The Great American Cool

K-HOLE and Box1824 captured the new landscape in their breakthrough 2014 report “Youth Mode.” They described an era of “mass indie” where the search for meaning is premised on differentiation and uniqueness, and proposed a solution in “Normcore.” Humorously, nearly everyone mistook Normcore for being about bland fashion choices rather than the grea... See more

1.4. The largest cultural segment in any society is the “mainstream,” although it may represent a plurality rather than a majority.

1.4.1 The “average” person in any society belongs to this taste world as it requires no specialized knowledge, nor has very high barriers to participation. Tastes can be acquired through ambient absorption — e.g. heari... See more

This algorithmic repetition isn’t just a fashion trend; it’s the prevailing spirit across multiple cultural domains. What Mull observes about clothes, the critic Ted Gioia has been analyzing in music, where the Spotify era delivers what’s already tested and popular while the opportunities for new artists diminish. Instead of entering a process of d... See more