"Pop culture is not about depth. It's about marketing, supply and demand, consumerism"

Trevor Dunn draws a clear line between the expressive intent often attributed to culture and the primary forces driving popular culture in society. He suggests that what is widely referred to as "pop culture" doesn't arise from a search for profound meaning, but from mechanisms more closely aligned with economics and trends. Pop culture thrives on visibility, accessibility, and widespread appeal rather than complexity or depth; its artifacts, songs, films, fashion, memes, are designed to saturate public awareness, to sell, to be shared and adopted quickly.

At its core, marketing plays a key role in elevating certain cultural elements into the realm of the "popular". Music or clothes may become popular not because of their intellectual or emotional richness, but because of strategic promotional campaigns, branding, and the creation of desires within consumers. Advertising narratives may suggest that buying into a trend is synonymous with belonging or authenticity, yet underlying this is the simple transaction of supply and demand.

Supply and demand indicate that pop culture responds directly to what audiences want, or what they are conditioned to want. Producers monitor trends, analyze which genres, characters, or aesthetics are most likely to capture attention, and adapt their output accordingly. If shuffle dances or superhero sequels are in demand, then those are produced at scale, often with little regard for originality or substance.

Consumerism, the third element in Dunn’s assessment, underlines the cyclical nature of pop culture. Consumers are encouraged to participate by purchasing, wearing, listening, and sharing the latest thing, all of which produces profit and feeds back into the production cycle. The result is a culture driven less by genuine artistic exploration and more by what can be packaged, sold, and consumed en masse. By emphasizing these dynamics, Dunn exposes the ways in which pop culture serves and is propelled by commercial rather than creative or philosophical imperatives.