Highbrow subcultural aesthetics were co-opted just as mass taste rejected them

Evidence

The spirit of downtown New York, however, continue to supply high-end consumer brands with their edgy aesthetics; Belvedere vodka famously hired Terry Richardson for its “Luxury Reborn” ads. But by the Obama years, New York snobbery had little to offer a poptimist age dominated by mass-market tastes. The spiritual gap between the Jersey Shore and Williamsburg, Brooklyn, was far larger than the geographical distance. Top 40 radio largely bypassed the early 2000s rock revival, while reality TV stars like Kim Kardashian embodied a total rejection of urbane sophistication. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 244

Categorization

• XREF: The co-optation of downtown edginess for vodka ads while actual downtown starved — the mechanism by which subcultural difference is absorbed and neutralized, central to the omnivore monoculture.