Entertainment · Commentary · Behind the Ratings
How My Rating System Works: Music, TV, Movies & Video Games
Everybody Has Their Own Way of Rating Entertainment!
Music, television, movies, VIDEO GAMES! Everybody has their own way of reviewing entertainment.
Some reviewers focus on movies and television shows. Others focus on music, video games, or a combination of different media.
But here at Trace The Rater, I've developed my own approach to evaluating all four!
And yes, ladies and gentlemen, WE'RE DOING THE MATH! 😂
Now, before anybody starts having flashbacks to their mathematics classes, don't worry. I'm not trying to turn entertainment into a final exam!
I simply believe that calculating averages helps me organize my opinions and explain how I arrive at my ratings.
As I've gotten older, my relationship with entertainment has started changing. That includes how I listen to music, how I think about perfect scores, and how I evaluate the things I watch, play, and listen to.
So, let's get into it!
My Relationship With Music: REPLAY! REPLAY! REPLAY!
Here's something interesting about my listening habits.
I usually listen to approximately the same 50 songs every day.
Whenever I discover a song that sounds REALLY GOOD, there's a pretty good chance I'm going to play it repeatedly.
And when I say repeatedly, I mean REPEATEDLY! 😂
At first, I'm enjoying every second of it. The vocals, the production, the instruments, and everything else might sound amazing.
But after hearing the same song over and over again, something eventually happens.
I get tired of hearing it!
Does that mean the song suddenly became terrible?
ABSOLUTELY NOT!
There's a difference between a song losing its quality and me temporarily losing excitement about listening to it.
A song I once loved might still be excellent, even if I don't feel like hearing it for another couple of weeks.
This experience has helped me recognize something important: my enjoyment of entertainment can change without the entertainment itself changing.
And that applies to more than music.
Television episodes, movies, and video games can also become less exciting after repeated experiences.
Why I Use the Same Rating Philosophy Across Different Media
One thing I've noticed about entertainment criticism is that reviewers often specialize in certain types of media.
Some review movies and television together. Others concentrate on music or video games.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with that!
However, I want Trace The Rater to evaluate different types of entertainment using the same fundamental rating philosophy.
That doesn't mean I judge everything using identical categories.
For example, when reviewing music, I might evaluate vocals, lyrics, production, and instrumentation.
For television and movies, I might consider storytelling, acting, animation, cinematography, pacing, and character development.
Meanwhile, video games might involve gameplay, controls, visuals, storytelling, and replay value.
Different types of entertainment have different creative purposes.
But the way I calculate my overall ratings remains consistent.
And that brings us to the most important part of this article!
Ladies and Gentlemen, WE'RE DOING THE MATH! 😂
Unlike reviewers who prefer assigning an overall score based entirely on their general impressions, I prefer calculating averages.
Here's how my system works.
First, I evaluate the individual songs or traits that I want to rate.
Then, I add those ratings together.
Finally, I divide the total by the number of items I've rated.
Overall Rating = Total of Individual Ratings ÷ Number of Rated Items
Pretty straightforward, right?
Let's imagine I'm reviewing something with four rated components.
Here's the calculation:
(10 + 9 + 8 + 10) ÷ 4 = 9.25/10
BOOM!
The overall rating is 9.25 out of 10!
Depending on how I want to present the score, I might round it to 9.3/10 or 9/10.
Sometimes I prefer displaying ratings to the nearest tenth, while other times I prefer whole numbers.
Either way, the underlying calculation remains the same.
And remember, these numbers represent my personal evaluations. Calculating an average doesn't automatically make my opinions objective.
It simply makes the way I combine my ratings more consistent.
What Happens When I Don't Rate Something?
Now, here's another important part of my system.
If I don't rate something, IT DOESN'T COUNT toward the average!
Let's say I'm listening to an album containing five songs.
I might enjoy four of them enough to evaluate individually, but one song might be so boring to me that I have absolutely no interest in revisiting it.
And sometimes, that's exactly what happens!
Here's an example:
Because Song 3 is unrated, I exclude it from the calculation.
That leaves four rated songs.
(10 + 9 + 8 + 10) ÷ 4 = 9.25/10
The result is 9.25/10.
I'm not going to force myself to revisit something just because I feel obligated to assign it a number.
However, there's an important distinction worth mentioning.
When I exclude unrated songs, the resulting average represents the material I've actually rated, rather than a complete evaluation of every track on the album.
I think being transparent about that distinction is important.
Can Something Actually Receive a Perfect 10/10?
YES!
But there's a catch!
As I've gotten older, I've started questioning the idea of perfection.
My opinions are changing, and I'm becoming more thoughtful about what deserves my highest ratings.
That doesn't mean I've completely eliminated perfect scores.
Instead, I distinguish between individual components and the overall work.
For example, I might consider a song's vocals flawless and award them 10/10.
However, if its production receives 9/10 and its lyrics receive 8/10, the overall rating won't be a perfect ten.
Here's another example:
Every rated category receives a perfect ten.
Therefore:
(10 + 10 + 10 + 10) ÷ 4 = 10/10
Ladies and gentlemen, WE HAVE A PERFECT SCORE! 🎉
Mathematically, if every component included in the average receives 10/10, the overall average must also equal 10/10.
Of course, I recognize that rounding can produce a displayed 10/10 even when the unrounded average is slightly lower.
That's why I think it's useful to distinguish between an exact perfect average and a rounded score.
The important thing is that my ratings reflect what I genuinely think about the material I've evaluated.
Why I Don't Want to Copy Other Reviewers
Here's something I want to make clear.
I respect the fact that different reviewers have different approaches.
Some prefer numerical ratings. Others use letter grades, stars, rankings, or written opinions without scores.
Some reviewers calculate averages, while others evaluate a complete work based on their overall impressions.
And guess what?
THAT'S COMPLETELY FINE!
I'm not saying everybody needs to follow my system.
I'm also not claiming that calculating averages automatically makes somebody a better reviewer.
But personally, I enjoy breaking entertainment down into individual components and using those evaluations to calculate an overall score.
That's how I want Trace The Rater to operate.
Whether I'm discussing a television episode, a movie, a video game, or an album, I want readers and viewers to understand how I arrived at my conclusions.
At the same time, I don't want numerical ratings to take away the enjoyment of experiencing entertainment.
After all, we're talking about creative works, not just numbers on a calculator!
Growing Older, Changing Opinions, and Enjoying Entertainment
One of the biggest reasons I've been reconsidering my rating system is personal growth.
As I get older, my opinions about entertainment continue to evolve.
Something I once considered flawless might not receive the same rating today.
Likewise, something I previously overlooked might become more enjoyable after another viewing or listening experience.
That's a normal part of developing personal taste.
I've also been thinking more about my well-being and how much attention I give to ratings.
I don't want to spend so much time worrying about whether something deserves a 9.5 or a 9.7 that I forget to enjoy the experience itself.
And remember my habit of replaying the same songs?
Sometimes, the best thing I can do is listen to something different or take a break from a particular song.
I don't necessarily need to change its rating just because I'm temporarily tired of hearing it.
A rating should help me express my opinion, not control how I enjoy entertainment.
That's an important lesson I'm continuing to learn.
Final Thoughts: It's My Rating System!
At the end of the day, everybody has their own way of evaluating entertainment.
Some people love giving perfect scores.
Others believe nothing deserves a 10/10.
Some calculate averages, and others don't.
Personally, I prefer evaluating individual components, calculating their average, excluding anything I haven't rated, and rounding the final result when appropriate.
My approach isn't necessarily better or worse than somebody else's.
It's simply the method that makes the most sense to me.
And as I continue developing Trace The Rater, my opinions and methods may evolve.
Because entertainment criticism isn't just about assigning numbers.
It's about explaining what works, what doesn't, and why certain creative experiences matter to us.
So whether we're discussing MUSIC, TELEVISION, MOVIES, or VIDEO GAMES...
WE'RE DOING THE MATH! 😂
And most importantly, we're having fun along the way!
I'm Trace The Rater, and thanks for reading!