The Last Mainstream
Sean Monahan on the shift to vibes:
Vibes have become our preferred unit of measurement because they work well to describe a culture that is in the process of fragmenting. Vibe shift worked well to describe the moment millennials handed the baton to Gen Z as the stewards of youth culture because Gen Z will likely be the last generation to remember any semblance of a mainstream, just as millennials are the last generation to remember a time before the internet.
The mainstream gave you something to agree with or something to push against. A vibe gives you neither.
You can't count a culture that isn't looking at the same thing.
So you take its temperature instead.