There's a terminological difficulty in this question: for most historians of culture and media, popular culture really only begins in the 19th century (which is when the term itself began to be used). Before this period "non-official" or "low" culture is usually encompassed by folk culture. The emergence of the term "popular culture" corresponds to an evolution in print media--the rise of lithography and colour lithography (hence posters), penny dreadfuls, mass market magazines etc--dramatically expanding the popular audience. So the question really only addresses the period from the early 19th century.

Before the 19th century there were popular entertainments whose appeal cut across class lines--for example the commedia dell'arte and the theatre of the fairs in early modern Europe. Festivals occasioned the sort of 'world upside down' phenomena reversing official and 'low' culture that Bakhtin discusses. In the 18th century there was a fascination for the language of the markets, the 'fishwife' dialect, which was taken up by elite writers--so you have phenomena of 'slumming' as one form of elite engagement with 'low' culture.

Most scholars define popular culture in terms of mass media, entertainment, and consumerism, usually with post WWII America as the chief point of reference. Electronic mass media encourage the kind of referentiality you mention. The farther you move from this time and place the more awkward the definitions of popular culture become.

Betz, Bly, A History of Popular Culture Ashby, With Amusement for All: A History of American Popular Culture since 1830 Griffin, Emma. "Popular Culture in Industrializing England," Historical Journal, Sept 2002, Vol. 45 Issue 3, pp 619–35.