Coolness is an elusive concept without a universal definition, allowing everyone to have their own interpretation. Some people’s entire job is making sure you don’t remember that.

K-HOLE and Box1824 captured the new landscape in their breakthrough 2014 report “Youth Mode.” They described an era of “mass indie” where the search for meaning is premised on differentiation and uniqueness, and proposed a solution in “Normcore.” Humorously, nearly everyone mistook Normcore for being about bland fashion choices rather than the... See more