Wallace,

That’s a pretty diverse lot. What would Beethoven have been composing, if the high culture of the day wasn’t funding symphonies? Jesus wasn’t exactly popular with the powers that be, until they figured out how to co-opt him.

As for the popular culture of today, how much of yesterday’s entertainment has served its passing function and faded? Some things stand the test of time and much doesn’t.

As it is, I suspect much of today’s culture is like scrap metal in a smelting pot, slowly losing form and consistency. Who knows what will be cast from the base metal? That’s why it’s more effective to understand the processes at work, than trying to make sense of all the details.

The energy goes to the future. The events fade into the past.