Scroll by means of TikTok lengthy sufficient and also you’ll encounter it: a softly spoken twenty-something telling you to throw away half your wardrobe, refuse impulse buys, and embrace the aesthetic purity of a life stripped of muddle. The ‘underconsumption core‘ development is all over the place on YouTube and TikTok, pitched as a remedy for nervousness and a path to monetary readability in an period outlined by inflation and instability. On the floor, it appears innocent, even helpful. But scratch beneath the pastel-washed montages and decluttering diaries, and also you’ll see how these curated existence are reshaping shopper behaviour in ways in which ripple far past IKEA shelving models and Zara hauls.
For musicians already strolling a monetary tightrope, the shift in direction of minimalism isn’t merely about style or life-style; it threatens to chop the final dependable lifeline: merch gross sales. Impartial touring has at all times been a brutal balancing act, however merch—t-shirts, vinyl, posters—has traditionally made the distinction between a loss-making slog and breaking even. Now, in a tradition the place underconsumption is branded as advantage, musicians face yet one more invisible hand pulling followers’ wallets away.
The Rise of Underconsumption Core & Minimalism
Minimalism as a cultural temper isn’t new. It’s been simmering for the reason that Marie Kondo increase, however underconsumptioncore is minimalism’s hyper-online cousin. It frames shopping for much less as each riot and self-care: riot in opposition to the wasteful churn of late capitalism, and self-care within the type of serenity by means of shortage. The movies are hypnotic, typically lovely, and in some ways, they’re an comprehensible response to the suffocating shopper tradition that formed millennials and Gen Z.
However when this philosophy is exported wholesale into music consumption, the cracks present. Music merch will not be mass-produced quick vogue. It’s typically small-batch, regionally printed, typically hand-designed. It funds petrol cash between cities, helps cowl Airbnb prices after venue ensures fall quick, and gives some semblance of stability in a career outlined by precarity. But underconsumption core sweeps it into the identical bin as disposable TikTok devices. It’s consumerism all the identical, we’re instructed, and subsequently inherently suspect. The irony, after all, is that most of the influencers pushing this life-style have affiliate hyperlinks hidden of their bio, monetising the very “moral” decisions they encourage.
Monetary Anxiousness and the New Morality of Spending
Inflation and the cost-of-living disaster have made even small purchases really feel like ethical selections. Each pint, each t-shirt, each Bandcamp vinyl is weighed in opposition to payments, hire, or the looming shadow of debt. On this local weather, influencers current minimalism not simply as a monetary necessity however as a type of purity. The much less you purchase, the extra virtuous you might be. It faucets into the collective guilt of a era that grew up with local weather disaster, housing insecurity, and infinite messaging about overconsumption.
The issue is, this morality is blunt. It doesn’t differentiate between shopping for a fourth H&M jumper and shopping for a zine at a merch desk from an artist who drove seven hours to play to 30 folks. Impartial musicians aren’t Zara. They aren’t SHEIN. They’re a part of the cultural infrastructure that retains native scenes alive. When merch is demonised beneath the umbrella of “senseless consumption,” we find yourself erasing the nuance between exploitative world provide chains and survival-level grassroots economies.
Touring within the Age of Frugality
For artists, the prices of touring are spiralling. Petrol costs are up. Lodging is scarcer and dearer. Venues take their minimize, promoters take theirs, and streaming royalties don’t stretch far sufficient to cowl petrol receipts, not to mention wages. Merch has traditionally plugged these gaps. In lots of circumstances, it’s the one purpose excursions occur in any respect.
But we’re now seeing a generational shift the place followers, armed with minimalist mantras, hesitate on the merch desk. That hesitation is catastrophic. One sold-out t-shirt design is likely to be the monetary hinge on which a whole tour rests. With out that earnings, artists reduce touring, and the cultural material frays. Native scenes lose momentum. Followers get fewer alternatives to see bands in sweaty rooms, the very locations the place lifelong musical connections are made.
And let’s not neglect the psychological price. Musicians are already working inside an financial construction that treats their ardour as disposable. To then stand at a merch desk, watch followers drift previous with the justification that they’re “reducing again,” and know that the web has reframed your survival device as an pointless indulgence, is a particular form of cruelty.
The “You Will Personal Nothing” Paranoia
There’s one other angle right here: the rhetoric that sits beneath these minimalist pushes. Phrases like “you’ll personal nothing and be blissful” had been as soon as dismissed as conspiracy concept paranoia, however they’ve seeped into mainstream discourse. Influencers wrap it in mindfulness and aesthetics, however the message aligns neatly with a system that already needs to strip us of possession. Streaming has already redefined music as entry, not possession. Spotify doesn’t promote you albums; it rents you sound. Netflix, Kindle Limitless, cloud gaming—the whole lot factors in direction of a future the place possession is changed by subscription.
In opposition to this backdrop, the anti-merch messaging of underconsumptioncore doesn’t look unintentional. Whether or not consciously or not, influencers are conditioning audiences to see bodily possession as a burden, an outdated indulgence. For artists, that’s a nightmare situation.. Stripping possession from music reduces it to background noise, devoid of a bodily anchor.
Conclusion
Minimalism and the hype of underconsumption core aren’t inherently malicious. They stem from actual anxieties, actual frustrations with capitalism’s infinite churn. However when these philosophies bleed uncritically into music tradition, they threat ravenous the very artists who soundtrack the lives of their followers. It’s one factor to reject Amazon hauls. It’s one other to flatten all consumption into the identical ethical class, erasing the distinction between quick vogue waste and a limited-run t-shirt that funds a band’s survival.
If followers need music scenes to outlive, they’ll must see past the aesthetic of underconsumption. Supporting artists isn’t muddle. It’s neighborhood. It’s resistance to the concept that artwork ought to exist with out materials help. Impartial musicians are already preventing uphill battles in opposition to streaming economics, inflation, and dwindling venues. To desert them on the merch desk beneath the banner of minimalism is to let algorithms and influencers resolve what tradition survives.
Article by Amelia Vandergast
