Whenever someone implies that something being made for the masses reduces its value, I remember that Roman-made satires made for the least common denominator in the Roman Empire went on to inspire Shakespeare's work.
@Ulfra_Wolfe Shakespeare himself also writing for the least common denominator, thus all the crass jokes now lost in translation
Kabuki was a populist art too
Also, Norman Rockwell covers were only separated from High Art by being for mass consumption
@ryusei @Ulfra_Wolfe thankfully, many crass Shakespeare jokes are still funny today! But it's not really obvious if you're just reading the text
@Ulfra_Wolfe (And shakespeare's work was totally popular entertainment at the time, wasn't it? I was under the impression that he packed out his theaters.)
...Meanwhile Aristophanes' The Clouds was a hit piece on Socrates that didn't make sense if you weren't a Greek at the time and people tried to convict Socrates based on the play.