... i think a person can objectively judge things like production quality or the originality of a sample, or the level of skill used by a musician, but as far as emotion received from a song or 'quality', yeah that is subjective.

i think critics try to come (or at least used to. i haven't read any review in a while) from an objective place is that the job of the critic is to serve as a voice or warning of when values within the culture get changed or distorted and can make comments on developing or dying trends.

i guess to a degree the critic is self-serving. they're trying to use their knowledge of an artform or writing style to keep the reading coming back to read more.

i do think that the days of critics being truly objective and looking out for the health of the art is on its last legs if not dead already.