Streaming’s dematerialization of culture pushed identity-signaling into clothing

Evidence

This shift came after the collapse of spending on physical media. In the nineties, men often built their identities around collections of albums, CDs, DVDs, and film or TV preferences, with logo T-shirts serving as shorthand for cultural affiliations. But as streaming rendered those markers invisible, fashion filled the void, as you can’t download a blazer. In a digital era, tangible goods like clothing became even more valuable, crossing gender lines to occupy a bigger role in the zeitgeist. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 399

Categorization

• XREF: Directly relevant to the reader’s core thesis about mechanisms — the shift of identity-signaling from one channel to another when digital consumption became invisible. Connects to omnivore monoculture arguments about what happens when consumption vectorizes.
• SHARE: The line ‘you can’t download a blazer’ is a sharp nerd-tidbit for anyone into fashion theory or digital culture — the materiality argument in one punchy phrase.