Most people prefer shared mass culture over individual niche preferences.

Evidence

The long-tail theory posits that we all want to sing our own individual songs, when there remains an obvious allure to singing “99 Luftballons” in unison at Oktoberfest. The long tail is a dream come true for a minority of ever curious oddballs, but most people seek conventions with broad common knowledge. Listening to Sudanese cassettes is isolating; listening to Cardi B’s “WAP feat. Megan Thee Stallion” is taking part in a national conversation. — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 711

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Could pair with the trees-as-infrastructure essay? No — but the claim that most people don’t want extreme uniqueness extends the earlier chapters’ argument about arbitrary conventions and conformity.
• XREF: connects to: Low-status group members exit when subcultures offer a destination — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 400; People’s desire for generic homogeneity is a communist longing, not consumer conformity. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 2201