The Return of the Mass

Is quality pop culture regaining its relevance?

It’s been a big few years for niche culture, as the internet’s democratisation of knowledge snowballed into social media’s democratisation of taste. Kyle Chayka’s observation that algorithms have ‘flattened’ culture can be taken at its most literal: what was once ‘sub’ is now ‘surface’. In Baudrillardian terms, what was once niche is now hyperreal. Take all the counter-cultural codes we stripped of meaning before mashing together to create major social media-age aesthetics like e-girl or y2k or blokette: it’s no longer culture as it’s lived and breathed, just a series of symbols used to signify it. Put simply, we’re seeing cultural extraction on an unprecedented level. Subcultures have been mined to the point of non-existence, while the public is no longer participating, only performing. 

An optimist’s forecast for the Mass

It’s not pretty, we’re all well aware of that. But what’s more pressing is how exactly we slither out of a cultural quagmire like this. We know that we need to touch grass, we know we need to start being more creative again. Yes, for the millionth time, we know we need to spend less time online. But maybe we’re missing one key solution, a true pendulum swing that might allow subculture to retreat back underground, to nourish itself in gloomy corners once again while enriching (or is that ‘de-flattening’?) the mainstream. The solution, readers, might just be a complete re-embrace of MASS. Mass institutions. Mass icons. Mass culture.

And god knows we all need it. In our (failed) attempts to pursue the niche in the name of individuality, we’ve neglected what can truly bind us: good old pop culture. The 2010s saw us reject mass entertainment in favour of the hyper-personalised reams of content fed to us by our algorithms, leaving only the most universally palatable pop culture (the Kardashians, Love Island, Drake, Covid, football, TikTok dances) to survive. Attempts to cut budgets while upping commerciality saw pop-culture’s quality plummet across the board (look at 2019’s UK Official Singles Chart at your own risk if you need to jog your memory, or recall the more recent discourse on Netflix’s cost-effective and totally personality-less set aesthetics). This profit-driven mindset saw industry heads across music, TV, film and media consciously divest from true artistry, while the true artists tried, and often failed, to find success via algorithms that favour the mid (see: the continued backlash against Spotify). It’s no surprise that, as The Face’s music editor Davey Reed noted recently, we’ve seen hardly any breakout music stars in the last several years. 

@damiankeyesMusicians: The CEO of Spotify just destroyed the music industry 🚨 Daniel Ek put out a massively controversial tweet this week… and not in a good way ❌ Totally disregarding the years of 👇 ✅ Dedication ✅ Hard work ✅ Money ✅ Learning and growing That goes into making music and creating content 🚨 So, I need you to remember there is a huge community of artists who recognize your hard work, and the costs that go into your passion 💪 What do you think to this? ⬇️ #spotify #dsp #musicnews #spotifysongs #danielek #spotifyplaylist #musictruths #musician #musictok #contentcreation #musicindustry #fyp #singles #socialmedia

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It’s no surprise, then, that the pendulum is swinging back. We’re demanding mass culture that is good again. We’re craving art that feels collectively inspiring. ‘As the digital world becomes increasingly fragmented, there's a growing nostalgia for the unifying power of mass culture’ says MØRNING’s Creative Director Rhianna Cohen. ‘Whether it's the allure of iconic brands, the comfort of familiar institutions, or the shared experience of global events, people are turning back to what's big, bold, and undeniably collective.’ We’ve seen this already this summer, with the energy behind the Olympics and the well-documented emergence of bonafide pop stars like Sabrina Carpenter, Chappel Roan and Charli xcx, all of whom, to varying degrees, boast a unique artistic POV that sets them apart from a sea of carbon-copy industry-plants. 

We’re also seeing the cultural weight of household-name brands and institutions growing again. In a world where it’s never been easier to grab a slice of our huge attention-fuelled pie, the titles ‘artist’ or ‘business owner’ or ‘trustworthy news source’ (god help us) are now no longer reserved for those with legitimacy, privilege or talent. After this period of internet-fuelled cultural exploration that left many of us lost in the wilderness, we’re gravitating back towards cultural and intellectual institutions like The New York Times or Oxford University as a way to find reality amongst the noise. “We need some cultural anchors to not just legitimise things, but to provide collectiveness”, Rhianna adds. As we gravitate towards these legendary institutions, audiences are rediscovering a new form of nostalgia. Not for the voyeuristic yearning for subculture, but for the solidity and comfort of the mass. 

With that, it’s the truly mainstream names that earnt their legacy at a time when it wasn’t so easy, who now have the upper hand. We predict that brands like Nike are about to reclaim their cultural standing among a sea of smaller competitors like Hoka, On and Salomon, who have dominated the market in recent years via niche-to-mid oriented positioning. We’ve already seen Nike shifting their marketing tactics towards the mass via their legacy-coded Olympics campaign, owning their unique and unmatchable USP to reclaim their crown in the way only they can. The same goes for Abercrombie’s recent reinvention. Or the rumours of Galliano’s return to Dior. His Margiela run has been the most beautiful encapsulation of everything culture has needed from this alt-leaning moment. But in 2025, wouldn’t a Dior creative directorship just be more…iconic?

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We can apply the same theory to celebrities. Take Dolly Parton and Pamela Anderson: you could guarantee they’d be the first names that would spring to mind if asked to think of a country songstress or Playboy bunny. But try to think of their equivalents today and you’d find yourself sifting through thousands of women battling it out in today’s attention economy. It’s hard to imagine any Gen Z country singers or sports models making the kind of mass comebacks that Dolly and Pammy were both able to make in recent years. Why? Culture simply hasn’t been able to produce icons like they used to.

What’s clear is that mass culture doesn’t just exist. It needs legacy, lore and a keen audience appetite. It needs legitimacy, and quality. It needs artistry. It’s why profit-driven pop culture that’s designed to serve everyone and please no one hasn’t cut it.

Unfortunately, though, that doesn’t mean profit won’t play a starring role in whichever way culture turns next: while brilliant art that caters to the masses is undoubtedly good for both the mass and niche, the same can’t always be applied to mass brands that monopolise the market. If we do indeed see a swing towards market-dominating brands again, it’s imperative that consumers demand they act responsibly. It’s a tall order (good luck, us), but I’d argue that brands who aren’t committed to moral leadership alongside cultural and operational brilliance may not cut it as cultural icons today, despite their legacy.

The fact is, mass culture isn’t created equal in a world where products, rather than art, now control the cultural economy. But while artists today no longer make as much money as brands do, they do create cultural value for brands to co-opt to sell product. Yes, profit will inevitably be the driving force behind a re-embrace of the mass, but at least the art being funded to generate it will be worthy of the spotlight. We’re already seeing artists subversively leverage mass institutions to platform their work (see: Law Roach’s controversial collab with Annie Leibovitz for Vogue) a tactic we hope to see continue.  

@tcrfff🎙️S5 EP11: @Luxury Law #thecuttingroomfloor #fashionpodcast #onlyonpatreon

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Because what we need from mass culture, more than anything, is to bring iconic art and media back to the masses, to celebrate pop culture that resonates through its universal brilliance, not its universal mundanity. What we need is to leave niche culture alone in all this, to give it space to breathe and grow, while making a case for great creativity that can inspire the mainstream. There’s no doubt that capitalism will be at the heart of it all, but at least we might give art a fighting chance. 

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That’s all for today. Do you think the return of mass culture could be a good thing? As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts.

Words: Letty Cole

Insight: Rhianna Cohen, Sui Donovan, MØRNING team