Juvenile absurdism, not radical aesthetics, defined Gen Z’s cultural walls

Evidence

Sophistication took a back seat to the raw and random. TikTok’s top content was absurd, amateur, unfiltered, often embracing the strange and surreal: obsessive fandom over a Chinese glycine factory, spinning dances set to Pavement’s obscure B-side “Harness Your Hopes,” and the enigmatic chaos of #corecore, described as a “mishmash of stimuli” with no clear purpose. Rather than radical aesthetics, extremely juvenile taste served as a moat. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 661

Categorization

• XREF: The idea that juvenile taste serves as a moat connects to earlier chapters on subcultural boundary-marking, and to Bourdieu-style distinction theory the book draws on.