Does the popularity of a band affect the way people appreciate it ?
Probably something very few will admit to - but our culture works on the idea that the majority knows best, and pop music is tied inextricably to trends, group identities and fashion in which what everyone else is doing and buying is highly important.
Popularity within “taste-making” in-groups, perhaps, but general chart success is probably as often used as an indication of the inferiority of a product. You know, like the whole meme that hipsters abandon a favorite act as soon as they become popular (a meme that I don’t exactly agree with, but has some limited basis in fact.) A lot of bands that are acknowledged as “great” never had any or had very limited chart success. And plenty (I’d argue most) Top 40 get sdismissed as “pop crap,” (I’d argue quite often unfairly.)
I don’t agree with “the majority knows best” when it comes to aesthetic works. Certainly I don’t equate quality with popularity. I love some bands that have been very popular, such as REM or Radiohead, but a great many bands I listen to and books I enjoy get no where close to having mainstream popularity. That doesn’t make my taste cooler, it simply means that it was important enough to me to look for this stuff. There is like to be some sort of cultural identity inculcated in what you choose to like, but it’s not at all necessarily based on widespread acceptance.
The majority do know best, if that’s how you define best. If there was an objective standard of quality I think many popular bands, and other popular things, would fall short.