1. "also, "what does it even mean to be a music critic now?"" In response to Reply # 0
This article by Clover Hope is part of the same series. I read it when they published it a week or two ago and have been thinking about it ever since, there's a lot of good stuff here:
On the OKP article: I didn't read it closely today, I'll look at it when I have more time and attention tomorrow. But I do like the idea that OKP (and music forums more generally) embraced the couch A&R/couch critic. I learned a lot about music here, but I kept coming back (on and off over the years, lol) because you could find people talking both intelligently and passionately about music, even between the snark and the flame wars.
I learned a lot about how *I* think about music by witnessing and sometimes sharing in those convos.