I feel like there's a bit of a backlash that the post-major-label world never materialized the way it seemed it might a decade ago. There was a lot of looking at the new technologies and theorizing about how it was going to decentralize the whole industry, but really things are more or less the same as they were a decade ago or twenty years ago in that regard. So there's a realization that the reason that pop music was popular wasn't because it was being foisted on us by the industry, but because it actually resonates with people.
But really, the reason we fight about music in a way that we don't fight about any other artistic medium is that it's ingrained in our lives in a very different way than any other medium. We listen to music so much that it feels much more a part of who we are, and so when someone disses our favorite musician, it's a much deeper attack than dissing our favorite filmmaker or author.
Me, I like my singer-songwriter stuff and have become increasingly curmudgeonly about pop music. I'm also totally out of touch, partly by choice. I'm aware that Miley Cyrus is a big deal, that she spawned countless pop-culture references about twerking, and that she's got some song about a wrecking ball, but I don't think I'd recognize any song by her if I heard it. Is that a point of pride for me? Maybe a little. But I'm also conscious of how strong music resonates with people; there's just no real value in deriding popular music (or even unpopular music) because such criticisms often end up seeming being received as personal attacks.
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