I've been pondering this for a while and I've been wondering: Can there really be such thing as an overrated piece in the entertainment industry?
Let's look at it, when you are making music, a video, a video game, a flash animation, or whatever, your purpose truly is to do one thing, entertain people. Yet it seems that whenever something entertains a large group of people, or becomes a phenomenon, self appointed critics and entertainment connoisseurs call them overrated.
What makes a critic a critic? Is it the ability to be picky? Is it the ability to find anger and frustration in what most people find joy and humor? Or is it by viewing or listening to an immense amount of videos and music. If so, then the person who has watched the most movies, listened to the most music, the most cultured person on the planet, should have their opinion become entertainment law. If he says your favorite movie sucks, then it sucks.
But that's not how it works. Everybody has their own tastes and likes their own things, and this isn't news. If you enjoy a certain type of entertainment, it would be pointless to not embrace it because it has been labeled as overrated or drivel, because you would be denying yourself something you like and completely missing the point of entertainment.
Also, I'm not denying that cultural influences and peer pressure can influence one's taste. Some people dislike Family Guy and claim that most people only like it because their friends do. But that's how entertainment works. That's why music from other cultures may not be enjoyable to you. That's why foreign films seem odd.
So now I've become a bit of a hypocrite. I'm attacking negative influences on one's tastes while advocating positive influences. But here's my point, there is no such thing as overrated, if you think you like something, you probably do. Even fads aren't overrated, they are just not capable of long term entertainment. Being unable to enjoy what the general populous does is NOT an advantage, it just means that you have to sit through a bunch of crap in order to grin every once in a while. I'm not attacking those that have placed themselves in a critic position for having their own tastes, but rather for insulting and ridiculing all of those who do not share the same opinion.
All in all: Stop being dicks, entertainment is for fun. It's not really a big deal.
skarai
General populous? Who gives a damn what people think.
There is good stuff in learning though, because thats what you really are doing.
You learn about games, music, art and movies! By doing this, you probably dislike certain stuff even more. But when the better stuff comes, it's all worth it.
Overrated itself is just a word, like any other. It is used wrong of course.
But by the system, each new thing is higher "rated" than the older ones, so maybe the word 'Overrated' did pop up by critics who didn't liked what they saw? All things have faults, these faults get super-larged by "critics" because they did not enjoy the movie. It's sort of an elite thing I would guess.
I mean yes, Robocop, 3000 Miles to Graceland, Judge Dredd are all B-movies, but that doesn't change they're great in their own way.
PBass
It's true that the more you learn and experience means that your choice in things will change. And also that when you view most things as bad, that one good item is an absolute gem. However, I just dislike it when people attack certain media productions by calling them overrated, because it calls everyone who enjoys such things uncultured or accuses them of having poor taste, as if their opinion is wrong and cannot even begin to be viewed as right. I suppose critical elitism is just one of my pet peeves.
But who gives a damn what people think? Actually everyone does, no matter how much you hide it, people love feedback from other people. Heck I'm replying to your comment because I care what you think. Also by the way thank you for the comment!