I see this topic has taken a turn for the Lounge...
On Topic: If I were to theorise regarding the general attitude of users here towards "mainstream" music, it probably has a lot to do with jaded-ness. I know with me, if I'm in a night-club (very rarely, I much prefer being able to talk to people I'm with), I don't necessarily think that the music that's on is bad, it's just that because of my exposure to music, I can think of 10, 20 artists of the same essential genre that are far, far superior in sound. When you expose yourself to massive amounts of music, it just amplifies how incredibly narrow and unoriginal mainstream music is, which leads to a certain amount of derision for it in general. There's only so long you can put up with the constant stream of the same thing over and over again before you lose the will to put the effort into listening to it all. Eventually, it's easier to just assume nothing good will come of it. Yes, it's wrong to disregard it, but we're only human!
I think if you were to ask almost all the people who display this derision of the mainstream, you would find out that they have at least a few mainstream artists who they think are at the very least solid. It's only a few people who will adamantly maintain that if it's popular, it's not worth listening to, and I would imagine that most people agree that they're just a bunch of posers
