PDF Summary:Status and Culture, by W. David Marx

Social status profoundly shapes our cultural tastes and practices. In Status and Culture, W. David Marx examines how the human desire for elevated standing influences what behaviors we adopt, from fashion trends to artistic movements. He argues that culture often arises from social stratification—with elites pioneering innovations to distinguish themselves, prompting the wider population to mimic those prestigious conventions.

Marx explores how different social classes signal status through varying aesthetic sensibilities. He then traces how fashions and cultural artifacts become widespread as the masses strive to emulate prestigious groups. The book also considers the internet's impact on status signaling and whether technology democratizes culture or intensifies status competition.

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• Engaging in widely accepted behaviors provides psychological safety, as individuals are less likely to face criticism or judgment when they align with the majority.
• Social proof is a psychological phenomenon where people assume the actions of others reflect correct behavior. As more people adopt a trend, it provides social proof that the trend is acceptable or desirable, reducing perceived risks.
• Chocolate is often associated with celebrations, holidays, and rituals, such as Valentine's Day and Easter, reinforcing its role in popular culture.
• In many societies, participating in shared eating experiences is a way to bond and show acceptance. Refusing a common item like chocolate might be seen as rejecting social norms or group cohesion.
• As cultural elements become mass-produced, they are commodified, meaning they are turned into products for sale. This process can strip cultural practices of their original meaning and significance, reinforcing power dynamics by prioritizing profit over cultural authenticity.
• Psychological factors, such as the need for novelty and the fear of missing out (FOMO), drive both early adopters and the general public to engage with new trends, perpetuating the cycle of cultural change.
• Growing awareness of environmental issues is influencing fashion cycles, with a push towards sustainable and ethical fashion, which may alter traditional cycles.

Status, Realness, and Identity in Producing and Consuming Culture

Marx asserts that the drive for status isn't just about the material goods individuals use to express their wealth and position: there is also status in taste. The concept of taste is more amorphous and subjective than, say, the price of a luxury item, but for Marx, taste isn't random and chaotic—it's structured. These subjective choices, when aggregated across multiple categories and individuals, reflect not just the "unconscious" habits of a person, but the underlying values and beliefs of their community. Taste acts as a communication tool, just like clothing, and it is read, judged, and classified by others. As a result, taste plays a key role in how we shape our identities and navigate the process of being identified in the social sphere. This raises an additional concern about whether we can ever trust anyone's taste to reflect "the real me," and if not, how do we judge those instances where the external presentation is at odds with the individual’s backstory?

Using Preferences to Signal Status

Our sense of taste is a social phenomenon. Even as we pursue “pure” aesthetic experiences — delighting in a well-composed melody, an elegant photo, or a skillfully thrown ceramic pot – it’s impossible to completely separate these judgments from the social context in which they are formed and enjoyed. For Marx, our judgments on taste reflect the habitus we absorb through social conditioning, the customs of the communities we seek to belong to, and the status value we associate with those customs. Our internal desire to find and express our identities is intertwined with the external demands of status. This means, in practice, that our selections in aesthetics—such as music, art, clothes, food, and other consumer goods—are often driven by fundamentally non-rational reasons, and we receive palatable alibis from our brains to avoid admitting it, even to ourselves. But status value is real because embracing prestigious practices can improve our quality of life, just like the practical benefits of a well-engineered refrigerator or a reliable car.

Individuals Using Preferences to Classify Into Distinct Worlds

Taste functions to identify whether we belong. Our affinity toward similar aesthetic styles and objects forges social connections and reinforces a sense of solidarity. It can make it easier for us to find meaningful communication with others who enjoy the same things: we can spend hours raving about esoteric sneakers and arguing over our favorite Bob Dylan albums. Conversely, taste additionally creates distance from people whose choices we disapprove of. This preference for the company of those “like us” leads to the creation of “taste worlds”—individual groups drawn together through their collective preferences. In our modern era, online connectivity and the global mass market have spawned numerous taste worlds based on niche interests, countercultural beliefs, and minority cultural styles.

Practical Tips

• Create a personal taste journal to document and reflect on how different foods and flavors connect you to various social groups or memories. By noting the emotional and social context of meals, you can gain insight into how your taste preferences are intertwined with your sense of belonging. For instance, you might find that eating a particular type of cookie reminds you of baking with a grandparent, reinforcing your connection to family.
• Host a themed swap event in your local community center or park, where people bring items that fit a particular style or aesthetic. This not only helps you meet neighbors with similar tastes but also promotes sustainability through exchanging goods. For instance, if you're into sustainable living, you could organize a plant swap where participants bring cuttings or seeds from their gardens to exchange with others.
• Create a digital photo mosaic project with friends or family where each person contributes a picture that represents a cherished memory or value. As the mosaic grows, it becomes a visual representation of the shared bonds and commonalities within the group, strengthening the feeling of solidarity.
• Start a book swap club with a twist: members choose books that have significantly influenced their lives. When you meet to exchange and discuss the books, you'll learn about each other's values and perspectives, which can lead to easier and more profound communication. For example, if multiple people bring self-help books focused on mindfulness, it could lead to a shared interest in meditation practices.
• Engage in 'Taste Exchange Conversations' with someone whose preferences differ significantly from yours. Approach the conversation with genuine curiosity, asking them to explain the appeal and background of their tastes. Share your own in return, focusing on the experience rather than trying to convince each other. This mutual exchange can bridge the gap created by differing tastes and foster a deeper understanding of one another.
• Start a recipe swap challenge with coworkers or neighbors, focusing on a specific ingredient each month. This not only broadens your own palate but also helps you understand the taste preferences of those around you, potentially uncovering shared taste worlds that can lead to deeper social connections.
• Engage with international e-commerce platforms to sample global products within your budget. Use filters to set a price range and explore items from different countries that fit your interests. This could be anything from Korean skincare products to Scandinavian home decor. By purchasing and trying out these items, you're participating in the global mass market and expanding your personal taste world without breaking the bank.
• Create a personalized map of local spots that cater to your minority cultural style using a free mapping tool like Google My Maps. Pin locations such as vintage clothing stores, indie bookshops, or underground music venues that align with your tastes. This helps you immerse yourself in your taste world and discover new places you might love.

Tastes That Signal Greater Prestige

Refined taste can facilitate securing ordinary status within our respective taste worlds. However, for Marx, there’s also greater status in having "great taste" – demonstrated through deep knowledge, congruence, and bounded originality. Deep knowledge allows individuals to access and appreciate a wider range of possible choices, while congruence—achieving command over the underlying principles of a taste world—proves commitment to a given sensibility. And those individuals with high-status privilege use originality to demonstrate their unique character and expand the horizons of taste within their communities. Great taste, then, is not simply a matter of unconscious habits or naive imitation but reveals competence in self-cultivation, the same way musicians improve their skills through countless hours of practice and dedication. Someone pretentious may choose a rare and expensive wine without even tasting it, but a "sophisticated" wine lover has honed his palette over the years to distinguish subtle flavors imperceptible to casual consumers.

Context

• Demonstrating refined taste acts as a signal to others in the group that one understands and appreciates the group's values, which can lead to greater acceptance and status.
• Sophistication involves genuine appreciation and understanding, often developed over time, while pretentiousness is characterized by superficial or insincere displays of taste, often for the sake of status.
• With a comprehensive understanding of a field, individuals can push boundaries and innovate, contributing new ideas or perspectives that expand the existing taste world.
• Unlike mere imitation, which might involve superficially copying trends, congruence requires a deeper, more authentic engagement with the underlying principles of a taste world.
• These individuals often have significant social influence, allowing them to set trends that others follow. Their choices can redefine what is considered desirable or fashionable within their communities.
• The concept of self-cultivation has roots in various philosophical traditions, such as Confucianism, which emphasizes personal development and moral improvement as lifelong pursuits.
• While great taste involves deep knowledge and originality, it is also influenced by contemporary trends and societal changes. What is considered "great" can evolve over time as new styles and ideas emerge.
• Both musicians and individuals with refined taste engage deeply with their respective fields, requiring both emotional connection and intellectual analysis to truly appreciate and master the nuances involved.
• A sophisticated wine lover often knows how to pair wines with food to enhance the dining experience. This requires an understanding of how different flavors interact and complement each other.

Using Genuineness to Authenticate Taste

When evaluating someone's preferences to determine status, it’s not enough for us to simply compare objects and behaviors with what we expect. Context is also taken into account. A major element is genuineness: Do their choices feel natural? Are those choices appropriate to this person’s life narrative? This focus on authenticity becomes particularly important when appraising tastes that are inconsistent with an individual’s background or convey higher status than their social position. We’ve already seen this at play with what the newly wealthy and those with inherited wealth enjoy: the former embrace “obvious” conspicuous consumption while the latter seek to prove their generational stability through understated, antiquarian choices. Authenticity anxieties reveal, however, that status evaluations don't focus on the individual signal but rather how the signal relates to the "real" person.

Individuals Showcasing Preferences as Authentic and Congruent With Life Story

We like to believe that our taste derives from sincere, long-held preferences that reflect our unique character. For Marx, however, this requires validating the provenance of our inclinations. During status assessments, our indicators, hints, and notable omissions are cross-referenced with our biographies. Those individuals with high-status cues – the manners, accents, and knowledge of the upper crust, for example – gain instant credibility for their “natural” good taste since evaluators assume they have always lived amidst these standards. And people from marginalized communities often find their tastes linked to their backgrounds: Black rappers, for example, are assumed to be experts on Black life, which helps them benefit financially from their success in the music market. But the requirement that taste has to align with our backstory, even if that backstory is based on the arbitrary conventions of social groups, poses a challenge to those from disadvantaged groups who lack the privilege to “be themselves.”

Other Perspectives

• The emphasis on the provenance of inclinations could unduly constrain personal growth and exploration, as individuals might feel pressured to conform to the tastes expected from their background rather than developing their own.
• Status assessments may not always involve a thorough cross-referencing with biographies, as snap judgments based on appearance or a single characteristic can often occur.
• High-status individuals may gain credibility for their good taste due to social biases, rather than an inherent or authentic sense of taste.
• The commercial success of Black rappers in the music market does not automatically confer upon them the status of experts on Black life; it may simply indicate their skill in music production and performance.
• The digital age and globalization have democratized access to various cultural tastes, reducing the impact of one's backstory on their current preferences and allowing for a more diverse expression of taste that transcends socio-economic backgrounds.

Authenticity: Original Creators Best Replicate Conventions

Authenticity isn't just about personal sincerity; it also concerns the nature of cultural creations themselves. We hope for things to match their descriptions—Scottish whisky really should be produced in Scotland, not in factories in Taiwan. These expectations carry over into how culture is produced, and we often imbue the work of a convention’s originators with greater value than that of imitators. For Marx, this standard of authenticity by origin is an effective means for marginalized groups to “control” the economic rewards of their inventions, particularly in the cultural industries. By demonstrating how Reggae music requires an understanding of the Jamaican experience and Rastafarian culture, Bob Marley’s success better channeled money and admiration to Black artists than did the white appropriation of Black rhythm ’n’ blues. Authenticity by origin, however, becomes difficult in an age of globalization.

Practical Tips

• Create a personal authenticity journal to track the alignment between your self-description and actions. Start by writing down how you see yourself or how you describe yourself to others. Then, record your daily actions and reflect on whether they align with your self-description. This practice will help you become more self-aware and ensure that your behaviors match your personal narrative.
• You can support original creators by purchasing directly from their websites or personal online stores. When you buy directly from an artist or creator, you ensure that they receive the full financial benefit of their work. For example, if you enjoy a musician's work, instead of streaming their music, buy their album or merchandise from their official site.
• Start a niche blog or vlog documenting your journey to create something novel. This could be anything from inventing a new kitchen gadget to developing a unique gardening technique. Share your process, challenges, and successes to inspire others and establish your originality in the field.
• Create a social media campaign highlighting authentic products from marginalized groups. Use hashtags, stories, and posts to showcase items you've purchased and share information about the creators. This not only helps to promote their work but also educates your network about the importance of supporting authentic creations and the stories behind them.
• Volunteer with a Jamaican community group or Rastafarian organization to participate in cultural events, helping with setup or food distribution. This hands-on experience will give you a personal connection to the community, fostering a deeper understanding of the cultural nuances that influence reggae music.
• Purchase art from Black creators and display it in your home or office. Investing in artwork made by Black artists not only supports them financially but also helps in showcasing their talent to a wider audience when you have guests or clients.
• Create a playlist on a streaming service that exclusively features Black rhythm 'n' blues artists and share it on your social media. This helps to increase visibility and streaming numbers for these artists. When you discover a new artist, add them to your playlist and encourage your friends to listen and support as well.
• You can explore your heritage through a DNA ancestry test to connect with your roots in a globalized world. By understanding where your ancestors came from, you can research the traditions, customs, and values of those regions to cultivate a more authentic personal identity. For example, if your DNA test reveals a strong connection to a particular country, you could start learning the language, cooking traditional dishes, or participating in cultural events related to that country.

Authenticity: Recognizing the Best Things Made by Original Methods

Authenticity based on origin falls apart when outsiders can replicate the core properties of the original. As a possible remedy, another standard of authenticity based on content has emerged. Here, as Marx explains, the genuineness of a creation within culture is judged not on the immutable characteristics of its creator; rather, it's judged on how much it has preserved the initial techniques for achieving the unique qualities. Japanese manufacturers may have commandeered American jeans, but they have a better reputation for authenticity than many Levi’s collections, because they’ve better preserved mid-20th century conventions that are no longer found in the original. The question for contemporary pop culture becomes whom to designate as the "original" creators of an arbitrary practice, and whether taste ultimately reflects status—will we eventually settle on the "good taste" originators of the convention rather than its "bad taste" originators? This would only further reinforce the advantages of high-status groups.

Context

• Modern technology can facilitate the replication of traditional methods, making it easier for outsiders to mimic the original techniques with precision.
• There is often a tension between innovation and tradition, where content-based authenticity may resist change in favor of maintaining established methods.
• Products deemed authentic often command higher prices in the market. This economic aspect can drive both genuine preservation efforts and superficial attempts to mimic authenticity for profit.
• While preserving traditional methods, Japanese manufacturers also innovate within those frameworks, enhancing the quality and appeal of their denim without sacrificing authenticity.
• In some cases, legal frameworks like intellectual property rights can play a role in determining originality, though these laws often struggle to address cultural practices.
• When elements of a lower-status culture are adopted by a higher-status group, they can be rebranded as "good taste," while the original creators may not receive recognition or benefit.
• These groups often influence educational curricula, which can perpetuate the idea that their cultural practices are the most authentic or original.

The Effects of Signals on Personal Identity

For Marx, our identities—our sense of self—are bound to the specific structure of social status. This begins with the “persona” – the package of signals and traits we field in public, carefully edited to meet the requirements of seeking status, which then determines how others identify and value us in the social world. However, this doesn't deny the presence of an inner "self." Yet based on what we’ve learned about the subconscious workings of habitus and the worth of status, it’s impossible to be confident that what we perceive as our “true self” isn’t simply a bundle of carefully rationalized social desires.

Individuals Constructing Personas to Meet Status Objectives

In a world full of unfamiliar people, we need to project aspects of ourselves for others to perceive who we are and, critically, to understand how we should be treated in the social sphere. For Marx, this process transforms each person into an architect of identity: consciously and unconsciously editing what comprises their public-facing persona. This can take the form of simply imitating the usual ways of acting in our community in order to secure normal status, or perhaps adopting behaviors and products associated with more auspicious social groups, such as buying designer handbags or listening to the right bands. The most basic building blocks for these personas are the cues absorbed from our affiliations, the diverse forms of capital we accumulate, and the immutable characteristics we inherit upon birth. But those born into upper echelons have advantages here: they receive societal validation for their inherited cues and signals—for example, the speech patterns, posture, and clothes of wealthy people from long-established families—whereas those born into lower tiers must actively craft and maintain personas to even be granted basic respect.

Practical Tips

• Experiment with adjusting your persona in a low-stakes social setting. Choose a scenario where you feel comfortable, like a casual gathering with friends, and consciously alter a trait or behavior. If you're usually the jokester, try engaging in more serious conversations. Observe how others respond and how it affects your social status within the group.
• Create a personal branding mood board to visually represent how you want to be perceived. Gather images, quotes, and items that resonate with your desired self-projection and arrange them on a board. This visual tool can serve as a daily reminder and guide for your interactions, ensuring consistency between your self-perception and the image you project to others.
• Experiment with incremental changes to your online profiles to reflect the adopted behaviors and see how your network responds. Start with subtle changes, such as updating your LinkedIn headline to match the phrasing used by leaders in your field or sharing content that resonates with the community you're engaging with. Track engagement and feedback to gauge whether your changes are helping you integrate into the desired social group.
• Enhance your self-awareness by writing a personal narrative that incorporates your affiliations, capital, and characteristics. Set aside 30 minutes to write a story about a significant event in your life, making sure to highlight how your affiliations influenced the outcome, what forms of capital you used or gained, and how your inherited characteristics played a role. This storytelling exercise can provide insights into how these building blocks shape your experiences and decisions.
• You can observe and mimic the non-verbal cues of influential figures by watching interviews and public appearances to understand how they use body language and tone to convey confidence and authority. By practicing these cues in your daily interactions, you can enhance your own societal validation. For example, adopt a firm handshake, maintain eye contact, and use a steady, confident voice when speaking.
• Create a 'respect journal' to track daily interactions and reflect on how you present yourself. Each day, write down instances where you felt respected or disrespected, and analyze what persona elements contributed to those outcomes. This can help you understand which aspects of your persona are effective and which may need adjustment.

Pressure to "Embody Your Identity" as Democratized Aristocratic Privilege

While most individuals conform to convention because they fear sanction, there’s an additional status criterion that many find impossible to resolve – namely, the requirement to be distinctive. In the modern age, we’re morally obligated to embrace individuality, but for Marx, this demand is a democratized version of an old aristocratic privilege. People who are at the upper levels of the status hierarchy can't mimic anyone below them, and thus they are expected to make novel choices as an expression of their high position. That's why we admire the great artists who create radical new art movements. For those in the middle or lower levels of the hierarchy, the pursuit of distinction is a high-risk strategy, and the surest way to achieve the liberty to express who you are is to first establish more enduring prestige. The first Teddy Boys in the 1950s, for example, could indulge in outlandish behaviors only because of their working-class neighborhood roots; once the fad faded, they had to tone down their distinctive styles in order to secure a marriage partner or the respect of their employers. A key contradiction in the modern status system is that we’re told to "be true to ourselves" and yet only others get to decide if our personas are authentic and valuable.

Other Perspectives

• Conformity can be driven by a desire for social acceptance or belonging, rather than fear of punishment.
• The pressure to be distinctive can be balanced by the pressure to be relatable and approachable, which can sometimes require downplaying one's uniqueness in favor of common ground.
• The pursuit of individuality can lead to excessive self-focus, potentially fostering narcissism or a lack of empathy for others who may not share the same opportunities for self-expression.
• The aristocracy historically embodied distinctiveness through exclusivity and wealth, whereas modern individuality is often expressed through personal choices and creativity, which are accessible to a wider range of people.
• The concept of novelty is subjective, and what is considered novel in one social circle may be seen as conventional in another.
• Great artists who create radical new art movements may be admired by some, but not universally, as tastes and interpretations of art are subjective.
• The risk associated with pursuing distinction may be mitigated by the support of a community that values diversity and non-conformity.
• The concept of liberty to express oneself should ideally be independent of social status or prestige, as freedom of expression is a fundamental human right.
• The ability to engage in outlandish behaviors could be less about class roots and more about the relative freedom from social responsibilities that younger individuals often experience, regardless of their class.
• Toning down one's style may not be a result of seeking social acceptance but could be due to personal evolution, changing tastes, or practical considerations unrelated to social pressures.
• Being true to oneself can sometimes conflict with societal norms and expectations, which may lead to social ostracism or professional disadvantages.
• The value of a persona can be intrinsic and not solely determined by societal recognition; personal fulfillment can be a measure of value.

Identity as Determined by Others' Assessment of Status

We want an identity that's both unique and esteemed. For Marx, our exact place in a societal ranking is as consequential to our everyday experiences as the material comforts we acquire or the freedoms afforded to us in laws and in norms. When we encounter strangers, we identify them as belonging to certain social categories so that we know how they should be treated. But this process is not neutral: the identity assigned during a status appraisal dictates the advantages that are bestowed. As we’ve seen, this plays out in the realm of taste as well, where particular choices are deemed to have high status or low status based on who prefers them, how much cultural capital it takes to appreciate them, and their backgrounds.

Context

• This sociological perspective focuses on how people interact and create meanings through symbols, including language and gestures. Identity is continuously shaped and reshaped through these interactions.
• A concept from sociology where individuals attempt to control the perceptions others have of them, often to maintain or enhance their social status.
• These are expected patterns of behavior associated with specific social categories, guiding interactions and communication in social settings.
• Those with higher status often have more power and access to resources, which can perpetuate existing social hierarchies and inequalities.
• Cultural capital refers to non-financial social assets, such as education, intellect, style of speech, and dress, which promote social mobility. It influences how certain tastes are perceived as more sophisticated or desirable.

Impact of Social Hierarchies, Class Dynamics, and Status Aspirations on Cultural Trends

Cultural evolution is not random or chaotic. For Marx, the most compelling explanation for why populations shift between random practices is the pursuit of social standing, and the clearest illustration of this process is the phenomenon we call fashion. The seemingly frivolous, temporary, and irrational trends, such as those for shortboard surfboards, cupcake bakeries, and designer purses, tend to follow a predictable pattern. It begins with the elite’s insatiable demand for distinctive fashions and objects to differentiate themselves from their inferiors, leading to the adoption of innovations and trends previously linked to less affluent communities. As news media companies, opinion makers, and creative professionals get involved to explain, elevate, and promote, these conventions gain appeal to a wider audience of early enthusiasts looking to emulate. Fashion businesses then swoop in to capitalize on this growing excitement. Inferior replicas are made for public consumption. And once the most conservative late majorities give in to maintain normal status, the original innovation has entered the mainstream.

How Seeking Status Drives Cycles of Change

Fashion is an inevitable process in cultures that prioritize personal freedom, social mobility, and mass production. For Marx, the entire enterprise of fashion is driven by status seeking — specifically, a tension between elites’ pursuing distinctive conventions and the constant emulation by individuals with less social status. This mechanism works to perpetuate status inequality: the moment people with lower status can easily imitate high-status practices, the initial adopters discard them and choose new, uncommon conventions to maintain the difference. This "chase and flight" model creates endless fashion cycles, with creative style developments starting among small, highly innovative groups and eventually diffusing across the entirety of society. While we may find some merit in individual trends, the overall outcome can make fashion seem like a frivolous and self-defeating waste of time, energy, and money. But for Marx, fashion cycles have also contributed to a positive democratization of culture by stripping high-status behaviors of their most exclusionary qualities, by expanding our collective cultural knowledge, and by bolstering the confidence of majorities in the inherent value of popular kitsch.

Elites Abandoning Conventions Once Adopted by Those of Lesser Standing

Timing matters in fashion. The moment high-status groups perceive that their distinctive innovations have been appropriated by their inferiors, they are forced to abandon them and seek out new, more exclusive alternatives. For this reason, elite groups will often prefer to adopt conventions that are costly to indicate—requiring the knowledge, resources, or courage to acquire and embody them. This "chase and flight" process creates ongoing friction within culture, pressuring elites to pioneer new technologies, styles, and creative forms lest they end up indistinguishable from the masses. Conversely, it also compels status seekers in the lower tiers to closely monitor high-status behaviors, and mainstream media serves this function: providing information on what's current, hot, and cool to eager consumers.

Other Perspectives

• The preference for costly conventions might not be driven by a desire for exclusivity but could be a result of other factors such as cultural traditions, personal tastes, or the influence of creative industries.
• The concept of "chase and flight" may oversimplify the complex interactions between different social groups, ignoring the influence of other factors such as globalization, which can blur the lines between elite and non-elite cultural elements.
• Some elites may choose to maintain traditional styles and technologies as a way to signal their status, embracing classic or timeless elements rather than constantly seeking the new.
• Mainstream media sometimes lags behind in identifying and showcasing high-status behaviors, which can be rapidly changing and may have already shifted by the time they are broadcasted to a wider audience.

Simplification, Large-Scale Manufacturing, and Trends Becoming Widespread

In order for any trend to become mainstream, it must reach the traditional majorities at the midpoint of the social strata. These groups are much more likely to endorse a convention once it is a widely observed social practice and any signaling costs have been reduced to almost zero. For Marx, this is the mission of mass producers: to modify the original innovation to fit existing tastes and conventions, lower costs, and expand availability. This process of simplification and commercialization may make the original creators blanch, but it's a necessary element for any given style or artifact to leave the innovator's initial closed circles and reach a wider audience. And once this happens, the innovation achieves "critical mass" — the point when it seems like a societal standard, and non-adoption becomes a socially risky behavior.

Context

• Social strata refer to the hierarchical layers within a society, often based on factors like income, education, and occupation. The "traditional majorities" at the midpoint are typically the middle class, who have significant influence on cultural norms due to their size and purchasing power.
• The role of competition in the market can drive companies to simplify and commercialize innovations quickly to capture market share, as competitors may also be trying to bring similar innovations to the mainstream.
• Mass producers are driven by the need to maximize profit, which often involves making products more accessible and affordable. This economic motivation can clash with the creators' desire to maintain the original vision and quality.
• Economies of scale can reduce costs as production increases, making the trend more accessible to a broader audience. This economic aspect is crucial for a trend to reach critical mass.

Trends Reflecting Status Seeking Of Social Groups

For Marx, cultural change isn't the result of a disembodied force like "the invisible hand," but the outcome of the specific actions taken by particular groups within a society. A community's shared status assets and strategies thus determine the nature of its cultural artifacts. In the 20th century, the most influential and conspicuous cultural innovations came from the competition between New Money, inherited wealth, professionals, the creative class, marginalized subcultures, and rebellious artists. The new wealthy sought status symbols based on high acquisition costs, the established elites pursued understated luxury, professionals sought distinction in advanced aesthetics and exotic knowledge, and groups with less social standing embraced low-complexity kitsch or borrowed styles and products based on affordability and ubiquity. In the decades after World War II, the growing influence of niche groups and those opposing mainstream culture pushed the fashion process beyond simple trickle-down hierarchies and into an exciting fusion of highbrow and popular aesthetics, which then affected mainstream culture.

Context

• Niche groups, often with unique or countercultural perspectives, can drive significant cultural change by introducing new ideas and aesthetics that challenge mainstream norms.
• Economic conditions, such as recessions or periods of growth, can impact what status assets are available or desirable, influencing the cultural artifacts a community produces.
• Professionals, such as doctors, lawyers, and academics, often seek cultural capital through advanced aesthetics and specialized knowledge. This pursuit can manifest in the appreciation of fine art, literature, and other cultural forms that require education and sophistication to fully appreciate.
• Brands like Hermès, Loro Piana, and Bottega Veneta are known for their understated luxury, focusing on quality materials and craftsmanship rather than prominent branding.
• Many professionals pursue advanced degrees or certifications to stay ahead in their fields. This commitment to lifelong learning can be a status symbol, reflecting dedication and expertise.
• Borrowing styles can sometimes involve cultural appropriation, where elements of one culture are adopted by another, often without understanding or respecting the original context.
• The Cold War era was characterized by political tension and social change, which often fueled the growth of subcultures and movements that questioned or opposed dominant ideologies.
• After World War II, there was significant social and economic change, including increased social mobility and the rise of a consumer culture. This allowed more people to access diverse fashion influences, breaking the traditional top-down flow.
• Highbrow aesthetics typically refer to cultural products associated with the elite or intellectual classes, often seen as sophisticated or refined. Popular aesthetics, on the other hand, are linked to mass culture and are more accessible to the general public.

How Historical Value Imbues Certain Conventions With Permanence

Fashion cycles may deliver a continuous influx of trends, but there remains cultural continuity. Most societies possess various seemingly permanent social practices that are passed down from generation to generation. We use the same language as our grandparents, eat similar breakfast foods, and use the same forks and knives. While many attribute this longevity to natural selection—only the truly valuable get passed down—for Marx, cultural and historical worth is an active construction. The past has an objective reality, but society's understanding of that reality relies on the very same set of arbitrary practices and signaling dynamics present in the fleeting realm of clothing trends. In seeking to maintain their status, elite groups have an outsized influence in deciding which objects, behaviors, and creations become designated as "conventional," "traditional," "canonical," and "classical." Those things with historical value, then, are likely to remain influential in the present, as their worth in terms of status is enhanced through associations with the "wisdom" and "authenticity" of a shared heritage.

High-Status Conventions Becoming Customs, Traditions, Classics, and Canon

Societies rely on history as its institutional memory, and we use what came before to guide decisions, provide meaning and solidarity, offer explanations for how the world works, and, critically, create standards for judging contemporary behaviors. The issue is we have limited recall and depend on external explanations of "what happened" and "what it means." For Marx, this means history is a structured version of society's past that can't be objective. The elite members of society who wield the most power—those who lead institutions, create knowledge, and define values—have an outsized impact on which conventions endure over time and how those conventions are interpreted. This dynamic can clarify, for instance, why Western works that are considered classics tend to disproportionately include deceased white men, even though women and others have made equally significant contributions throughout history. The specific conventions that achieve longevity fall into four general categories: customs (unconscious habits rooted in past elite practices), traditions (conscious acts connecting contemporary individuals with past generations), classics (artifacts and behaviors that transcend specific points in history), and canonical works (highly valued artworks and texts preserved in academic teaching and repeated commentary).

Context

• This refers to the collective knowledge and learned experiences of a society or organization that are preserved over time. It helps maintain continuity and coherence in decision-making processes, ensuring that past lessons inform present and future actions.
• The concept of cultural hegemony, introduced by Antonio Gramsci, explains how the ruling class can manipulate the culture of a society so that their worldview becomes the accepted cultural norm, influencing how history is recorded and remembered.
• Elite members often control cultural institutions such as museums, universities, and publishing houses, which play a crucial role in deciding which cultural artifacts and ideas are preserved and promoted.
• The process of forming a literary or cultural canon often involved subjective decisions by influential critics and scholars, who may have favored works that reflected their own identities and experiences.
• Unlike customs, traditions are maintained with a conscious effort to connect with the past. They often involve rituals or ceremonies that are repeated at specific times or events, serving as a bridge between generations and reinforcing a sense of identity and continuity.

Retro Trends As Social Movements Reviving Outdated Styles

History isn't fixed. The present-day understanding of history can always shift, and this can be seen in the fashion phenomenon of retro revivals. According to Marx, the negative implications of "unfashionable" imply that trends aren't simply left behind but are viewed as unattractive. This negative social status is especially harsh on kitsch, which lacks timeless aesthetic merit to ease its decline, and it gives cultural innovators a great opportunity to revive an embarrassing fad or trend as "ironic fun." The most famous retro movements – the embrace of 1950s doo-wop in the 1970s by the band Sha Na Na, for example – don't just resurface outdated styles but play with them as if revealing a newfound sensibility. Just as creative and professional individuals are the keenest adopters of new innovations, they're often the proponents and champions of retro trends, applying their knowledge of history to unearth and reinterpret forgotten goods. However, just as with mass production, retro is conservative in that the revived styles are a mannerist simplification of the original.

Context

• Globalization has facilitated the exchange of cultural ideas and styles across borders, allowing for a more diverse range of historical influences to be revived and integrated into modern culture.
• New technologies in fabric production and design can make older styles seem less appealing due to their lack of innovation or functionality compared to modern alternatives.
• This concept refers to qualities in art or design that are universally appreciated and remain valued across different eras, often due to their beauty, craftsmanship, or emotional resonance.
• These revivals often tap into collective nostalgia, allowing people to reconnect with past eras in a way that feels fresh and entertaining. This can evoke personal or cultural memories that add depth to the experience.
• By juxtaposing old styles with new contexts, retro movements can inspire innovation, encouraging designers and artists to create fresh, hybrid forms.
• By reinterpreting forgotten goods, these individuals can highlight the cultural significance or symbolism that may have been overlooked or undervalued in the past, giving new meaning to old styles.

History's Irony in Indicating Rank and Preferences

Traditions that are historically significant often acquire prestige. But as Marx notes, the most extreme cases of revival movements demonstrate the inherent ironies in how taste and status operate socially. The original British Teddy Boys of the 1950s were working-class delinquents whose Edwardian clothing engendered nationwide moral panic among the upper crust and authorities. Their appropriation of the aesthetic was met with revulsion. And yet the Ted style revival of the 1970s — a retro boom that arrived concurrently with a resurgence in doo-wop, 1950s rock music, and sock hop nostalgia — transformed a once-taboo look into a key part of British culture. Today’s Ted fans and historians look to this second wave of retro teens as a main source of inspiration, and even luxury fashion brands have incorporated their styles into recent collections. This suggests that the popular and creative-class interpretations of history's worth may eventually supplant history itself: replacing the actual past with a simplified, sanitized, and more compelling narrative.

Practical Tips

• Host a themed dinner party where guests dress in 1950s attire and you serve period-appropriate dishes. This immersive experience allows you to connect with the era's culture in a tangible way, from the fashion to the food, while also providing a fun social activity.

Other Perspectives

• Not all traditions that are historically significant gain prestige; some may be remembered infamously or with controversy.
• The idea that revival movements are ironic assumes a static view of taste and status, whereas these concepts are fluid and subject to continuous negotiation and reinterpretation by different social actors.
• The term "delinquents" may be overly simplistic and pejorative, failing to account for the complex social and economic factors influencing the behavior and culture of the Teddy Boys.
• The Edwardian clothing could have been a symbol of deeper social changes, and the reaction to it might have been a response to the threat of these changes rather than to the clothing itself.
• The 1970s revival could be seen as a form of cultural nostalgia rather than a transformation, with the style being appreciated for its historical significance rather than its contemporary cultural impact.
• Some Ted enthusiasts may prioritize personal experience and individual interpretation over historical accuracy, meaning that their inspiration could be drawn from a variety of sources, not just the second wave of retro teens.
• The incorporation of Ted styles into luxury fashion could lead to a homogenization of the style, stripping away its uniqueness and reducing its impact as a distinctive cultural expression.
• Popular and creative-class interpretations often coexist with more traditional historical narratives, rather than completely supplanting them.
• Simplification can result in the erasure of less dominant voices and experiences, perpetuating a biased or incomplete historical record.

How Technology, Online Platforms, and Social Networks Affect Cultural Signals and Prestige

Marx asserts that the internet age—the epoch in which the World Wide Web has become the primary site for human interaction, information exchange, communication, and persona crafting—has destabilized many of the societal frameworks underlying twentieth-century culture. The ease of digital creation, free distribution, and an explosion of content has meant that fewer individual cultural artifacts achieve enduring significance for status. Likewise, the global reach of the internet has spurred the development of a homogenized "global village," with the newest entrants to the status hierarchy embracing conspicuous consumption rather than the more complicated sensibilities of cultural capital. Despite its promises of greater democratization, the internet may be intensifying status competition by weakening existing taste worlds, degrading the value of high-complexity culture, and shifting attention away from artistic innovation to the instant gratifications of kitsch.

How Signaling Social Position Has Changed Because of the Internet

The most obvious change since the advent of the internet has been the increased frequency of status signaling. For Marx, the most significant consequence of having a virtual town square in our pockets—a device capable of broadcasting our appearance, thoughts, knowledge, and every consumer choice to a worldwide viewership 24/7—is an overall devaluation of conventional status symbols. Rare and expensive possessions lose some of their prestige when displayed alongside thousands of similar photos online. Moreover, the digital world has fundamentally reshaped the process by which we access and acquire information and goods. Elite groups once benefited from knowing esoteric facts that could only be gathered in secret communities and through arduous research. But today, anyone on Earth can fake expertise on any subject by Googling or browsing Wikipedia for just a short time. This ease of access has also led to a decline in the “arbitrage” – where elites could leverage their advantages to effortlessly secure exclusive items from different cultural domains. In this new landscape, the most reliable signaling costs are money and popularity, which has led to both a resurgence of conspicuous consumption as a strategy for less advantaged social segments, and a new demand for “viral” content with huge audience reach.

Social Media as a 24/7 Platform For Signaling

For Marx, a major ramification of the digital era is that it's no longer possible to “opt out” of status signaling. Previously, status claims relied on in-person appearances and interactions with other individuals – or perhaps media reports of those in-person events. But social media transformed the experience into a theater of “showing off” that can reach unlimited audiences. Everyone, from celebrities and fashion influencers to suburban teenagers and ambitious entrepreneurs, can carefully craft their profiles on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok with the appropriate blend of signals, tastes, cues, and manufactured origin stories in order to be perceived as having high status. This constant exposure to other people's status claims can, however, lead to fatigue: vacation photos from exotic island paradises lose their ability to convey exclusivity if every other visual on the feed is a similar vista.

Context

• With smartphones and constant internet access, people are almost always connected to social media platforms, making it difficult to disengage from the digital world and its status dynamics.
• The constant comparison with others' status claims can affect mental health, leading to issues like anxiety, depression, or low self-esteem.
• The desire to signal status can drive consumer behavior, influencing purchasing decisions. Brands often capitalize on this by marketing products as status symbols, which are then showcased on social media.
• The need to constantly signal status online can lead to oversharing personal information, raising concerns about privacy and data security in the digital age.
• The sheer volume of content on social media can overwhelm users, making it difficult to process information effectively. This cognitive overload can contribute to mental fatigue and stress.
• As more people curate their online personas to project high status, audiences may become skeptical of the authenticity of these displays, further diminishing their impact.