Trend forecasters can deliberately seed aesthetic revivals that retroactively define eras

Evidence

Trend analyst Sean Monahan, who had helped create the normcore concept, speculated in 2021 about an impending “vibe shift,” predicting a revival of “indie sleaze” aesthetics from the early 2000s. This look—“American Apparel, flash photography at parties, and messy hair and messy makeup”—found its muse in Charli XCX’s Brat. The music was supported by the Cobrasnake’s nostalgic photography and collaborators like Dimes Square musician the Dare, whose persona and sound was a post-9/11 downtown NYC throwback. The result was a culture of retromania feeding on retromania. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 679

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s frame of the omnivore monoculture thesis — retro nostalgia cycles themselves become the flattened signature of the era.
• SEED: The conscious manufacture of a ‘vibe shift’ by trend analysts is a strong angle for the counter-case article: the 2020s signature may be self-aware nostalgia curation rather than blankness.

Related

• The 2020s’ biggest trend recycled early-2000s indie sleaze. (similarity 0.87)