Celebrity removal is a constant in pop culture, only its mechanism changed.

Evidence

At its core, the debate questioned whether left-wing activists had the moral right to disrupt the careers of public figures as a form of punishment. In a poptimist culture, where revenue streams are paramount, being removed from public life was tantamount to death. Yet few remembered that pop culture had long required the removal of once-popular celebrities. The mechanism had simply been different—cancellation by taste. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 472

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces ‘cancellation by taste’ as the pre-woke alternative to moral cancellation — a useful conceptual frame for the era’s transition.