Media has always had a long history of getting people to look by stirring the pot a little bit. Pitchfork indulged to varying degrees. But in many ways, they were just responding to what hipster culture demanded. Hipsters consider themselves discerning, able to see “beyond” what the masses see. They have a high opinion of their intelligence and assessment. So pitchfork, as an outlet catering to hipsters, couldn’t just go with the flow and agree. They needed to say something that made them look discerning or intelligent. Which often came out as bizarre.

Unfortunately, the easiest way to look discerning is to say something is bad when everybody likes it. The far braver stance is to throw your weight behind a piece of media that most people don’t like (not for no reason of course, otherwise you’re just being contrarian in the other direction). And hipsters are rarely brave enough to do that.