Apologies if you've already seen this, but I know there are very mixed opinions on this forum as to the point or relevance of popular music, so I thought you might find this article by Paul Morley in the Observer a couple of weeks ago as interesting as I did.
Paul Morley has been a pop and rock critic all his life, but now is getting tired of it. He says " For me, pop music is now a form of skilfully engineered product design, the performers little but entertainment goods, and that is how they should be reviewed and categorised. The current pop singers are geniuses of self-promotion, but not, as such, musicians expressing glamorous ideas." He goes on to say that " when it comes to thinking about music as a metaphor for life itself, what tends to be described as classical music seems more relevant to the future."
Here's the full article:
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/sep/21/pop-belongs-last-century-classical-music-relevant-future-paul-morley
Best wishes to all
Morwenna