People who talk seriously about "cultural gate-keepers" usually have read too much Kafka. Or not enough.

Yes,"gate-keepers" exist in the entertainment industry: they decide who gets a contract and who doesn't. In the necessary quest for profit, their choices also make them "taste-makers." (You can't like what you've never met, and you're most likely to like what everybody else does.)

But when "cultural products" circulate freely, like music in the air, there are no "gate-keepers," particularly when it comes to matters of taste.