Complex about being surrounded by popular and banal (9)
I believe the answer is:
intricate
'complex' is the definition.
('intricate' can be similar in meaning to 'complex')
'about being surrounded by popular and banal' is the wordplay.
'about' becomes 'ca' (abbreviation for 'circa'**).
'being surrounded by' indicates putting letters inside.
'popular' becomes 'in'.
'and' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'banal' becomes 'trite' (I've seen this before).
'in'+'trite'='intrite'
'ca' going into 'intrite' is 'INTRICATE'.
(Other definitions for intricate that I've seen before include "Complex, labyrinthine" , "Entangled" , "puzzling" , "Complicated, detailed" , "Very complicated and involved" .)