Herbert J. Gans

“The same process occurs, however, when people who prefer popular culture come into contact with high culture; they are frequently shocked by its espousal of “deviant” behavior, especially on the part of the artist, and they condemn it in terms similar to those in the mass culture critique. For example, during the 1960s, cultural and political satire was often called “sick comedy,” and Lenny Bruce was hounded off the stage and into suicide by the police and the courts. The defenders of high and popular culture attack each other in many ways. High culture condemns popular culture as vulgar and pathological, while popular culture attacks high culture for being overly intellectual, snobbish, and effeminate, inventing pejorative terms like “highbrow” and “egghead” for this purpose.”
― Herbert J. Gans, Popular Culture and High Culture: An Analysis and Evaluation Of Taste

“at least one conclusion about their effects can be suggested: that a sizeable difference exists between the media effects postulated by the critics of mass culture and those discovered by empirical research. As a result, it would appear that the critics are making unwarranted inferences about the extent, intensity, and harmfulness of media effects; because they dislike media content and popular culture generally, they come to it with the aesthetic standards of high culture”
― Herbert J. Gans, Popular Culture and High Culture: An Analysis and Evaluation Of Taste