Author: W. David Marx
_W. David Marx_
Reading time: 21 minutes
Synopsis
Blank Space (2025) says that in the last 25 years, there has not been much new creativity. This has created a culture where old ideas are often used again. Popular online trends are common. Content is often made just for money. Artists almost never take risks. The book looks at money, technology, and society in the 21st century. It explains why modern culture has become very similar.
What this means for you? Understanding 21st century culture
In 1970, The Mary Tyler Moore Show started. The main character, Mary Richards, was brave. She was single and focused on her job, and she was not sorry about it. TV bosses thought people might not like her. But the show was a hit, and they were wrong. The Mary Tyler Moore Show was not just a comedy show. It secretly showed new ideas for independent women. It also showed what TV could do. It was about women’s freedom, but with comedy.
In 2020, Emily in Paris showed us another single woman with a career. But this show did not offer new ways of thinking. Its main goal was to show expensive brands. It also showed places that look good on Instagram. And it gave people an easy escape, made perfect by computer programs. Emily’s job is marketing. The show does not want to imagine new choices for women’s lives. It wants to sell handbags. It wants to promote tourist places. And it wants to get people to talk about it on social media.
This difference shows the creative “blank space” of 21st-century culture. Before, there were new ideas and people going against the rules. Now, there is ‘content’ that businesses have already approved. It is made to go viral, not to have deep meaning.
What happened to culture in the 21st century? How did we get to this ‘blank space’? What should we do next? This summary tries to answer these questions.
Blink 1 – How selling out became cool
Seattle in the 1990s, Brooklyn in the 2000s. Grunge and indie sleaze. These were two types of music that were different and not well-known. Both were about going against the rules. But they had very different ideas about popular culture.
Grunge bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam showed the anger of working people and Gen X feeling lost. They used a rough, natural sound on purpose. This sound was the opposite of the smooth, showy style of 80s hair metal. Being real was good. Making a lot of money was clearly not good. So, when Pearl Jam’s album ‘Ten’ became very popular, the band was sad about it. Their next album ‘Vs’ came out in 1993. They did not have ads, music videos, or songs that fit radio easily. But it sold more in its first week than any other album before it. Pearl Jam showed that in the 90s, being real and against selling things was stronger than advertising.
Culture in the 2020s is a bit different. Taylor Swift’s very big Eras Tour was studied by a bank called Goldman Sachs. The boss of that same bank played music as a DJ at a big music festival. And Marvel’s endless movie series is very popular in cinemas around the world. Before, unhappy artists created culture. Now, computer programs decide what is popular. The 21st century has been a “blank space” for creativity. It is a time that likes old ideas brought back. It ignores truly new ideas. Why has this happened?
Let’s start at the beginning. Which might not be January 1st, 2000.
The writer Douglas Coupland (from Gen X) says the 21st century began on September 11, 2001. After those attacks, the world changed in culture and politics. After 9-11, disagreeing with the government was more and more seen as not loving your country. But buying things became a good thing for citizens to do. President George W. Bush famously told shocked Americans to keep shopping. He said that spending money was a duty for everyone.
Near where the Twin Towers fell, a new culture started in New York. It set the style for the new century. The Strokes were five rich young men from private schools. They were part of New York City’s art world. They started a new style called “indie sleaze”. This was a simple rock sound. It was different from the popular pop and electronic music on the radio. The Strokes, along with bands like The White Stripes and Yeah Yeah Yeahs, signed with big music companies. But they still tried to look like outsiders on purpose. Perhaps their biggest impact was not on music, but on fashion. They set the style: skinny jeans, old t-shirts, and uneven haircuts. This look defined that decade.
At the same time, photographer Terry Richardson created a style called “raunchcore”. This was exciting art that mixed art and adult content. Richardson’s style? Models were naked or almost naked. They often pretended to have sex. He was not the first to take such clear photos. But he was the first to use these kinds of photos in big ads for companies. If you thought these photos were wrong or sexist, people would say you didn’t understand they were a joke.
The Strokes, Richardson, and their friends were signs of the ‘hipster’ style of the 2000s. Like the hippies of the 60s and the ‘alt’ teens of the 90s, hipsters were artistic and against the system. But earlier groups were more involved in politics. Hipsters, however, showed their rebellion by what they bought. They did not actively fight the system. Things like Converse shoes and trucker hats, which hipsters liked, were quickly turned into products. These were sold in big stores like Urban Outfitters and American Apparel. American Apparel even used Richardson’s shocking pictures in their regular ads.
In the early 2000s, looking like you didn’t fit in helped you sell things. But the politics of being an outsider were thrown away. Instead, people used a cool, distant kind of humor. Grunge was real because it was against buying and selling. It was outside popular culture. But hipsters showed that going against culture and making money could happen at the same time.
Blink 2 – The new rules of celebrity
Paris Hilton, people often say, is famous because she is famous. But it’s not that simple. She became famous because she openly wanted to be famous just for being famous. And the way she did this was very clever. It completely changed what it means to be a famous person in the 21st century.
Paris is the great-granddaughter of Conrad Hilton. He started the Hilton hotel chain. When she was in her early twenties, she created a planned image of herself as a party girl. New York society news loved to write about her actions. She was often photographed “showing her underwear,” as one newspaper said. But apart from being famous in society, she did not have much career success. She only had small roles in bad movies and some modeling jobs. Before, if she didn’t seem talented, her career might have ended there. But by 2003, a new way to become famous had started.
Reality TV had been slowly growing since MTV’s The Real World started in 1992. But this type of show became huge in 2000 when Survivor was the most popular show in America. More than 28 million people watched it every week. Suddenly, normal people could become famous very quickly. They did not need the usual people to help them get famous. American Idol, Big Brother, and The Bachelor followed. This showed that this type of show could make a lot of money. TV channels liked reality TV because it was cheap to make. And people wanted to watch it because it felt real, like they were watching real lives.
Paris Hilton’s own reality show was The Simple Life. It put Hilton with her rich friend Nicole Richie. They went to a small town in Arkansas to work low-wage jobs. The idea of rich girls in a new, strange place was very appealing. People wanted to watch rich girls milk cows, serve fast food, and truly ask what Walmart is. The show started in December 2003.
But Hilton’s rise to fame was almost overshadowed by something else.
Weeks before The Simple Life started, Hilton’s boyfriend Rick Salomon released “1 Night in Paris”. This was a private video made without Hilton knowing or agreeing. She was twenty and he was thirty-four. Hilton thought her career was over. So, she hired Dan Klores, a person who helps famous people with bad news. She gave some smart interviews. She also joked about herself on Saturday Night Live. These things helped her get through the difficult time. The scandal did not ruin her. Instead, it made her hugely famous. Before Paris, bad stories usually ended careers. But she survived and became successful. This showed a big change: scandals could be used as a plan.
In 2006, Hilton hired her friend’s younger sister Kim Kardashian to organize her closet. Kardashian wanted to be famous herself. She reportedly offered stories about herself to gossip magazines. But editors said no, because she was not famous enough. Hilton let Kim appear on The Simple Life. But Kim could not find real fame. Or she could not, until 2007. Then, Kardashian’s own private video, “Kim Kardashian, Superstar” was shared. Like Paris, the scandal made Kim very famous quickly. Today, the Kardashians’ reality TV business is much bigger than the Hiltons’. But unlike Paris, it seems Kim leaked her own video. In 2023, Kim’s ex-boyfriend, Joe Francis, who started Girls Gone Wild, said that Kim asked him to release the video.
Paris found a new way to become a celebrity. Kim made it much better.
Blink 3 – When business changed culture
The financial crisis in 2008 was the most important money event of the 2000s. But Hollywood found it hard to show this in movies. Movies about the economic downturn failed badly. In 2011, Margin Call was a serious film about bankers during the crisis. Many people did not watch it. The documentary Inside Job also failed. It showed how Wall Street caused the financial crash. Americans wanted to escape from reality, not understand it.
People who went to the cinema did not want to see the economic downturn. But the economic downturn was slowly changing movies. In the early 2000s, banks had happily given money to make Hollywood movies. After the crash, they still funded movies. But they wanted to be sure to get their money back, plus more. Film studios changed to ‘safe’ choices. They used existing stories or characters that people already knew and liked. Marvel’s superhero world grew very fast. Disney brought back Star Wars. Even the classic children’s cartoon The Smurfs got a movie remake. This way of making movies, based on existing ideas, is still common today. For example, the most popular movie of 2023, Barbie, was based on a toy from Mattel.
The economic downturn also started a protest movement called Occupy Wall Street. It began on September 17, 2011. Protesters stayed in Zuccotti Park in Manhattan for two months. They chanted “We are the 99%.” The movement wanted the richest 1% to be held responsible. This included the bosses of the banks that caused the crash.
While the 99% were in Zuccotti Park, Jay-Z and Kanye West released Watch the Throne. This album celebrated having a lot of money and luxury. Jay-Z happily showed what it was like to be part of the richest 1%. In 2011, he was worth $450 million. He had just been on the cover of Forbes magazine with Warren Buffett. Was this going against hip-hop’s past, which often spoke about social issues? Or was it the natural next step for hip-hop? In the 80s, Public Enemy talked about stopping capitalism. Now, new rappers wanted to control it. They more and more called themselves powerful business people. Jay-Z’s Roc Nation was a huge business. It was a sports company, a management company, and a whole empire.
Meanwhile, reality TV had been making this change seem good for years. The Apprentice started in 2004. It turned Donald Trump into America’s perfect businessman. At that time, newspapers often made fun of him. He had also gone bankrupt many times. Shark Tank started in August 2009, just a few months after the crash. It continued this story. People who wanted to start businesses showed their ideas to rich investors. These investors decided if they would put money into the businesses. The “Sharks” were the same rich investors who had caused the economic crash. But now, they were presented as heroes.
After the crash, banks started to decide which movies were made. Artists changed their image to be like big companies. And investing money was shown as entertainment. Culture was capitalism. Or was capitalism the culture?
Blink 4 – Everything is content
On May 18, 2012, Mark Zuckerberg rang the bell at Facebook’s Menlo Park headquarters. He wore his usual gray hoodie. This meant Facebook was now a public company on the stock market. This stock market launch made him worth $19 billion in one night. His generation – millennials born from 1981 to 1996 – had a very different life. They finished school and faced the worst job market since the Great Depression. They had more student debt than ever before. Their pay did not grow, and house prices went up a lot. The new ‘gig economy’ gave them flexible work. But it took away job benefits and steady income. How they reacted to these money problems would change 21st-century culture.
Lena Dunham’s show Girls showed this change as it happened. The show was set in Greenpoint, an area that was becoming more upscale. It followed Hannah Horvath, a messy millennial who shared too much about herself. She dealt with unstable jobs and worry about social media. Her friends were also feeling lost. Gen X and 2000s hipsters liked to be cool and not show feelings. Think of the careful humor in Seinfeld or the distant style of indie rock. Girls offered something new: showing deep, uncomfortable personal feelings. Hannah masturbated in her boss’s bathroom and then wrote about it. She talked about her UTI symptoms on a date. She talked live about her worries, fears, and embarrassing moments without holding anything back. Feeling insecure became something people shared online.
The show explained how millennials were making money from their uncertain lives. If they could not calm their worries, they could at least use them to create content for others. They could not afford therapy, so they showed their emotional problems online. They could not buy homes, so they wrote about their small apartments online. They could not find steady relationships, so they wrote about their bad dates on Twitter as they happened.
Facebook changed from a college website to a worldwide platform. Instagram started in 2010 and quickly grew to 100 million users by 2013. This urge to share personal things changed into a whole economy. Millennials did not just use Instagram to share breakfast photos. They started new careers as ‘influencers’. They gained many followers. They got deals with brands. They turned their lives into content that could make money. Creating a personal image, once only for famous people, became common for everyone.
At first, millennials used social media to share personal feelings. But then, influencers became popular. This meant people wanted to show an ideal life, not their real one. Being rich sold. Showing off a lot of expensive things guaranteed people would click. Companies that worked with influencers wanted them to show ideal lives, not worries. A few successful people became truly rich. But most people only pretended to be living an ideal life. Instagram was full of fake travel photos paid for by debt. It had sponsored posts from creators who had money problems. It also had health content from people without health insurance. If you could not afford the life you were told you would have, you showed a picture of that life online instead.
The 21st century did not just bring in the gig economy. It also changed who you are into a way to work and earn money. Zuckerberg rang that bell in 2012, the same year Girls started. Both pointed to the same future: a world where everyone tries hard to earn money. Everyone puts on a show. And every personal experience can be turned into content to make money.
Blink 5 – Everything becomes the same
In 2019, a teenager from Atlanta made rap music in his bedroom. He bought a music beat for $30. He spent a day recording a song that mixed country and hip-hop. Then he put it on TikTok, and it became hugely popular. The rapper was Lil Nas X and the song was the huge hit “Old Town Road”. Billboard magazine took it off the country music charts. They said it was not a real country song, which many people disagreed with. But this did not stop its success. It mixed music styles. This was even more true when the famous country singer Billy Ray Cyrus sang on a new version. The song was number one for a record nineteen weeks.
It was a nice story, but it showed a bigger trend: different styles were becoming less clear. This was not just through creative mixes like “Old Town Road”. Of course, using ideas from different styles can create new things, as the 21st century has shown. But it can also lead to a culture where everything is the same. It means everything looks, sounds, and feels alike.
Think about design. The main style of this century has been the “AirSpace”. Writer Kyle Chayka created this word in 2016. He used it to describe coffee shops and Airbnbs that looked the same. It did not matter if they were in Seoul or San Francisco. They all had simple furniture, old wood, factory-style lights, small coffees, and avocado toast. This sameness was not from big companies. It happened naturally. Thousands of different owners chose the same style that looked good on Instagram.
Faces also started to look similar. In 2019, the writer Jia Tolentino studied the “Instagram Face”. This face had eyes like a cat, fake long eyelashes, high cheekbones, full lips, smooth skin, and an unclear ethnicity. On social media, filters and apps like FaceTune let anyone change their face on a screen. They could look more like famous people on Instagram, such as Kim Kardashian, Bella Hadid, and Emily Ratajkowski. More and more, people had surgery on their real faces. They wanted to look like their filtered selfies. A study of plastic surgeons showed that 30% of patients brought Kim Kardashian’s photo as an example.
This change in style showed a bigger trend: everything was becoming the same. Famous people were no longer just actors or singers. They became big brands. They sold their own drinks or beauty products. The two biggest pop stars of the century, Taylor Swift and Beyoncé, are famous for their huge businesses. These include tours, products, and films. People know them for these more than for any single album. Every creative idea or story now existed to create more content across many different platforms. Even the children’s online game Minecraft became very popular on YouTube. Then it became a movie.
In the 21st century, culture became all about money and very similar everywhere. AirSpace cafes looked the same because differences did not look good in photos. Faces looked similar because computer programs favored one certain look. Artists became brands because brands made more money than art. “Old Town Road” became number one. It did this not by mixing music styles, but by removing the differences between them completely. This century promised endless choices. But so far, it has given us endless sameness.
Final summary
In this summary of Blank Space by W. David Marx, you’ve learned that in the 21st century there has been a lack of real new ideas. Instead, we have a culture of the “blank space”. It is driven by computer programs, made for money, and all the same. Real life is now presented as entertainment. Big companies decide what content is made. The cool, distant humor of 2000s hipsters has changed into a general lack of caring. To ‘sell out’ used to be the worst thing. Now? It is the main goal.
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