(Yes, Boomers, this is about you.)
PREAMBLE FOR THE AESTHETICALLY DISPLACED
There was a time when youth subcultures were legible. You were a Jock, a Punk, a Prep, or maybe that kid with the trench coat who listened to Joy Division or Bauhaus and made everyone nervous in Homeroom. Identity was visible. Subcultures were social. You learned them through clothes, music, and that one older cousin who smoked clove cigarettes and knew what a zine was. You picked your clique from a short curated list and wore the uniform, those were the rules.
But now?
Now identity is algorithmic.
Today’s tribes don’t hang out at the mall… they hang in the margins of the For You Page, whispering in TikTok filters and Pinterest boards. Their slogans are hashtags. Their idols are moodboards. Their style? Fragmented, hyper-specific, and shrouded in the suffix -core.
“Cottagecore. Weirdcore. Barbiecore. Corpsecore. Kidcore. Angelcore. Normcore. Clowncore. Cryptidcore.”
Each one a new identity. Each one curated, tagged, fed into the machine and spat back out with sparkles and anxiety.”
And you, dear reader, born before 1985 and still holding on to “yuppie” like it means something — you’ve been left behind.
But don’t worry. We see you. And more importantly, we’ve made you a field guide.
You’re welcome.
What Is a “Core”?
Think of -core as the algorithm’s version of a clique. A micro-aesthetic. A digital tribe. It isn’t about politics, philosophy, or music anymore. It’s about vibe.
You don’t join a core, you curate one.
To “be” a core is to:
- Dress like your feed looks
- Post like your playlist sounds
- Reblog your inner child, your inner monster, your inner moth
In other words: You are what you moodboard.
Where Does Core Culture Live?
Not in reality.
Not in your town.
Not even on the real internet.
Cores live in:
- TikTok: Where teens perform ‘personality’ for strangers and their future therapists.
- Instagram: Still clinging to its grip on visual supremacy.
- Pinterest: Where the soul of the core is born — infinite scrolling, no comments, no shame.
- Tumblr: Alive, barely. Dreaming in the vapor of trauma.
- Discord: Where subcores splinter into sub-subcores and drama occurs at the speed of serotonin depletion.
So How Do I Do a Core?
Simple. You don’t live it. You simulate it.
- Pick an aesthetic
- Find the filter
- Download the playlist
- Post the outfit
- Pretend you have time to read the books you staged next to your espresso
- Repeat, switch cores when bored
Caution: Actual belief systems not included.
THE CORE-VERSE GLOSSARY
(A few samplings from the aesthetic soup.)
1. COTTAGECORE
Aesthetic: Soft-focus peasantry. Wildflowers in your hair, linen in your closet, butter on your windowsill.
Playlist: Indie folk, acoustic covers, birdsong, Phoebe Bridgers whispering pain into a jar of jam.
Scene: Looks like a Jane Austen adaptation where everyone is gluten-free and emotionally unavailable.
Warning: At least 40% of participants live in apartments with black mold.
2. GOBLINCORE
Aesthetic: Dirt-worshipping forest creature who hoards shiny objects and trauma.
Playlist: Field recordings of frogs, medieval bardcore, chaotic folk punk, Fiona Apple yelling at a cloud.
Scene: Digital swamp dwellers; Etsy jewelry makers with bags under their eyes.
Currency: Bottle caps and forest moss.
3. DARK ACADEMIA
Aesthetic: Melancholy scholar trapped in perpetual autumn. Wears tweed. Quotes dead philosophers at brunch.
Playlist: Classical piano, The Smiths (problematic edition), lo-fi Beethoven, Dead Can Dance.
Scene: Pretending to study in candlelit libraries while dissociating from capitalism.
Core Mood: Elegantly sad and literate. Possibly British, even if from Pasadena.
4. FAIRYCORE
Aesthetic: Gossamer wings, glitter on mushrooms, whispers in glades. Think: glittery psychosis.
Playlist: Enya’s cousin on ketamine. Harp loops. Bedroom synth-pop with reverb set to “mystic.”
Scene: Forest TikTok, DIY spell jars, girls named Elowyn who don’t answer texts.
Warning: May attract feral cats and unstable men.
5. CLEAN GIRL CORE
Aesthetic: Glazed skin, slicked hair, beige everything. Peak performative minimalism.
Playlist: Lo-fi luxury, SZA, TikTok’s Top 40 slowed down to a whisper.
Scene: Trader Joe’s, pilates studios, the inside of a skincare fridge.
Core Message: Effortless beauty that takes four hours and a trust fund.
6. CLOWNCORE
Aesthetic: Rainbow chaos, oversized fashion, intentional absurdity. Mismatched socks. Nihilist glee. Yuck.
Playlist: Hyperpop. Circus samples. Screaming. PC Music.
Scene: Zoomers who weaponize cringe to kill shame.
Slogan: If life is a joke, I might as well honk.
7. WEIRDCORE
Aesthetic: Liminal spaces, blurry childhood dreams, VHS purgatory.
Playlist: Ambient dread. Drones. Boards of Canada being haunted by Windows 95.
Scene: Image dumps that feel like a panic attack at Chuck E. Cheese.
Core Emotion: “I’ve been here before, but I was someone else.”
8. BARBIECORE
Aesthetic: Hyper-pink ‘femininity’ weaponized into aesthetic maximalism. Bimbo becomes theory and then practice.
Playlist: Aqua, Charli XCX, hyperpop, RuPaul’s drag race deep cuts.
Scene: Mall nostalgia meets radical femininity.
Tagline: “Come on Barbie, let’s dismantle the patriarchy.”
9. ROYALCORE
Aesthetic: Velvet gowns, candlelight, Versailles cosplay. Monarchist fantasy with no political awareness.
Playlist: Harpsichord-core. Florence Welch. Dramatic cinematic string sections.
Scene: People who wish they were betrothed at 14 and executed at 22 for love.
Status: Tragically divine.
10. CORPSECORE
Aesthetic: Decomposition but make it fashion. Gothic rot. Victorian mourning filtered through Tumblr trauma.
Playlist: Chelsea Wolfe, True Detective Season 1, slowed-down Gregorian chanting.
Scene: Ghosts with Instagram.
Scent: Damp velvet and ancestral grief.
Final Note for the Overwhelmed
Dear Boomers, Gen-Xers, and anyone whose identity was forged before hashtags: No, you’re not supposed to understand all this. Yes, the kids are (mostly) okay. And no, it’s not a cult (unless you count Etsy). What else did you expect them to cobble together out of the ashes of a burned out civilization?
You survived disco, Nixon, and ‘pop-up’ video.
You can survive this too.
Just remember: You are not what you wear. You are what the algorithm thinks you want to wear.
Don’t believe me? Fine, just ask your kid.
Filed under: Algorithmic Culture, Micro-Identity, Trends That Eat Themselves
Written by: Clemency Grave, Music Editor, Senior Vibe Cartographer (retired dark-academic now painting frogs in a barn)
Glossary curated by: The Mirror Core Containment Unit