Why is Pop Music Cool?

Pop Music is Cool cuz once upon a time pop music didn't mean hopeless, helpless drivel doled out by denuded swedish numbskulls (I LOVE Katie Perry's video for Friday Night, but the song is a contrived piece of cotton candy, a depressed and regretful Max Martin - the producer and writer - said as much.)

Once upon a time Pop Music meant Louis Armstrong (What a Wonderful World was pop music in its day), and Jimi Hendrix (Purple Haze was a pop song Jimi Hendrix played when he opened for the Monkees)

Pop Music is supposed to mean Popular Music, the music that us - you know, the 99% like -

The corporations that have wrested music from the people have brainwashed them (you?) to identify with corporate brands: pop, rock, alternative, bass and drums, electro hop, synthcore, country, whatever...

Does it bother you as much as it does me that it is supposed to be "cool" - like, successful - for a musical artist to be "signed" to a large, international conglomerate, like Sony? Even in the days of The Beatles, record companies made music, not washing machines, hair dryers, toaster ovens, and music...