This essay investigates a way to integrate aesthetical, socio-political, and ethical critique of popular art. An integral critique scrutinizes the vision of life and world which popular art projects. Therefore, it aims to consider popular art in a comprehensive manner. Such a critique requires a perspective that views art as the foundational reality. It is not possible to take this perspective on the basis of materialism and structuralism, which presently dominate “cultural studies”. Neither aesthetical moralism can do such a comprehensive critique. An excellent example of such an integral approach to art criticism can be drawn from Hans-Georg Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics and its derivative aesthetics.