Gaga’s inclusivity replaced the subcultural exclusivity that once anchored identity

Evidence

Gaga did offer a crucial departure from downtown New York: Where the New York scene relied on age-old notions of snobbish exclusivity, she built her persona around radical inclusivity. She told fans they, too, could free themselves by donning edgy looks and inhabiting ever-shifting avatars of selfhood. Critic Liz Jones dismissed Gaga as “not remotely new or innovative,” calling her success a triumph of self-promotion. But this relatability was precisely the point. For a generation searching for identity, Gaga’s “chimerical sprite” persona, as Rachel Syme put it, offered permission to redefine oneself endlessly. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 251

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the omnivore monoculture thesis: radical inclusivity is the mass-culture counterpart to everyone-consuming-everything in taste.