Pop Culture is not a meritocracy. And it's not just in music (see previous post) that popular is popular because it's popular. Look also at fashion, movies, TV, Internet.
Why are things popular? It's not because they are "good." I don't think that good or bad really figures in the equation.
Chuck Klosterman once declared that "pop culture is never wrong." And in one way he's absolutely correct - if it's pop, it's pop. But you can swim in all the forms of human degradation, humiliation, silliness, stupidity, when you surf the pop.
What's "good and bad" within that gooey stew is up to the eye and ear of the beholder. Pop will overwhelm you, it will destroy you, and render you a blithering idiot. And then, later when you look back, you will remember fondly how silly you were listening to what you listened to, wearing what you wore, watching what you watched, thinking what you thought... etc.
Popular!