Mainstream saturation can render the very category of ‘uncool’ meaningless

Evidence

At least Charli’s rise suggested a simmering backlash against market-tested, edge-free pop hegemony. Describing Brat to her label, she said, “I’m going to make a record that you guys think has no commercial hits on it. Or big songs. Or radio songs. Or streaming songs or whatever.” This contrasted with Swift, who was less person than product. As critic B. D. McClay observed, “Like Coca-Cola or a hamburger or blue jeans or white wine, Taylor Swift just is. Not cool. Not uncool. Her cultural saturation makes ‘uncool’ a meaningless label.” — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 680

Categorization

• DEFINE: Gives a precise operational definition of omnivore monoculture: a star so saturated that cool/uncool no longer discriminates any signal.
• XREF: Perfect instance of the reader’s ‘death of the sellout’ mechanism — when saturation reaches totality, the sellout category itself collapses.