Well put! The answer to your final question is probably to cultivate good taste. Even in the realm of pop culture there is good and there is bad—just like in the realm of high culture. And good taste can certainly be helped along by our becoming familiar with how pop culture gets its messages across; therefore, studying the forms, styles, and structures of pop culture is as rewarding and valuable a study as the study of fine art or literature. I don't mean this in the postmodern sense of "everything is equally valid and there are no absolutes"; I mean that the arena for finding value is a lot broader than the guardians of high culture would have us believe.
Well put! The answer to your final question is probably to cultivate good taste. Even in the realm of pop culture there is good and there is bad—just like in the realm of high culture. And good taste can certainly be helped along by our becoming familiar with how pop culture gets its messages across; therefore, studying the forms, styles, and structures of pop culture is as rewarding and valuable a study as the study of fine art or literature. I don't mean this in the postmodern sense of "everything is equally valid and there are no absolutes"; I mean that the arena for finding value is a lot broader than the guardians of high culture would have us believe.