If you are defining unplugged as music being played purely acousticly, then i don't think popular music can ever really be unplugged. Popular music relies purely on technology to be enhanced,polished, and most importantly recorded. Not only would no use of technology affect the sound, it would also affect the distribution of the music. Having no recording equipment would prohibit the music from being pre-recorded, and would have to always be played live. The problem with playing music live and acousticly, is the fact that the sound wouldn't be very audible, and without speakers and amps would prohibit live concerts with large audiences like we have in this day and age from ever happening, as only the people in the front row would hear it! Popular music is 'popular' purely because it is easily accesible and we hear it on the radio, on TV and can find out about new artists and songs/albums through marketing and technology. Although there are some artists who have recorded acousticly, the fact that it is recorded just proves everything needs to be plugged!
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This is a pretty good post, although I would say that the existence of ancient amphitheatres designed along acoustic principles would rather give the lie to the idea that without amplification only the front row would hear the sound.
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