I think a lot of this is just the well-known "mere-exposure effect". The more you are exposed to something the more likely you are to like it and think it's goo

I think a lot of this is just the well-known "mere-exposure effect". The more you are exposed to something the more likely you are to like it and think it's good. A critic listening to a Beatles album for the first time has never been exposed before and it's inherently unlikely to sound great unless it's already similar to other music they are used to. But over the years since they were so popular later critics were used to them (especially since many other musical acts were influenced by the Beatles) and so it became more typical to consider it great. The same effect applies to the other examples in the article. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mere-exposure_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mere-exposure_effect