No one, so far as I know, has ever done an extensive study of this tradition, but my rough guess is it has its beginnings in the late 17th-c "1700: Scenes from London Life A new term had been coined to describe them -- the mob, from mobile vulgaris -- used for the first time in the 1690s….
It's essence is that one shows superiority to the vulgar mob by what one can superciliously sneer at rather than by what one finds admirable. The prbolem with the latter is aby approving of any new poem, building, or musical composition one becomes vulnerable to the sneers of others with even higher standards. It is sort of a race to find more things to sneer at than your slightly less agile neighbor.
Carrol