[xgk]

I don't see pop-music as vile. For me it's a social tool. It gets me & friends into a certain shared mood: relax, unwind, get drunk, etc etc. But it's not artistic: pop-music is surprise-free, it's conventional, it doesn't make me think "wow, I've never though of this". Au contraire. And that's why it works for setting shared social moods. It could not serve its social function if it was too original, too intellectually demanding.

If it's Saturday night 2am "in the club" everybody's intoxicated the music needs to 'hit' everybody straightaway. Everybody needs to know when to raise their hands ... and that means it must be extremely predicable.