bulletins, quarterlies, and other publications with readers interested in the latest book news and reviews.There are numerous local outlets for book reviews. The leading ones are Sunday newspaper book sections and magazine book depart Page 250ments. Specialized publications such as business magazines often devote considerable space to reviews of books relating to the industry, so do not ignore this potential market. Smaller publications do not ask as much of their reviewers as do larger publications and are good places to start. For instance, established magazines and larger daily newspapers often use other authors or individuals with advanced academic credentials to freelance their reviews. The Washington Post, for instance, uses other authors for major reviews for its weekly books supplement, Book World. Novelist Carol Shields wrote a 1998 review of popular novelist Toni Morrison's new book that spring, Paradise. This is how the review began:Toni Morrison's fiction sends readers and reviewers diving for definitions. The enigmatic word "powerful" is almost always brought up, since a seismic shift of sensation is what we feel as we reach the conclusion of one of her books. Our bones have been rearranged, and our notions of history disordered. Traditional critical standards seem suddenly irrelevant. We don't know quite how Toni Morrison does what she does, but we do know we are left shaken as readers and, to a profound degree, changed.Morrison's work is often troubling, dense, difficult to grasp and hold in the mind, and clouded by private and cultural references, consistently, book after book, she remakes the novel as we know it. It is as though she has learned the rules, then triumphantly, or perhaps even nonchalantly, rejected them. For this reason a new book by this Nobel Prizewinner is cause for celebration. And her novel Paradise has been launched with a remarkable first printing of 400,000 copies. (Shields, 1998, p. 1)Poet, novelist, playwright, and essayist John Updike knows something about writing and, of course, book reviewers and critics. Updike once gave the art of book reviewing some thought in one of his essays, the foreword to PickedUp Pieces (1976)
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