Downtown New York’s transgressive aesthetic dissolved the stigma of selling out

Evidence

Looking back, downtown New York was a false start for twenty-first-century culture—the last gasp of nineties-style rock and roll and the peak of idolizing white male hedonism. Yet its breakout stars gave the century its first major aesthetic: a mix of decadence, irony, and anti-liberal sentiment. By making transgression compatible with consumerism and right-wing ideology, downtown New York helped erase the stigma of selling out. In this new world, being transgressive wasn’t about radical cultural innovation—you just had to party hard and find the right corporate sponsor. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 80

Categorization

• XREF: The overturning of the sellout taboo is what allows the later omnivore monoculture the whole book tracks; links to the death-of-the-sellout mechanism the reader is charting.