"Monsters vs. Aliens" just broke the 2009 box office record despite having reviews that were mediocre at best.

If you’re making your music for the cognoscenti, you’re missing the point.  You only need to please your target audience, that’s it.  Music used to be a hierarchical world.  Who had the number one album, who got the most airplay, who had the biggest grosses.  If you’re playing that game, you’re lost in the wilderness.  A number one album sells few copies and is no guarantee of profits.  So many people don’t even listen to the radio.  As for box office, do you really thing Miley Cyrus will be selling out arenas five years from now?  Three?  Two?

So when that hipster in black jeans says you suck, laugh in his face.  By putting you down, he’s just illustrating how out of touch he is.  Anybody who can survive in today’s music world deserves credit.  It’s about gaining an audience, not reaching everybody.  If you make some people happy, you’re on your way.  If you try to make everybody happy, you’re doomed to failure.

There’s no one powerful starmaker left.  Certainly not a rock critic.  Not even a record label honcho.  There’ s no one person whose imprimatur unlocks the gate to continued fame and riches.  We live in the era of the mob.  How can someone start a fire that turns into a conflagration.  That you may not be able to see from the other coast, but that appears positively gargantuan if you’re anywhere nearby.

You can’t complain if growth is slow.  Obviously, what you’re doing is ahead of the game, or not quite mainstream. Furthermore, if your career does blow up, enjoy the ride, but don’t believe it’s going to last.  Very few of these casual new fans are going to stick around.  And if you try to please them, you’re just going to alienate those who truly care.

So don’t swing for the fences.  Don’t adopt a star attitude.  Be reachable.  The more accessible you are to your fans, the more they’ll like you and spread the word.

As for the haters?

The haters aren’t going to buy your albums anyway.  To try and placate them is a mistake.

Partially inspired by this: Ignore your critics 
But like all the Darwin anniversary analysis says, ideas are in the air, no one’s got a lock on breakthroughs.  Movie writers have written for years that a film’s success is determined on opening day, when viewers text their buds from inside the theatre. Criticism is now a function of the population at large.  We don’t live in a top down world, no one dictates taste.  It’s something we come at collectively.  Sure, there’s critical reevaluation years down the line, the way hipsters cottoned to the Carpenters and Axl Rose revealed his love of Elton John, but if you change your work to placate hipsters along the way, you’re in trouble.