“Critics write about pop music because many of them actually love it, and even when they don’t, they want to figure out why they don’t. It’s like that woman’s ‘My Husband’s Stupid Record Collection’ blog, except instead of Albert Ayler LPs, it’s Katy Perry videos, and instead of a smug veneer of ‘this is elitist and bad,’ they’re genuinely curious about the hows and whys and greater mysteries contained within. If you take the context away, it still qualifies as ‘real’ music, and much of the time it’s good music, but pop abhors a vacuum — that narrative is everything.”
– Jody Beth Rosen, “About Pop“