Identities tend to crumble to dust unless they are reinforced on a regular basis. And music is involved in that process. We listen to a song hundred or thousand times. It becomes a part of our identities. As a consequence when a music critic makes a derogatory remark about that song, it seems that he is not only attacking the song, but ourselves as well.
This is why being a music critic is such a delicate job! It is also the reason why a critic should write in the first person so the readers may know where his taste-preference lies. Writing in the first person is “autobiographical music criticsm and it helps make the readers “aware that the music critic’s position of authority does not make her or him an arbiter of absolute taste. In this sense, autobiographical music criticism can be described as “consciousness-raising.”
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