here's what I'll say.
Say what you want about the year I was born in, but it was a great time to grow up experiencing pop punk. That's something I was there first hand for that people older than me and people younger than me just don't get.
Did it tend towards being soulless and commercial and exploitative? Of course it did. It's the music industry.
But I was there.
I was there for sum 41, blink 182, fall out boy, green day, paramore, panic! at the disco, my chemical romance.
Did they stand for anything? No not really. Just some lowest common denominator angst and romance and government approved rebellious nature.
If the main form of participating in society is tasteful and conscious consumption, if your record of existence is judged by the media you consume and assimilate into your being--then that's a bad setup. You can't be doing that. You have to unironically have bad taste to show that you are self that exists independent of what you consume
No but what I actually think is good art grows like a mushroom.