What is soooo 2020?

I recently read W. David Marx's Blank Space, a cultural history spanning the '90's to the present. Is it an extended Gen Xer old-man cloud screed? Against the ruin caused by reality TV? Social media contempt? The aesthetics of sleaze? Yes.

But it also got me thinking.

In the book, Marx argues that there's nothing iconic anymore because our media landscape has become fractured to the point where we're all living in our own individual micro-bubbles. No more shared experience means no more icons. Amid thousands of micro fandoms all speaking a Babel of different languages, the only thing artists can do to reach wide audiences is remix stuff from the past, because the past is the only place where recognizable iconography remains.

For example: my daughter (13) loves stuff from the '80's, '90's, and Y2K more than stuff from today (or at least stuff that is steeped in said retro aesthetics). To her, Stranger Things is soooo '80s. Nirvana is soooo '90's. Scream is soooo Y2K. So is Phineas & Ferb. (What's up with Phineas & Ferb?)

After reading Blank Space, I asked her: twenty years from now, what will be soooo 2020? AI slop? Crypto bro art? Stussy? (What's up with Stussy?)

Interestingly, she said probably nothing. Instead, the fractured media landscape itself will be the iconic thing. The fact that you can be into BBN$ and Bach at the same time. So less a thing and more a mindset.

Made me go "huh."

What do you think? I'll be holding office hours on Reddit as usual.

P.S. This song made me tear up a little this morning. For obvious reasons. Stay sane out there.