An avant-garde coinage diffused into mainstream pop culture within four years

Evidence

The word “happening” had conquered the world. “What’s happening?” was the question of the age. The year 1965 also brought the TV special What’s Happening, Baby, co-produced by the US Office of Economic Opportunity and hosted by radio disc jockey Murray the K. Two years later, the Supremes had a number one song titled “The Happening.” — J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now, 1862

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s core test case: the speed at which an avant-garde term was absorbed by mass media (OEO, Supremes) speaks directly to how scenes become markets, and to shelf claims about co-optation.
• SEED: Angle: the lifecycle of an avant-garde keyword — from the underground (Hansen, Kirby) to a government TV special to a Supremes #1 — as a measurable map of cultural absorption speed.