Vibes Diaries (an explainer and introduction)
Ocean Spray Guy, Self-Conscious Author Vibes and platform CAPITALISM
hi! I’m reviving this substack. hope that’s chill.
no worries if not!
It’s going to be a bit different now for reasons that are both profound and playful. Profoundly playful?
In this newsletter’s previous iteration I was working on forming what the internet calls “takes.”
“Takes” are what make the discourse go round. They are also making the world go to objectively shitty ruin. They’re like these little polished morsels of discourse that forgo nuance for argumentative and stylistic flourish with additional points for ironic detachment and a sort of ideological extremism that scoffs at hope. I mean, I was trying to get at this thing called “truth” as I perceived it in my writing, but I found myself anxious at the prospect of having to make my ideas so legible. So self assured. I can barely understand myself, let alone global decline.
So I’m pivoting. To video? To “Vibes.”
I have a lot to say about vibes. I’m actually writing a thesis on how Spotify categorises vibes — chill, queer, indie, fall, to name a few — and uses those auditory-cultural distinctions to shape indivdual taste and mass aestehtics. Heady stuff. I hope that this substack can be a way of communicating some of my academic inquiries in a more informal setting. Where the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City can coexist with Lacan. Or whatever.
(My “whatever” expresses a self-consciously casual vibe. and this parenthetical remark is giving off a JEWISH PSYCHO-ANALYSIS-ENJOYER NEUROTIC BOY vibes. hmm.)
I’m using vibes here as defined by philosopher Robin James. She defines vibes as the “sympathetic resonance” between things across medium and form.
In its most obvious state, we can think of the many Tik Toks associated and tagged with the hashtag “vibes.” These videos combine strong visuals with well-suited audio, the combination of which expresses an overall aesthetic aura that can be hard to concretely name but is nevertheless unmistakably harmonious. Remember this guy?
This video of Nathan Apodaca or @420doggface208 skating alongside a golden-hour highway while drinking a medical amount of Ocean Spray cranberry juice and lip syncing to Fleetwood Mac’s hit song “Dreams” went astronomically viral during the fall of 2020. It sounds silly, but I think this video has an unmistakable vibe. All of its elements are in such resonance with one another. The effortless whoosh of Apodaca as he glides down the highway. The serene calm of his camera work. His sturdy arm remaining unshaky in midst of vibrant motion. The calm in which he holds the too-huge carton. The song, it’s hard, angular rhythm against the lush steel string wahs. Stevie Nicks’s tender, roaming vocals. The tattoo of a feather that graces the back of his neck. The sunset.
What are these vibes? Skater vibes? Carefree vibes? Almost all of the comments do concur that at the very least, this video is a vibe. And “vibe” on its own refers to a specific vibe. The vibe. A sense of harmony and calm. All things in their right place, vibing.
In this under-20-second video we sense a resonance between disparate objects, sounds and people. The culmination of which forms this video’s undoubtable vibe. But this expression of the seminal “vibe,” this serene, aspirational vibe, should not be confused with the broader concept of vibes: that is the resonance between things, the nature of which can span from the spooky to seductive, in all directions infinitely.
To give off some academic, social theorist vibes let me ask: what’s at stake here? Why care to explore or even define vibes? Is this whole business of exploring how disparate objects resonate with one another simply a way for me to hypothetically type the words “libertarian crossfit drinks mushrooms??? VIBES'' with an air of academic self satisfaction? Yes. But there is also a real socio-cultural dilemma embedded in all of this. And I’m beginning to think (and fear) that this silly conversation has deep implications for the future of capitalism and culture.
James has conceptualized the idea of “vibes capitalism,” a term that I thank God everyday I get to use. In essence “vibes capitalism” refers to the recent turn in late-stage capitalism, which is defined by large internet platforms that mediate our digital experiences via various algorithmic recommendation systems. The most obvious examples of these algorithms are Tik Tok’s “For You Page” and its endless scroll of curated content, or Youtube’s recommendations tab, or Spotify’s weekly mix of personalized song recommendations titled “Discover Weekly.” All of these algorithms explicitly mediate your digital experience through their understanding of what they think you’re interested in.
But curatorial algorithms are diffuse throughout the digital platforms we use. Amazon recommends products based on your recent searches and purchases. Facebook curates your feed based on what you interact with the most. You may not get a banner pop-up telling you that what you're interfacing with is a curated experience for you and you alone, but the logic of individuated curation abounds.
Internet platforms have access to vast swaths of personalized data, from your GPS location to all the micro-behaviours you exhibit on their platforms. These platforms then take your data and compare it with those who exhibit similar behavior (and often share similar demographic labels as you) and then make predictions from this array of individual and mass aggregated information. They are guessing your vibe. And controlling your feed, in all of its various forms, according to that ideal of you.
Vibes to them are models, horizons they think you are heading towards. They view us as “vectors” perennially heading towards a place. And for them that place is rife with profit and possibility. When my Spotify deems that I have “queer vibes,” as it evidently has based on my music recomendations, it is making both a statement about me and what it deems as legitimately queer. It’s saying that because it can discern this element of me, I will like music that sounds and feels like this. And this is queerness. Listen, enjoy, consume. I’m fascinated by what is constructed and lost in that algorithmic shuffle. What is queerness to Spotify? Fuck. What is queerness to me?
My Spotify app homepage . . . hmmmmm
Vibes capitalism is not about giving you what you want, but discerning how to give you what an algorithm thinks you want. Because you like posts on twitter about cryptocurrency, you will be interested in this NFT start up, and maybe even want to buy a subscription to this self-optimizing supplements company. Because you listen to hours of instrumental music, that is probably what you listen to while doing work and hey would you be interested in reading this book about improving your study habits? Because you often listen to Arca and Caroline Polacheck, you’re probably a gay man and huzzah: an ad for pure for men fiber sex-wellness pills on Instagram. And in that stupid, silly example, a vast array of disparate objects and situations come together — music, identity, sexual activity, lifestyle. That’s what vibes are in vibes capitalism. The ringing resonance across space and materiality. A constructed connection that projects a vision of reality in hopes of shaping it.
So in this Substack I will explore what objects across culture and commerce resonate with one another. I want to name the vibes they emulate. And in doing so, consider the ways in which internet recommendation platforms are defining these vibes, missing crucial components of our infinite complexities, and shaping culture through their curatorial tools. I have a feeling the implications run deep. But first, I have to sketch it out. So stay tuned, k?