I think this reflects the reality the critics are almost always industry insiders rather than artists themselves, and that applies equally to literature and film as to music. To the industry, art is about making money, which is seldom something that's going to totally line up with an artist's own vision.

Great art is produced by artists who have something great to say, seldom by industry figures eyeing some bottom line.

We just published an essay last week in Prism & Pen, "How Gore Vidal Queered Himself," that touches on the same issue.

The publishing industry wanted Vidal to continue writing epic historical novels, but he insisted on producing very personal art, some of which is indeed very great art (in my opinion). The publishing world almost uniformly savaged him for it.

And so it goes.