>>191379Arguably status signalling is how culture changes.
Look at grunge for example. It started as a minor subculture in Seattle. Mostly amateurish, and just friends hanging out.Only hardcore fans with a tolerance for noise and weird shit were into it (mostly friends of the musicians).These might be called the 'Innovators'.
The bands started getting good, and underground nerds from further afield started to hear about 'something happening in Seattle' and started to flock (in order to signal their good taste and status as 'underground nerds') These might be considered the 'Early Adopters'
The larger groups of underground nerds made mainstream people take notice. Record label execs started signing bands with the idea that grunge was going to be the 'next big thing' and started marketing them. The marketing put grunge in front of the first few mainstream kids who would listen to it. These were probably the people who were vaguely into underground shit, in order to be distinct from their peers, but only if it was underground shit with some good marketing and production. They want to signal their status as musical conosseurs, same as the Early Adopters, but within the confines of what their mainstream peers might find acceptable. This might be considered the 'Early Majority'
Once the first couple of mainstream kids listen to it and sing it's praises, other mainstream kids feel it's 'safe' to get on the hype train, and grunge shoots into the stratosphere. Shows are sold out, bands are making millions, anything vaguely related to grunge gets to ride the wave, thus musicians who were doing something else start trying to appeal to the grunge crowd (in order to increase their status). It also starts to look kind of icky to the underground nerds who were into it before, thanks to all mainstream fellation (status signalling), of something that was 'shit' not long before, and since now they can't flex about that underground shit they're into if it's no longer underground. This group that puts off underground nerds might be called the 'Late Majority'
Eventually grunge is dripping off the walls.The themes and styles start to get really repetitive. People are dressing like grungers who don't even like the music. Super mediocre bands start aping the style and making it worse. Bands that are totally unrelated to the scene come up with a similar style, just because it's popular (like Silverchair, from Australia). Underground nerds have fled to the next obscure thing. Members of the early majority are starting to complain that it's 'boring now'. And it's no longer distinguished at all to be into grunge. It is normie music. This group could be considered the 'Laggards'
Same thing happened to Hair Metal before it. Why was hair metal suddenly considered 'dead' when grunge came along, when it had been on top of the world in years previous? Because it was in it's 'Laggard' phase. Being into it no longer conferred any status value whatsoever, so it was 'played out', even though, in hindsight, you can probably find plenty of hair metal gems from the time when grunge was peaking.
