By the early 2010s, most microgenres were linked and defined through various outlets on the Internet, usually as part of generating popularity and hype for a newly perceived trend.
[3] Historically, musical microgenres were usually labelled by writers seeking to define a new style by linking together a group of seemingly disparate artists.
[6] For example, when Lenny Kaye invoked the phrase "garage-punk" in liner notes for the 1971 compilation Nuggets, it effectively created a style of rock music that, until then, was nameless and lingering in obscurity.
[7] The process of recognition for "power pop" was similarly formulated by a circle of rock writers who advocated their own annotated history of the genre.
[12] This 21st-century "microgenre explosion" was partly a consequence of "software advances, faster internet connections, and the globalized proliferation of music".
"[14] In 2010, The Atlantic's Llewellyn Hinkes Johns referenced the succession of chillwave, glo-fi, and hypnagogic pop as a "prime example" of a cycle involving the invention of a new category that is quickly and "brazenly denounced, sometimes in the same article".
"[20] PopMatters' Thomas Britt argued that the "staggering number of niches created by writers and commenters to 'distinguish' musical acts is ultimately binding.
"[21] The spread of digital publishing in the 21st century led to the rise of ever-more niche microgenres in literature – from Amish romance to NASCAR passion.