It was spontaneous expression of people, shared by themselves to suit their own needs.
Mass culture is imposed from above.
The quote you have read from Paul Johnson sums up the view of the New Right . This view has dominated most thought about it. Writers include Nietzsche , and T. S Eliot . Folk cultures served an important function integrating communities. Now both the Enlightenment of the higher classes, and the folk culture of lower classes was in danger of being washed away by the spread of cheap commercialised or mass culture.