Extreme opinions in music

Well we had a crap review for our latest album in a local free music rag called NARC & I certainly got narked about it! Maybe it was the fluey virus that's been dogging me for the past couple of weeks that lowered my already habitually fragile defences or the fact that it was our first and only album review for over 20 years or maybe it was that the reviewer stated it was "the worst music heard since man evolved the ear.. just awful, awful cheesepop"!
I found the reviewer's MySpace page and emailed him to register my dismay and question his opinions he replied with a 'hey I wouldn't have thought you'd have cared' type angle which maybe reflects some kind of 'hey anyone can spout off any extreme opinion anywhere and not be remotely answerable for it and it's cool to do so' type vibe and then he said "I admit that I certainly exaggerated my distaste for your music... my review was over exaggerated"
Oh f**k me then that makes it all okay!
Whatever. I didn't want to take the matter any further even though apparently I would possibly have grounds for libel.
I can happily accept that many people won't in any way dig our tunes and of course I'm totally fine about that. As long as we have our fan base who kind of validate what we do then we're in business so to speak. But why be so aggressive & damning.. especially when you don't even mean it? Jeez!!
I'm not going to go on a 'grumpy old men' type rant about the 'younger generation' especially as I personally know some magnificent youngsters (nephews, nieces, that type of thing) who are, to my mind, highly tuned in and sussed individuals. Maybe the guy felt inconsequential standing before what he saw as some establishment edifice of music and kicked out not thinking it would register with us..
Anyway about extreme opinions in music.. Maybe it's the Simon Cowell effect and all that i.e. to say "Ooo, I think you're maybe quite good. I'm not sure, possibly you could appeal to a wider audience" won't pull in the viewers but dogmatic unequivocal "you've got it" or " you're crumby" messages kind of assuage people's uneasy uncertainty in this age of too much choice.