It has much in common with other genres in that the worst of it is really unbearable but the best of it is truly exciting

Too subjective. What we need here is a broader objective appreciation of what is, after all, integral to our humanity. Popular Music is symbiotic with other feral aspects of popular culture such as technology, media and business. It is defined by and, to a significant extent, definitive of each epoch, and each epoch informs subsequent ones in all sorts of wonderful, exceptional and ingenious ways as each successive generation sees, hears and does it differently, and brilliantly, regardless of whether you like it or not.