HOP ON POWER POP ALBUM REVIEW GUIDELINES

NO RATINgs

HOP ON POWER POP does not use a Grade or Star rating system. Meaning, you won’t see an album getting 5 Stars or a B Grade.

Why not?

We have decided that assigning a rating to an album is inaccurate at best. Our review of an album is highly subjective and can change over time. For example, if we listen to an album after a long exhausting day, we may not be in the mood for its particular style. But if we heard it at a party or after a delicious meal, we might rave about it because it’s hitting the spot.

How many albums have you changed your mind about over time? Do you still like the same music you listened to as a teenager? Probably not.

We wouldn’t want a give a low grade which might deter you from listening to a band’s album. If we give an album a B- or 2 & 1/2 ️️stars, you may decide to skip it. But your take on the album might be different from ours.

 

On the other hand, if you read our written review, then decide to skip it, you now have a

more educated assessment. Hopefully, over time, our expanded opinion is less likely to change as much as assigning it a simple grade.

WRITTEN REVIEWS

We will write a written review for every album we choose to review. In addition, some albums will get spoken reviews on our HOP ON POWER POP PODCAST RADIO SHOWS, -aka- H.O.P.P. RADIO. But we can’t feature every album on our podcast as there just isn’t time. If we decide to review an album, there will always be a written review on our website.

WHAT ALBUMS WILL YOU REVIEW?
The biggest qualifier for a HOP ON POWER POP ALBUM REVIEW is the album has to be in the Power Pop genre. That means all the songs or at least a great majority of the tracks on the album must fall into the Power Pop style of music. If it doesn’t, or if there’s only one or two Power Pop songs on the album we probably won’t review it. This is a Power Pop website and not a multi-music style website.

DO YOU GIVE NEGATIVE REVIEWS?
That’s a difficult question because I personally wouldn’t trust a website that gave all glowing rave reviews. Would you? To us, it doesn’t seem honest. But while most of our reviews are favorable we are going to be honest. If we don’t care for an album we simply won’t review it. No band needs negative publicity. This could change down the line, but why would we waste our time and energy on an album we dislike? We wouldn’t be doing you or the band any good by giving them a negative review. It’s a waste of everyone’s time.

WHAT ALBUMS WON’T YOU REVIEW?
Any album in the Power Pop genre is open for review. There’s no limit to the year of its release. However, that being said, HOP ON POWER POP has decided to focus on album releases by independent bands or bands not assigned to major labels. Bands on huge, corporate labels have an entire promotional machine behind them. They don’t need our help. We are here to help shed some light on smaller bands who are trying to make good music. That doesn’t mean we won’t review an album on a major label, it just means we’re trying to help the little artist.

WHO REVIEWS THE ALBUM?
That depends on how long the queue is. In most cases, Nadja Dee, the creator behind HOP ON POWER POP will review your album. Nadja Dee tries to take an objective view of an album and make observations based on many years of listening experience. It could also be reviewed by Jessica, the co-host of the HOP ON POWER POP PODCAST. Jessica brings a young, fresh perspective to her take on music. She keeps current on what's out there in the music universe, not just in the Power Pop bubble but also other genres that criss-cross this particular category. In the future we may enlist other outside reviews to help keep up with the ever increasing demand, but for now it's just Nadja Dee & Jessica.

HOW CAN I GET MY MUSIC REVIEWED?
Contact us.

 

Send us a CD (preferred) or VINYL album. If you only have a download link, that’ll work but we prefer a physical copy, especially one with liner notes and a band bio.

In the old days, like in the times when Caveman Ringo Star rode on the backs of the dinosaurs, people used to buy vinyl, these licorice pizza looking albums. Those albums came with a huge 12” picture on the cover and inside you could read liner notes, song lyrics and even a thank you section from each member of the band. All of that, helped create an immersive environment for the listener. Today, in our modern world of music, we only get cold 1s and 0s in the form of digital downloads. Sometimes, we don’t even see a picture of the album or if we do get a picture, it’s the size of a postage stamp.

So we like CDs and we like albums. We also like to have a download so we can take your music on the road with us and see how it feels in the car, on our headphones as well as on our home stereo system.

But here’s the BIG WARNING:
We get so many requests for album reviews and promotion and it’s not easy to keep up with the demand. At the moment there’s only 2 of us running HOP ON POWER POP, myself and my partner Jessica. We both have full time jobs and lives outside of H.O.P.P. There’s only so much time and energy in a day so it’s getting less and less feasible to stay on top of all the requests.

We can take your album request, but we cannot guarantee your music will get featured or reviewed. We want to promote every Power Pop musician but it’s just not possible. If we can promote your music we will, but it may not be as speedy a turnaround as you’d like.
We will do the best we can. Remember we don’t get paid for this work, we do it for the love of Power Pop.

Let us know if you have questions and keep on Power Popping!

Sincerely,
Nadja Dee
Purveyor of Power Pop