I think the author's point isn't that it's easier, it's the fact that being in an isolated, low judgmental environment allows you to express edgy ideas more uniquely without the prepackaged style you often find in big cities, where fashion brands and think tanks have heavy interests in selling you the next big thing.
A good example in Europe is how Berlin went from being a cheap city with loads of artistic freedom to a place where people wait in line for hours outside a club just to find out if their black leather shirt is edgy enough. They're all trying to stand out, but somehow they all end up looking the same.
"low judgmental environment"? You have not grown up in a rural environment, have you?
Having grown up in a village of ~250, I can assure you that it's about as judgmental (and conformist) as it gets. And if you want to step it up a notch, try moving to a village of that size in the mountains.
Albany, the city referenced in the article, has a million people in its metro area. Yeah, rural areas tend to be ultra-conformist in most places; mid-size cities, less so.
There's a massive spectrum between NYC and a tiny village. Almost every place you can live is in between. Why bring up such extremes when the author is talking about more common places?
Author's example of Newmarket is over 80k people. They just mention Tiny town goths as an idea that does exist - not something extremely common.
I think parent was trying to make the point that it is not linear progression, but more bathtub curve where very small places and big cities are similar dead zones. Goth town sweet spot is in the middle.
At least in Colorado, living in the mountains was so you could live a little more freely. I will say living in a large city certainly has different freedoms. It’s far easier to find your people for example.
SLC Punk! Is a “good” movie about subculture conformity.
The interesting part, which was also mentioned in the article, is that each individual seems unaware that they all look the same. A friend of mine once said, referring to people from Friedrichshain: „Die sind alle so individuell, dass sie alle schon wieder gleich aussehen.“ (They all have such individual styles that they end up looking the same.)
The sameness is just the carrier wave; the signal is in the details. To people immersed in the subculture, it doesn't look the same at all! You can experience the same phenomenon by listening to an unfamiliar genre of music: it will all sound the same at first, but once you've tuned your ears to the conventions of the genre, you'll start to hear where the variation lives, and the idea that it all sounds the same will come to feel absurd.
Big communities are more diverse and easier to find like-minded people. Good if you want to blend in whilst being part of a subculture.
However, if the point is to stand out/be different then small, more homogenous communities present a great opportunity for those with the requisite confidence or apathy
A good example in Europe is how Berlin went from being a cheap city with loads of artistic freedom to a place where people wait in line for hours outside a club just to find out if their black leather shirt is edgy enough. They're all trying to stand out, but somehow they all end up looking the same.