Great topic. The tradition of over the top scathing music reviews is centuries old, and some of the reviews that classical composers received in the 19th and early 20th centuries make the Pitchfork pissing monkey look like an angelic choir. Still, over the past 10 years I've seen a trend of hysterically negative reviews of prominent artists transition from the literary world to the indie music world. Blogs, not only Pitchfork but other blogs as well, seem to be one culprit, but on the other hand relatively prominent critics. Here's a Chris Ott review I particularly
disliked.I think it's fairly obvious that these reviews are more about the reviewer than they are about the review. The reviewer seeks to draw unearned attention by making personal attacks against the artist, writing a one-sided review, and posing as an iconoclast or leader of the backlash. It's the worst facet of art criticism. Unfortunately, these reviews appear to be popular, possibly because to many of the schmucks that compose the indie music scene, contempt=cool.