**TL;DR- In more recent times, subcultures are being commodified at a faster rate making them more accessible to the general public and intergraded into the mainstream.** Subcultures (or communities) are basically everywhere nowadays; whether you are a gamer, sports fan, skater, or vegan, everyone has a subculture nowadays, or at least at one point identified with one back in their youth. But many of these subcultures are going through a process of commodification, or the transformation of goods, services, ideas, nature, personal information, or people into commodities or objects of trade [1]. Many subcultures understandably rely on a level of financial investments like cosplaying, which is understandable, but I'm not talking about those types of commodities. I am referring to the transformation of a subculture into a product you can buy or profit from in a way that was not intended. The most notable example of this is the commodification of the hipster/indie style and their preferences and symbols. A decade ago, being hipster/indie meant rejecting the mainstream and living a more ironic lifestyle, but it really didn't take long before they were swallowed by the mainstream media and turned into some joke, and remnants left of their fashion have become Walmart-level of mainstream. The process of commodification is not only ending trends more quickly by making them more mainstream, but it's also making them accessible to the point of meaninglessness. For example, purchasing the expensive goth attires without being goth is a trend of its own; looking like a goth/emo no longer means you listen to heavy music or are part of any other things associated with the subculture. If you have the money to afford to look like a goth, you can be goth [2]. This may seem harmless, but some subcultures do have important origins and rituals. Tattoos, piercings, and other types of body modification used to be a subculture of their own in the 1950s. Only poor males living in impoverished socio-economic conditions had tattoos and were part of that subculture. Over the years, body modifications became associated with the rejection of modernity and the counterculture movements of the 1960s-1970s as a symbol of resistance. As these rebellious trends from the subculture become popular to the general public, mainstream culture reclaims the trend and uses it to generate further demand for the culture and consumer industries [3]. The mainstream culture does not interest in the origins of expression behind these tattoos; they're just taken as a style that could be generalized, torn from its precise contextual meaning. This integration and commodification of body modification erased their origins by reorganizing workshop practices, markets, regulating technology, and formalizing occupational career permits and processes [3]. Subcultures becoming mainstream is not a new concept, but the accessibility of the internet and mass social media interconnectivity makes this happen much quicker. Again I don't think this is good or bad—this is just a general comment. [1] Commodification https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodification [2] Reddit: Controversial question! Do you believe that someone can be goth (fashion, interest, aesthetic wise) and not enjoy goth music? https://www.reddit.com/r/goth/comments/ahy1yz/controversial_question_do_you_believe_that/ [3] Modified People: Indicators of a Body Modification Subculture in a Post-Subculture World https://www-jstor-org.uidaho.idm.oclc.org/stable/pdf/44016774.pdf?ab_segments=0%252Fbasic_search_gsv2%252Ftest&refreqid=excelsior%3A747c18dfe58bea780d3b85ae74081021