Popular Music journalism might be a bit of an outlier here, since it's still in its infancy relatively speaking, but let's not for a second go down the road that there aren't professionals who are uniquely and adequately equipped to speak with authority about art / film / music /etc. This gets dangerously close to the idea that if 100 Facebook moms say vaccines are dangerous but 10 doctors says they're not, the moms must be right.
People go to school to learn journalism, criticism, history, etc. Or they do the equivalent research. They do have a place of authority to speak from. To dismiss it as just one man's opinion discredits journalism as a whole, imo. Also this shows the "dangers" or at least the issues with the internet giving us a fast track into every average Joe's opinion. Music can be popular and not really add anything to the annals of time and that's OK. No one will remember the Pussycat Dolls in 30 years, but it doesn't change the fact that for a moment, they were extremely popular.
Eminem made a few very good albums. He's made some really bad ones. If you actually check Metacritic, generally the critics also like him, meaning this comparison is kinda moot from the start...
You’re unnecessarily conflating science with art. Medicine follows a scientific method. 100 Facebook moms do not. 10 doctors opinions (educated as they may be) also do not follow the scientific method. They’re opinions. Where you’re correct is that you’re obligated to believe 10 doctors over 100 Facebook moms, because there’s reason to believe these doctors are studied on the research that followed the scientific methods to justify the vaccine. There’s less reason to believe the Facebook moms have.
It’s not dangerously or even remotely close to questioning professional critics opinions, which are based on... their opinions. You’d be less justified in questioning their perspectives, their experiences, their approaches, or their angles. They are not scientists. Their opinion is not based in fact. It is an opinion.
I have absolutely no clue how you think “the comparison is moot from the start” regarding Eminem and Kanye West. We aren’t talking about metacritic. We are talking about pitchfork. Specifically, how Pitchfork follows the social trend (that I personally question) of labeling Kanye West as a “genius” whilst smugly advertising his contemporary artists of equal or greater achievement as “the worst.” Without coincidence, the same type of artists that a specific subgroup of people happily shit on.
I don’t know about you, but circa 2010 I very much so grew up through the “Coldplay were cool when they were indie but now they’re on the radio so I hate them, Arcade Fire as the greatest future thing that I will hate later, I love Radiohead because they’re the obscure big British act and anti-Coldplay occupying similar origins, go team Okkervil River I bet you’ve never heard of them, let me throw obscure genres like lo-fi alt buzz band at you so I sound super in the know and different” period in music.
The same stereotype to say “I don’t like Kanye West as a person but you cannot deny he is a musical genius!” This type of logic simplistically brands this guy as somehow godly, sweeps all criticisms under the rug, and is a learned behavior. I’m not out there saying you or anyone here doesn’t justifiably love him, but it’s cult-like avenues like pitchfork that’s perpetuate this logic of somehow “owed respect” towards his music that he is no more or less deserving of than his successful contemporaries. The humorous joke about this all is that I can literally Google the phrase “Kanye West musical genius” and I’m going to get a bazillion articles and Reddit threads flooding my results... because the man himself is an egotistical cog perpetuating the very notion through self declaration.
You seem to think I’m disregarding critical reception as a skill or an art, I’m not. I think reading reviews of any sort, whether they be yours or a professional’s, are valuable ways of gaining different perspectives. A music critic will give you a different insight than most people will. That doesn’t make them right or wrong, it just means they’re unique food for thought. You could provide insight Thats more valuable, or less. You’re probably not as likely to provide it as someone who does it for a living, but then again people like Tucker Carlson do provide their opinions, professionally, for a living. So, all opinions count, because they’re opinions. Similar to how this very post is a
(amateur) opinion of what I perceive as an intentionally inflammatory website aptly named after a gardening tool associated with angry mobs designed to rile people up. And I do not think the name is a coincidence.