Rick Beato... yeah or nay?

**Operations66** · 02-22-2021

I like his videos where he rants about artists taking down his videos.

**boilk** · 02-22-2021

Some of the stuff is interesting, but for the most part I find that a lot of his videos are just too damn long. He could have made his points and been way more interesting in half the time. Perhaps he just likes to hear himself talk.

neil

**Plasmatopia** · 02-22-2021

Originally Posted by boilk

Some of the stuff is interesting, but for the most part I find that a lot of his videos are just too damn long. He could have made his points and been way more interesting in half the time. Perhaps he just likes to hear himself talk.

neil

Seems like we covered this earlier in this thread. I can't say I've witnessed any of his videos that fit that description. Most of the time I feel like he squeezes more theory in than I can really absorb....or rather, if I were to investigate the concept he's presenting, to really gain any sort of understanding (forget about mastery) I'd have to invest a lot of time (and I'm lazy).

He does have his live chats which are by their nature long and rambling, but those are a different animal. I generally avoid those.

**boilk** · 02-22-2021

Originally Posted by Plasmatopia

Seems like we covered this earlier in this thread. I can't say I've witnessed any of his videos that fit that description. Most of the time I feel like he squeezes more theory in than I can really absorb....or rather, if I were to investigate the concept he's presenting, to really gain any sort of understanding (forget about mastery) I'd have to invest a lot of time (and I'm lazy).

He does have his live chats which are by their nature long and rambling, but those are a different animal. I generally avoid those.

Well, guilty, in that I'm not going to read the previous seven pages of the thread. However, I tried to watch one of his copyright ones, that was something like 29:55. He could easily have made his points in far less time. Just my take.

neil

**Sturgeon's Lawyer** · 02-22-2021

A different possibility: perhaps he actually likes pop music. That has been known to happen among serious music people. (I like a lot of pop myself.) He didn't exactly overflow with praise for WAP, after all.

**proggy_jazzer** · 02-22-2021

He's a producer with decades of experience across several genres. He knows pretty much everything there is to know about how music is made in the studio, and has the ears to hear excellence when it appears in any musical style. I don't dig everything he sings the praises of, but I've also been pointed towards some nuggets of quality of which I would have otherwise been unaware.

**Plasmatopia** · 02-23-2021

Originally Posted by boilk

Well, guilty, in that I'm not going to read the previous seven pages of the thread. However, I tried to watch one of his copyright ones, that was something like 29:55. He could easily have made his points in far less time. Just my take.

neil

Yeah, that sounds like it probably dragged on a bit longer than necessary.

**chalkpie** · 02-23-2021

Originally Posted by proggy_jazzer

He's a producer with decades of experience across several genres. He knows pretty much everything there is to know about how music is made in the studio, and has the ears to hear excellence when it appears in any musical style. I don't dig everything he sings the praises of, but I've also been pointed towards some nuggets of quality of which I would have otherwise been unaware.

This.

**Plasmatopia** · 02-23-2021

Lately when I comb my hair I think Rick is starting to influence my style. Almost can't wait to go full white hair.

**gearHed289** · 02-23-2021

Originally Posted by boilk

Some of the stuff is interesting, but for the most part I find that a lot of his videos are just too damn long. He could have made his points and been way more interesting in half the time. Perhaps he just likes to hear himself talk.

neil

This is my exact problem, though I do completely agree that he is very knowledgeable and insightful.

**Jones the Jug** · 02-24-2021

Here's an expert's view on the Beato syndrome that summarizes the man perfectly:

**Splicer** · 02-24-2021

I will repeat the mantra I live by:

There are only two kinds of music in the world - what I like and what I don't like.

This also works across the spectrum of the arts in general. It doesn't qualify anything. It doesn't give an award to one thing and not another (in fact, I despise awards for art). It just states a simple fact that is true for one individual on Earth.

**proggy_jazzer** · 02-24-2021

Originally Posted by Jones the Jug

Here's an expert's view on the Beato syndrome that summarizes the man perfectly:

"...this performative act of judging modern pop music as garbage enables him to appear like a musical rebel."

I need to call this "expert" out as being way more full of himself than Beato appears to be to me at his worst. Charles the Musicologist is a grad student in musicology at UC Boulder and a guitarist himself (you can easily find his bio online). His problem with Beato seems to be that he only is successful because of confirmation bias. While that is no doubt a factor (there would be no social media at all without it), he completely mis-characterizes Beato with the above quoted statement and others like it. Anyone that's actually taken the time to watch the videos knows that the above statement is misleading and does not represent the tenor of the vast majority of Beato's video content. The common thread I see running through much of the criticism of Beato amounts to no more than jealousy of the guy's success.

This will be the last time I engage in this thread as any kind of a defender of Beato (he needs no such support from me).

**Scott Bails** · 02-24-2021

Originally Posted by Jones the Jug

Here's an expert's view on the Beato syndrome that summarizes the man perfectly:

Nah.

**Plasmatopia** · 02-24-2021

Originally Posted by Jones the Jug

Here's an expert's view on the Beato syndrome that summarizes the man perfectly:

There are so many things wrong with this guy's statements I'm not going to bother spelling them out since they should be obvious. If Beato didn't have a regular habit of taking a look at the current top 10 hits and talking about things he likes/dislikes, praising creative modern production techniques when he hears them, etc. then perhaps this guy would have a point. He probably shoulda researched this a bit more...

**proggy_jazzer** · 02-24-2021

Originally Posted by Plasmatopia

There are so many things wrong with this guy's statements I'm not going to bother spelling them out since they should be obvious. If Beato didn't have a regular habit of taking a look at the current top 10 hits and talking about things he likes/dislikes, praising creative modern production techniques when he hears them, etc. then perhaps this guy would have a point. He probably shoulda researched this a bit more...

Smells like a PhD dissertation in the making to me.

**Mister Triscuits** · 02-24-2021

Originally Posted by proggy_jazzer

Smells like a PhD dissertation in the making to me.

"Piled Higher and Deeper"

**Sturgeon's Lawyer** · 02-24-2021

Originally Posted by Jones the Jug

Here's an expert's view on the Beato syndrome that summarizes the man perfectly:

What I wrote in the comments on that video:

I call bullshit.

You create and take down a straw Rick Beato which has very little to do with - I won't say "the real man", because I don't know him, but the actual videos he posts. He has done a series of videos where he listens to the Spotify "Top Ten", and his remarks on the various songs - well, he likes some of them, and doesn't like others. This is hardly disparaging modern pop as a category. Similarly, he has done a number of songs in his "What Makes This Song So Great" that I would hardly classify as "Classic Rock".

For that matter, when he did his my-favorite-albums video, surprisingly few of the albums he selected were "Classic Rock" - a lot of them were more like "Classic Jazz", which may give you some ammunition for a claim of implicit snobbery, but hardly appeals to the "Classic Rock" audience.

This guy may be a "musicologist", but he (a) clearly hasn't actually viewed many of Beato's videos, and (b) lacks a background in logical argumentation.

**Interstellar** · 02-24-2021

Watching this video made me feel superior to all the Beato viewers because I had not fallen into Beato's elitist trap.

**3LockBox** · 02-24-2021

I watch Rick Beato when it's about something I like but I'm not a musician so much of what he's breaking down is lost on me. There's all kinds of content on YT I don't care for so you know what? I don't watch it. But we live in a cancel culture; it's not enough for a few people to ignore what they don't like, they won't tolerate anyone else liking it and seek to squelch it - some people live too far up their own ass. I don't need to be educated on why Rick's great or why Rick's wrong. I watch him or I don't.