An individual tastemaker can infiltrate and collapse remaining status boundaries from within

Evidence

With such high barriers, Kanye assumed the role of Trojan horse. His insatiable quest for sophistication became a campaign to win over the cognoscenti. This accelerated after his mother’s tragic death in 2007. Channeling his grief, he recorded 808s & Heartbreak, a minimalist electronic pop album drenched in auto-tuned despair. The album redefined hip-hop as emo, paving the way for a new generation of introspective, singsong rappers like Drake. Kanye’s visual transformation accompanied the sonic shift: The jacket photo featured him in a sharp, light gray glen-check suit and crisp white shirt, having shed his signature hoodies and jeans. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 360

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: The ‘Trojan horse’ mechanism of taste infiltration parallels the status-dynamics mechanisms central to the Sacrifice essay’s treatment of how dominant classes eventually concede.
• QUESTION: Is 808s & Heartbreak genuinely the pivot that made introspective emo-rap mainstream, and what’s the counter-evidence?
• XREF: connects to: Taste manifests only through social activity filtered by status value — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 245; Institutional prestige can eventually embrace once-reviled bad taste — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 240; Only those already privileged can safely deviate from taste norms — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 257 (+1 more)