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This Friday, July 15, marks the release of Sony Picture’s long-teased Ghostbusters reboot. Anyone who has spent any amount of time online since the film was first announced no doubt knows this to be true, as the promotion behind the film has been on overdrive throughout 2016. It seems every day there are new images, trailers, teaser, character featurettes, and related materials being made public, and I have no doubt those of you reading this now have looked through some, if not all of it. In the event that is not true, allow me to catch you up to speed:

Looks pretty decent, right? Maybe it’s not going to be the best movie of all-time, but it absolutely appears to be watchable.

If you live online however, and I assume many of you do, then you have no doubt heard about the outcry from many self-proclaimed “diehard Ghostbusters” fans about how this new film will suck. Whether these people are upset because the film now stars four women instead of the four men who lead the original film or because the initial trailers/footage did not live up to their expectations, many people have turned to social media and sites like Reddit to express outrage over the fact this movie has been made. Yes, in a world as crazy and messed up as the one we live in today there are people who make panning a movie they have never actually seen before it is even released in hopes they will somehow stop others from seeing it.

The crazy thing is, you don’t have to be a fan or frequent participator of film conversation to know this has been happening for months. Publications big and small have ran articles about the outcry from so-called fans about a film they have not yet seen. Even my parents, who are now in their 50s and could care less about the court of public opinion as it relates to pop culture, know that there are concerns from people that this movie might be a mistake. This tells me that even pop culture outliers are aware of the controversy, even if they don’t care about the film itself.

The question here is why? Why has a movie about fictional people doing fictional things spawned so much anger sight unseen? Why do anonymous commenters online, who mostly make themselves out to be men, feel personally attacked by seeing the male leads of the original films replaced by women? Why does the news of those original leads appearing in the new film not offset that rage?

The answer I believe, at least for some of this rage, is fear. These haters see their beloved film franchise undergoing an evolution and as a result they are forced to come to terms with the endless momentum of time. They connect a part of their own youthfulness to the franchise, and knowing it will no longer be what it once was forces them to recognize that they too are getting older. Just as the original Ghostbusters have been replaced they too will be replaced in time. That in no way means the new version is going to be bad, but it does mean it won’t necessarily be made for them. It will be made for the new them, and by that I mean the teens and young adults of today, and their inability to process the inevitability of aging expresses itself through outrage. It’s not about the movie, or at least not entirely. It’s about realizing they are getting older and understand the world continues to spin as it always has despite that fact.

This week, the first reviews of the new Ghostbusters have begun to emerge online, and – shocking as it may be – the overall response appears to be fairly positive. At the time of this posting the film has a 77% approval on Rotten Tomatoes based on 78 reviews, and many of those critiques come from major publications (Chicago Sun-Times, Us Weekly, AV Club, etc).

A logical person may think the positive reviews for the film would suppress the anger many have felt, perhaps they would even give them reason to look forward to the film’s release, but there is no logic when discussing why people express rage towards creativity online. In fact, many of those who have spent months being dead set on getting people to not see the new Ghostbusters are actively trying to hide the fact many are enjoying the film. As an example, here is a real screenshot from the official Ghostbusters subreddit captured earlier this week:

If you cannot make out the small print, it reads:

“We were doing a pretty good job of filtering out positive reviews of /r/movies (another, much larger subreddit), but they consolidated them into a mega thread and now people are starting to say maybe we were wrong. Is there any way to easily get the world out on social media that the positive reviews are probably all paid for?”

A few things worth discussing in response to this post:

– As a critic for a decade working in both music and film I can tell you first hand that reviews from major studios are never bought. I have spoken to critics from a variety of established print and digital outlets, including a few with much larger followings than my own, and not one of them has even been approached with such an offer.

– The intent of this post is not to reveal the truth, but rather to hide it. The people making and supporting posts like this want their narrative, which is the idea the film is so bad it shouldn’t be seen, to be the narrative people follow.

– The person making this post has presumably not seen the film. They are defending a stance they have no reason to take outside of assumptions they have formed based on promotional materials.

The crazy thing is, a post like the one above is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the lengths some will go to in order to try and shame the film. Here is another Reddit post from the same group:

This one is a bit longer, but just in case you cannot see the words in the image I have included the text below:

“For example a wife and a husband have an argument about the new ghostbusters movie. his wife wants to see it, but he does not, so he leaves upset, steps into his car, goes to the liquor store. Bus alcohol. While driving drinks it and thinks why on this planet did I marry such a stupid woman! Then an accident occur(s) and he injured 4 people.

Now 99% of the people will be angry at the husband for injuring 4 people. However the root of the problem was his wife + sony!

If Sony created the ghostbuster movie the fans + masses wanted, husband and wife would have happily gone to the new ghostbuster movie. Nobody would have been hurt.”

Again, this post is nonsense. The scary thing about it is that it may represent how some people actually feel toward the film, or at least why the feel the way they do. There is this assumption that Sony made the film for reasons other than pandering to the core fanbase, but there is no evidence of this fact outside the four women cast in the lead roles. One could easily infer the original commenter is trying to say the wife wants to see the film because of the women leading the picture, which speaks more to commenter’s opinion of women in positions of power than it does to the film itself.

We’re still several days away from the release of Ghostbusters, and I have no doubt those hoping to see it fail will continue to make posts like the ones above until long after the film has begun playing in markets around the globe. Whether or not their voice has been loud enough to impact the box office bottom lie remains to be seen, but in a perfect world they wouldn’t change things one bit because in all reality their frustrations are born from internal struggles with gender roles and the passing of time. They may keep some away due to the sheer volume of publications covering their hate, but strong word of mouth from those who actually see the film will likely outweigh their unfounded opinions in time.

To bring this back to music, I ask that you think about the way you and others discuss new albums before they have actually been released. We live in a time where people will take one song, or even a snippet of one song, and use it as reasoning for why a certain project or artist is not worthy of people’s money when the truth of the matter is that they know as little about the final product as anyone else. Even professionals critics, and by that I mean those with a legitimate following who are paid to share their opinions, know nothing about how a project sounds or works as a complete idea until they have heard the album in full.

The point of all this is to urge you to form your own opinions. Criticism in the modern age should be viewed as a starting point for conversation rather than an endpoint. Just because a bunch of people online have strong opinions on something they legitimately know nothing about does not in any way mean they are right. In fact, they are almost always wrong, and this applies to things outside the world of entertainment just as much as it does to new films or albums. If someone hasn’t experienced something for themselves then their opinion is baseless, and as such it should be taken with a grain of sand (at most).

Life is too short to blindly believe the irrational opinions of others. If you want to do or see or hear or experience something you should absolutely make time to do that thing, regardless of what others have said. If it sucks, or if you’re less than satisfied, then at least you can speak from experience and talk to others about what did or did not work. Hating things simply because they do not directly target or entertain you is dumb, and the proliferation of such thinking only makes those promoting it look as empty-minded as the ideas they claim to back. Be your own person. Form your own opinions based on authentic experiences and share them with the world. If you still hate the new Ghostbusters, fine, but at least give it a chance. Give all art a chance.

On the creative side, you cannot let negativity deter you from bringing your unique vision to life. Not everyone is going to love what you create, and some may even claim they hate it, but the beautiful thing about art is that it allows for a wide range of responses. Listen to those with a dissenting opinion who have a reasonable explanation for feeling the way they feel, but don’t let those hating for the sake of hating get you down. If you let someone deter you from chasing your passions because you’re afraid of what they might think you will never become the artist you were meant to be. Chase whatever passion you have until you have exhausted yourself, and when you get a little rest you should continue that pursuit once more. Never give up because one day, whether it’s release day or six years after something has come out, your creation will be seen by someone whose experience with your art will make a positive impact on their life.

James Shotwell is the Digital Marketing Manager for Haulix. He is also a professional entertainment critic, covering both film and music, as well as the co-founder of Antique Records. Feel free to tell him you love or hate the article above by connecting with him on Twitter. Bonus points if you introduce yourself by sharing your favorite Simpsons character.

Hello, everyone! Welcome to the first full week of 2015. We have a lot of great content planned for the days ahead, and we’ve decided to kick things off with a healthy dose of reality. We promise things won’t be this heavy all year long, but sometimes it’s good to be reminded that there is a lot more to music writing than simply having fun.

This site exists to promote the future of the entertainment industry, and to do that we need input from people like you and your entertainment-loving friends. If you have any questions about the content in this article, or if you have an artist you would like to see featured on this blog, please contact james@haulix.com. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.

In the fall of 2000, a film was released into theaters that offered a new vision of life in the music industry that has since inspired hundreds, if not thousands of young people to dream of one day becoming a professional music writer. That film is called Almost Famous, and I’m here to tell you that it’s a complete work of fiction. You should already know that because it’s not the kind of film that opens with the words ‘Based On a True Story,’ but fifteen years after its initial release this movie still makes people believe rock journalism is a wild and crazy place. It is, but not at all in the way depicted in this film.

Let me be as clear as possible: The idea that a fifteen-year-old boy could not only launch a career in writing in the days before the internet based on nothing more than passion, let alone stumble onto a story so big it allows him to embark on a life-changing road trip with his favorite band (all on Rolling Stone magazine’s dime) is total bullshit. There are elements to the story that could be recreated today, but before your young mind goes dreaming of your favorite Hopeless Records artist bringing you on their bus for nothing more than laughs and a solid editorial you need to realize this movie is nothing more than a piece of make believe crafted for the sole purpose of entertainment. Nothing more, nothing less. Also, your favorite band probably doesn’t have the money for a bus, and if they do you can bet having a so-called music writer with next to no experience join them is not high on their band bucket list.

The truth about getting started in music journalism is that, just like in any other career path, all beginners more or less start at the bottom and work their way up. Where that upwards trajectory leads may very greatly from person to person, but most successful writers follow this path on their rise to notoriety. To climb even a single rung on the ladder of success takes long hours, hard work, dedication to your craft, and an unyielding drive to be the best. There are no short cuts, or at least none that provide long term benefits, and there are absolutely are no bands on the verge of super stardom waiting on pins and needles for an unknown teen to show up at their green room door. To be perfectly honest, those artists probably won’t even know your name until your reciting it with your sweaty hand extended for a handshake. Their manager may tell them about you and your publication beforehand, but do they really have a reason to commit that information to memory? After your fifteen minutes are up you will both move on, and more often than not that artist will have another anxious writers waiting to ask them questions that are eerily similar to whatever you just asked.

Almost Famous also makes it seem like one story can change your entire life, and while there may have been a time decades ago when that would be true for young journalists, the age of blogging and social media has made it so one hit wonders are celebrated and forgotten within a week’s time, if not less. Today’s successful writer must be constantly thinking about their next article, and they also need to be consistently sharing new content with whatever readership they can gather. It’s not about writing one great story, but as many as possible, and the trick is finding a way to accomplish that task without sacrificing timeliness or quality. I can’t tell you how to do that, but over time we can provide you with plenty of tips and advice on how you can condition yourself create content in this manner. It’s not easy, and it likely cannot be done while simultaneously riding around the country with a band who more or may not make it, but for those truly driven to work in this field it’s a commitment worth making.

The one redeeming quality of Almost Famous, though it may seem somewhat pessimistic to some, is the advice given by Philip Seymour Hoffman’s character, Lester Bangs. His role in the film is to serve as a mentor for our protagonist, but as time carries on the lead follows his advice less and less, which slowing our young hero into a lot of trouble with his editor. His most infamous bit of advice is this:

“You CANNOT make friends with the rock stars. That’s what’s important. If you’re a rock journalist – first, you will never get paid much. But you will get free records from the record company. And they’ll buy you drinks, you’ll meet girls, they’ll try to fly you places for free, offer you drugs… I know. It sounds great. But they are not your friends. These are people who want you to write sanctimonious stories about the genius of the rock stars, and they will ruin rock and roll and strangle everything we love about it.”

While I do not feel the above paragraph is entirely true, I do believe writers need to keep a certain amount of separation between themselves and the people and things they are attempting to write about. Also, it’s true that no one in this game makes a lot of money, and that it’s incredibly easy to get all the free music you could ever ask for without feeling the need to pirate or otherwise steal a thing. You will meet girls (or guys), you will be offered alcohol, and yes, sometimes drugs come up as well. You’ll be invited on busses, asked to hang out back stage, and may even be invited to cover a video or photo shoot, which almost always ends in an after party. Yes, all of this will one day happen to you…IF you reach a point in your career where people want you present for such things. You must first prove yourself to be more than a fan disguised as a bad writer, which is really what most of us are when we begin pursuing this career. Once you get away from that mindset you can begin to explore the many strange and awesome opportunities writing about music can provide, but if you begin to fall victim to being more of a fan than a critical thinker everything will disappear once more.

The saying people always associate with Spider-Man is “With great power comes great responsibility.” Writing is the similar, but I would change the phrasing to “With great opportunities to do really cool things that others only dream about comes the need to act like a professional and keep your cool.” The original is catchier, but I think mine is more fitting for this particular discussion. Almost Famous showcases a life no amateur writer could ever life, but everything that happens to the main character COULD occur to a season professional who knows how to handle themselves in even the most absurd scenarios.

If you’re young and just starting out in this industry, please do not get dismayed when your life does not reflect your favorite moments from Almost Famous. The wild side of rock and roll is not dead or all that elusive, but it does take time and hard work to reach a point where that side of the business is accessible to you. For now, just keep your head down and write until your fingers bleed. Once the scabs appear, keep writing. Write until you cannot write anymore and then go see a concert. If you’re broke, stream a new album online. Submerge yourself in the music and activities available to you, create the best content you can based on your experiences, and over time you will see new doors open. Continue pushing yourself and more opportunities will present themselves from there. Just keep writing.

OH, and one final piece of advice from our pal Lester:

“Music, you now, true music – not just rock n roll – it chooses you. It live in your car, or alone listening to your headphones, you know, with the cast scenic bridges and angelic choirs in your brain. It’s a place apart from the vast, benign lap of America.”

James Shotwell is the blog editor and social media coordinator for Haulix. He’s also the founder of Under The Gun Review and the host of the Inside Music podcast. His work has appeared on numerous websites and in several major publications, including Alternative Press, AbsolutePunk, and Rolling Stone. He tweets a lot, and would love it if you followed him on Twitter.