Vampire Weekend’s transparent authenticity was itself the coolest possible pose

Evidence

As a vanguard for millennials, Vampire Weekend pioneered the “mask of no mask.” They never pretended to be anything other than Columbia kids. Kris Chen, their A&R rep at XL Recordings, described this transparency as key to their appeal: “They didn’t give a shit about being cool. We all know that’s the ultimate in being cool.” The strategy paid off. Their buzz on MP3 blogs secured them a Spin cover story before they even released an album. Vampire Weekend’s self-titled debut sold half a million copies and received widespread acclaim. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 342

Categorization

• DEFINE: The ‘mask of no mask’ is a precise articulation of the book’s core mechanism — how irony collapses once everyone performs sincerity, a useful term for the reader’s argument about what the 21st century did and didn’t invent.