To see suggestions about writing two different types of reviews, click below:
The Writing Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill - "Book Reviews."
Ontario Registered Music Teachers Association - "How to Write A Concert Review."
(Both styles offer suggestions that can be applied to anything being reviewed.)
Following are three reviews of Loretta Lynn's last album, Van Lear Rose. Please read them in order to see the growth of the necessary detail and complexity involved in writing a valuable review of music.
1. The Portland Mercury Review, 3 May 2004 (as it appears online):
LORETTA LYNN
Van Lear Rose
(Interscope) ****
For her umpteenth album, 68-year-old country icon Loretta Lynn is aided and abetted by 28-year-old garage-rock upstart Jack White of the White Stripes, who dedicated an album to her and who she subsequently tapped to produce Van Lear Rose. The production and arrangement has White's organic stamp, harking back to the simplicity and directness of the first two Stripes albums. Like Rick Rubin's American Recordings sessions with Johnny Cash, Van Lear Rose takes a country luminary into new territory. Unlike those Cash albums, though, Lynn's record isn't composed of covers; it was completely written by Lynn, the first time she has done that since her debut album. The 13 songs find the coal miner's daughter raising a ruckus, telling family stories, and singing the praises of the Lord and sloe gin fizzes in Portland. NATE LIPPENS
The Portland Mercury’s Rating System:
**** "We Are The World" - USA for Africa
*** "Do They Know It's Christmas?" - Band Aid
** "Sun City" - Artists United Against Apartheid
*"Tears Are Not Enough" - Northern Lights
2. Review of Loretta Lynn's Van Lear Rose in The Guardian, as of 2 May 2004: http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/reviews/observer/story/0,14467,1207608,00.html
3. Review of Loretta Lynn's Van Lear Rose in Rolling Stone, as of 21 April 2004: http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/5278389/review/5944736/vanlearrose
Here are some excellent examples of student reviews. Please click here to see what people in your seat had to say in a review.