Hey everyone, my name is Keagon and I’m a 23-year old graduate of Carleton College. I decided to major in music at the end of my freshman year at Carleton, and after I declared I really began to hit my musical stride, spending as much time frequenting music blogs as I did studying, hoping to find the newest, greatest, most innovative music to hit the scene. However, with all my searching there gradually grew an uncomfortable itch in the back of my brain; and it slowly manifested itself into the realization that the handful of music reviewers on these blogs, to whom I had pledged my unwavering loalty, was determining the music that everyone should be listening to. I became conscious of the fact that I was agreeing with the opinions of these reviewers before I even really listened to the music! I quickly reflected on this unfortunate trend and began brainstorming a means of fighting the monopoly on the music review. And so naturally, the idea for an unpretentious music review website that allows everyone to participate was born. With your help, I hope to bring this website—The Grey Matter Review—to fruition.
About the name: grey matter is a collection of neuronal cell bodies stored in various regions throughout the brain. It is primarily associated with the processing and cognition of sensory perception. When you meet someone for the first time, grey matter helps process the language with which that person greets you. It helps process his or her appearance, how you feel when you interact with that person, and even helps remember all of these features so that you can recall this interaction and subjectively evaluate how that person made you feel.
Likewise, grey matter helps us process the feelings evoked by music. Different melodies, harmonies, and instrumental combinations all elicit unique reactions in each and every one of us. Music supplements our moods because, like everything else we perceive, it is processed by our grey matter. It affects each of us differently, and we all consequently establish distinct musical tastes. But quite often, our greatest reference for the music we listen to is a single professional reviewer. And sometimes that reviewer’s taste just doesn’t mesh with our own. I’ve been excited about countless albums that I was sure were going to be massive successes, only to soon discover that some reviewer didn’t give them a high enough review to catch anyone’s attention, and then nobody listened.
To rectify this situation, I'm hoping to hire a coder who can create The Grey Matter Review. After speaking to several friends who are more computer science-inclined than myself, it seems a project of this magnitude will cost about $4,000 and take a couple months to complete. My hope is for The Grey Matter Review to be a vehicle for the unique perspectives of all music lovers. Users will have the opportunity to create a profile, rate and review albums, and consequently engage with other members of the Grey Matter community. Each individual rating provided by a user will be registered to create a collective rating that represents the opinion of every reviewer. Users can then engage in conversation with other users about their reviews, discussing musical attributes that led them to a particular opinion.
By participating with other members of the Grey Matter community, a user may soon discover that another user has a taste in music similar to their own, and maybe he or she seems to know about all the best music before everybody else; so, users will have the opportunity to follow one another. By following another user, you can be notified when he or she writes a review, read through all of the reviews on his or her profile, and hopefully gain some invaluable insight into some music you may not have otherwise listened to. Likewise, other users can follow you, so you too can experience the satisfaction of sharing your knowledge and unique musical perceptions with the entire Grey Matter world.
All donations will go toward the creation of this website. And with your donation you have the opportunity to receive some really awesome perks! I’d really love to bring this site to fruition, because we all have grey matter, we are all moved by our favorite music, and so we should all have the opportunity to share our unique musical palate with the world. With your generous support, I hope to make the Grey Matter Review a reality. Any donation is extremely appreciated, and if you can't contribute financially, spreading the word is incredibly helpful as well. Thank you so much.
Keagon Voyce
