This week, we’re picking up the thread of New Sincerity— the cultural disposition that championed earnest emotion over irony and cynicism— and declaring its second wave, signaled by mumblecore documentarians, grassroots anti-algorithm micro-platforms, and transcendent, truth-seeking young rockers. Beginning with Austin’s New Sincerity underground scene in the early 1980s, we move through Daniel Johnston’s McDonald’s tape recordings, David Foster Wallace’s anti-irony manifesto, the tender emo of the early 2000s, and the hyperpop/electroclash interregnum before arriving at the present-day convergence of Geese, Chanel Beads, laptop twee, Perfectly Imperfect, Zohran’s New York, and so on. We also discuss the uncanny historical parallels between Conor Oberst and Cameron Winter, the anti-fashion uniform of dirty jackets and unbrushed hair, and the civic reasons why Ridgewood is possibly the epicenter of this aesthetic climate.
Links:
“John Wilson on Anxiety, Ridgewood, and Rent” in Interview
The History of Concrete viral Letterboxd review discourse
Perfectly Imperfect on Instagram / PI.FYI
silknode on Instagram / silk.cx
friends& on Substack, laptop_twee playlist by friends& on Spotify
“‘Errands’ Should Be the Most Boring Show on the Internet” by Alex Vadukul in The New York Times
Zohran Mamdani on Errands / Zohran Mamdani on Perfectly Imperfect
“People Are Discovering NYC Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani’s Rap Past” by Andre Gee in Rolling Stone
15-year-old Zohran Mamdani defending his mother Mira Nair on film message boards
“The Zeitgeist of 1985, Pt. 1” by Michael Corcoran on Substack
“The New Sincerity” by Michael Corcoran in Spin (1986)
“E. Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction” by David Foster Wallace in The Review of Contemporary Fiction
“Mr. Sincerity Tries a New Trick” by Kelefa Sanneh in The New York Times
“Is Cameron Winter Serious?” by Lindsay Zoladz in The New York Times
“Toward a Working Theory of the Nu-Hipster” by Eli Schoop in Constantly Hating on Substack
“How to Live Without Irony” by Christy Wampole in The New York Times
“Sincerity, Not Irony, Is Our Age’s Ethos” by Jonathan D. Fitzgerald in The Atlantic
Milady Rave: New York, June 2023, Remilia x UG scene conspiracy on Reddit
Perfectly Imperfect SXSW Showcase 1.0, Perfectly Imperfect SXSW Showcase 2.0
“The Rise of Laptop Twee” by welcome.jpeg on Substack
“Things Are So Bad, People Are Longing for Cringey Millennial Culture” by Casey Michael Henry in The New York Times
Nymphet Alumni Ep. 22: Mass Bushwick
“Curating Ridgewood” by Max Moorhead in The Brooklyn Rail
“The big rock that helped defined the Ridgewood/Brooklyn border” in QNS
“Burning Bushwick” by Denis Chavez in For The Record (NYC Department of Records and Information Services)
Nymphet Alumni Ep. 96: Continental Luxury
“Geese Never Thought They’d End Up Here” (Cover Story) by Simon Vozick-Levinson in Rolling Stone
“Geese Invite Us To Their Secret Rehearsal Space, Talk New Music, Touring, & More” by Rolling Stone on YouTube
“The Real-Life Wardrobe of Geese’s Max Bassin, Who Only Wears One Brand of Jeans” by Christopher Fenimore in GQ
“I Like That Cameron Winter Dresses Bad” by Sophie Kemp in GQ
Special thanks to Riya Mahesh (Quiet Light), Vivi Hayes, Kat Brouillette (Locket), and Max Ludlow ~
