The Huffington Post on how Chuck Klosterman’s critique of the Lou Reed and Metallica collaboration album Lulu may have been more influential than the record itself:

Chuck Klosterman’s barbed piece for Grantland crediting Lulu for opening his eyes to the value of pushy record execs, because artistic freedom produces “records like this,” went more viral than Lulu.

From the aforementioned Grantland piece:

As a rule, we’re always supposed to applaud the collapse of the record industry. We are supposed to feel good about the democratization of music and the limitless palette upon which artists can now operate. But that collapse is why Lulu exists. If we still lived in the radio prison of 1992, do you think Metallica would purposefully release an album that no one wants?