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2022: Creating a Lexicon of Future
V is for Vibe Shift
A ‘Vibe Shift’ is a term that refers to the zeitgeist changing. Coined by Sean Monahan, creator of a weekly newsletter called 8Ball and coincidentally also the person who invented the term ‘normcore’, a ‘Vibe Shift’ is more micro than merely summing up an era by decade.
There can be a few ‘Vibe Shifts’ per decade; for example, in the early aughts we experienced the diamanté, fliptop phone period dominated by Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, tabloid magazines and low-rise everything. But in the later aughts the hipster/indie trend seeped in, bearing with it its own unique set of pop cultural figures, music, style, ways of thinking, prized publications, humour, and cultural markers. Think Cheap Monday skinny jeans, Tumblr, thick side fringes…don’t make me go on.
Some people will minimise the ‘Vibe Shift’ as part and parcel of simply getting older: “that’s just called growing up”. But this perspective feels like an oversimplification, as though they’ve taken the term out of context. The ‘Vibe Shift’ also isn’t something that needs be feared, it isn’t a memento mori sent down by the lords of culture to send us into a state of panic. It occurs both separate to us and because of us. And since the pandemic has made time feel as slow-going as wading through a vat of molasses, where all pop cultural events, no matter how small are felt and therefore rigorously cross-examined, we have the perfect vantage point to witness the so-called ‘vibe shift’ roll in. ~ Vibe Shift Explainer
