The question I usually get after I criticize a band or a record: "Who gives a rat's cadaver what you think?"
I can't answer that one, but I can define a few guidelines that go into my commentaries, which ought to put my opinions into context:
* "Pop" music is by definition -- "popular" -- created for a large audience. It's not a legitimate "fine art," like lots of literature, dance, films, visual art or real jazz, which seem to cater to elitists, academics and people with refined tastes. After one semester in music theory and a year of guitar lessons, I discovered how rudimentary most popular music is. And therein lies its intrinsic charm: It's built for a mass audience.
* You may insist appropriately that some popular music is superior to another (say, the Beatles vs. matchbox twenty), but it's pompous to assert that what you extract from your favorite music (Metallica) is superior to what someone else extracts from theirs (Britney Spears).
* Music is like religion or spirituality: It doesn't matter what you tap into as long as you find something that transports you (physically or emotionally) to another place, makes you confront something revelatory or just compels you to dance like a fool.
* A lot of my favorite records are mediocre. (A lot of yours are, too.)