Some insight on the concept of “critc-proof” music and movies from CNN:

“There are some bands that, let’s face it, are critic-proof,” said Nathan Brackett, a senior editor at Rolling Stone. “Just like there are some movies that are critic-proof. Nobody is really reading the reviews for ‘Norbit,’ you know? And nobody’s reading Nickelback reviews either.”

I find it interesting that news analysis of the entertainment industry always seems to boil down to these misguided populist arguments that critic “taste makers” are simply out of touch with mainstream American music fans.

But it’s not just music critics who think Britney Spears sucks. It’s tons and tons of regular people. Trash talking Nickleback isn’t just a hobby of Pitchfork Media, it’s a natural response to their terrible terrible music.

Of course there are folks out there who genuinely like these bands (although, in my experience, such fans tend to know these bands suck, they just don’t really care). But the majority of these mind-boggling record sales aren’t being made to “music fans”, so to speak, but to regular folks who don’t care too much about music, yet buy the occasional album and listen to a handful of the songs every once in a while, as part of their role as members of Jane-schmo consumer-America.

There’s really nothing wrong with this, pop-music is business, but there isn’t some deep and interesting secret relative to the divide between people whose lives revolve around music (ie music critics) and people who like to buy things (ie all Americans, the majority of whom aren’t really that into music).