I think that an educated and well-informed critic can open the channels for appreciation of musicians and singers that might be overlooked by the trends in the music business.

They can also do damage by squelching in print some notable talents. There is a history of this. Nicholas Slonimsky wrote a book about how critics turned up their noses at some of the leading classical composers of our day. Slonimsky's "Lexicon of Musical Invective".