πρόκειται για την πλουραλιστική θεωρία του Γκανς, και τον όρο που εισήγαγε "δημοφιλής κουλτούρα". υπάρχουν πέντε επίπεδα κουλτούρας, "κουλτούρες γούστου": υψηλή, υψηλή μεσαία, χαμηλή μεσαία, χαμηλή και δημώδης χαμηλή. οι 4 τελευταίες αποτελούν τη δημοφιλή κουλτούρα.

Taste cultures correspond to a diversity of taste publics, defined as unorganized aggregates of people sharing similar aesthetic standards.

Gans (1999) suggested that contemporary American society could be stratified into echelons of taste, called "taste publics," but that each echelon is defined by cultural and aesthetic commonality rather than by shared economics. Gans proposed five taste publics: high culture, upper-middle culture, lower-middle culture, low culture, and quasi-folk culture. This organization can be contrasted with the socioeconomic divisions that Bourdieu worked with: bourgeoisie, petite bourgeoisie, and proletariat. Each taste public shares values and common ways of wielding cultural resources, rather than economics or education.
http://www.paremvaseis.org/yliko4noe2006.htm
http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/liu.html