Streaming’s growth demands forced it to cater to unsophisticated tastes

Evidence

The pandemic gave everyone more time to explore the seemingly infinite options of available online entertainment, but much of it felt distinctly underwhelming—a sense captured by the new slang mid. The streaming services lured in their first customers among educated sophisticates in pursuit of prestige television. But the need for constant growth meant catering to subscribers in less refined taste worlds. Thus began a glut of mediocre TV: a reality show about TikTokers called Hype House and the vacuous Emily in Paris. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 647

The pandemic gave everyone more time to explore the seemingly infinite options of available online entertainment, but much of it felt distinctly underwhelming—a sense captured by the new slang mid. … The streaming services lured in their first customers among educated sophisticates in pursuit of prestige television. But the need for constant growth meant catering to subscribers in less refined taste worlds. Thus began a glut of mediocre TV: a reality show about TikTokers called Hype House and the vacuous Emily in Paris. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 647

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘slang mid’ as a cultural barometer connects to the omnivore monoculture thesis from the book’s opening: nothing signals distinctively, everything is flattened to average. — connects to: Massive commercial success amid modest innovation reveals audiences’ diminished desire — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1086
• QUESTION: This is a strong candidate for the mechanism Marx claims collapsed subcultural difference. Worth testing against his full argument.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — W. David Marx, Blank Space: A Cultural History of the…, 647