"David Gerard" wrote
(And in my experience as what sociologists use as a
primary source
[music journalism], peer-reviewed academia on pop music is an
incredibly low-quality source of information or indeed clue.)
That rings true. I don't particularly want to wade through yards of
well-footnoted stuff on Jimi Hendrix or Captain Beefheart, which is all
drivel and wrong and written by someone who couldn't hum a twelve-bar to
save their life.
You could look at it this way, though. If WP manages to evolve a credible,
principles model of how to document and categorise and calibrate popular
culture, and exhibitis it in action on its (certainly wide) range of
included topics, then that could be a huge achievement in itself. One does
have to bear in mind the basic principles: Sturgeon's Law on 90% of
everything; Simon Frith on popular culture being defined by anyone being
allowed their taste in the matter; objections to canon-formation; original
research being the inevitable condition of the author; ephemerality of much
of the interest.
Charles