"Mainstream Culture"

When I look at a bestseller list showing that week's most popular books or albums, or when I look at the list of the most watched films or television programs, typically I can expect to see just a few items that I personally am into. In other words, these lists of what is popular do not represent my own interests very well. Thus, I seem to be a bit out of step with what we might call "mainstream culture." But my own tastes aren't necessarily odd; I probably fit nicely into a fairly well-known demographic so that what I like in books and movies and so on can be fairly predicted as mainstream within that demographic.

In fact, I wonder if anyone looks at bestseller lists and sees their own tastes reflected in a majority of the items there. I don't know the answer to this. These bestseller lists could just be aggregates of the tastes of a number of well-known demographics, and if there is not a majority of people who find that their tastes are represented by a majority of the items on the bestseller lists, then those people who do find that they are into a majority of the things on the bestseller lists could in fact be a minority. This would mean that the people most into "mainstream culture" are not themselves mainstream, exactly.