Tasteland Ep. 57: Fad World ft. W. David Marx
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Aug 27, 2025 W. David Marx, an American fashion and culture writer based in Tokyo and author of Ametora and Status and Culture, joins to unpack taste and fads. He traces rapid microtrends, contrasts Western irony with Asian earnestness, and examines how K-pop, fast fashion, attention loops, and tech reshape cultural cycles. He also maps the historical roots of today's pop and political dynamics.
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Fads Now Are Self-Aware Play
- Contemporary fads are defined by participants' awareness that they're temporary, so people play with trends without fully committing.
- W. David Marx contrasts mid-20th-century mass adoption with now where meta-knowledge lets consumers enjoy things briefly and ironically.
Asia's Fad Engine Is More Earnest
- Asian markets often exhibit more earnest consumption of micro-fads because they lack the same ironic hand-wringing found in U.S. media discourse.
- Marx links pop production hubs in Hong Kong, K-pop fandom, and French luxury houses to fast-moving Asia-led trends like LaBooBoo.
Researching Pop Figures Radicalized the Author
- Writing Blank Space forced Marx to engage with pop figures he personally dislikes, which radicalized his view of the present.
- He says researching Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton and Baby Gronk made the era feel torturous to chronicle.
