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There's a lot of interesting stuff in Pop Art: A Critical History, edited by Steven Henry Madoff. It collects a lot of varied writings starting in the 1950s (when the original British edition of Pop started) and continuing through retrospective analyses in the 1990s. 

What really stands out is how quick and vast a change in the public perception of art and artists happened in a very short amount of time.

Abstract Expressionism was the dominant style for about the first fifteen years after World War II ended. Painting had, for decades, been moving away from objective representation of the real world. Abstract Expressionism brought the trend to its logical conclusion. Paintings became pure expressions of form, color, pattern. It was now considered gauche to ask "What's it supposed to be?" The layman's criticism of "My kid could paint that"  really took off here, but among the initiated, this was what art should be. 

Pop Art, especially in its American phase, changed all this overnight. Now you could very much tell what you were looking at. It tended to be very familiar things: comic strips, movie stars, advertising montages, products you trust. All delivered with the precision of a Madison Avenue print ad campaign. If you looked closely enough and asked the right questions you might see some continuity with the previous regime. But again, as far as public perception went, this was the biggest change since Impressionism had hit in the latter 19th century.

One good bit is a public symposium with Claes Oldenburg, Roy Lichtenstein, and Andy Warhol. The moderator asks each of them when and why they started doing what they do. When he gets to Warhol, Andy says, "I'm too high right now. Ask somebody else something else." Probably got a laugh in the hall, but it's obvious that the real issue is that Warhol doesn't like being put on the spot. He's ready to join in the conversation when it's a conversation. I found this quite relatable.