What the &%!$ is a vibe vid?!

[vivafringe]

Introduction

For the past two years or so, I’ve been haunted by the word “vibe.”

It started innocently. People complimented my videos by saying they had “good vibes.” I would smile and thank them as if I knew what they were talking about. I assumed “vibe” was some new zoomer lingo that I’d eventually pick up on, like yeet or dab or mood.

I never really figured it out though. I made a video about religion and existential angst. Great vibes! Then I made one about appreciating nature. That one won “Best Vibin’” at RICE2021. Most of me was happy I’d won something, but a part of me wondered what I’d even won. At AWA2022, I set out to make a conventional action AMV with cars running into each other.

??????

Question 1: What the fuck is a vibes video?!

Everything came to a head in RICE2023. Once again, participants voted in “Best Vibes” as a category. Both of my submitted videos ended up as finalists there, and there were a good amount of jokes about that. Then, finally - FINALLY - someone asked what a “vibe” AMV was. At last, I thought, the truth would come to light.

…but no one else knew what a vibe vid was either. At least, they couldn’t give a reasonable definition. Can you, the reader, give a good definition of what a “vibes video” is? Go ahead, I can wait. I’m not even here! These are just words.

The main answer given at RICE2023 was that vibes videos were emotional. But the follow up question was a killer: weren’t all good AMVs based in emotion? Surely something like a “drama” amv has emotion in it, so how is it distinct from “vibes”? Was it even possible to make a “good” AMV that made you feel nothing at all? Eventually the chat collectively gave up. Everyone agreed that you just had to know a good vibe when you saw it.

On one hand it was comforting that I was just as much in the dark as everyone else, but on the other hand this raised even more questions about what was going on. People generally agreed in RICE that “vibes” was distinct from conventional categories like drama, comedy or action. And they could generally agree on which of the videos were part of this category. But no one could properly define the category. All we had to go on was an intentionally vague label. What a vibe.

…anyway, since then, I can’t stop thinking about this stupid word. What is a vibes video? Why are “vibes amvs” so difficult to define? Why does it seem so distinct from traditional categories? And why are nearly all of my videos “vibe-y”? It’s easy to dismiss the whole thing as some sort of mass psychosis, but I don’t think that’s what’s going on. The term resonates too much with people for it to be random.

Months later, I think I have a decent answer. What if the fact that “vibes” is so hard to define is actually a clue to what it means? What if a vibe is something that, by its very nature, eludes traditional language?

The final piece of the puzzle that made everything click for me was a tiny, tiny thing. A minor inconsistency, something barely worth talking about at first glance. CrackTheSky stopped putting titles on his AMVs. No, seriously!

In the past, Crack has talked about the importance of a good title. He makes a good point - a creative title can add something extra to your video. Why waste this opportunity by defaulting to the name of the song? The videos on his main channel all follow this guideline, and have titles that differ from the song. But recently, something drastic happened.

Citing creative burnout (which you can read about here. I found it fascinating) he recently started a new channel, purple bell. All of the videos there have the same title format: Artist - Song [Anime AMV].

His new videos are - dare I say it - much more vibe-y than his old style. And they are suspiciously missing original titles. This didn’t seem like a coincidence, because I’ve struggled to come up with original titles since I started making AMVs. To make a title, I have to consciously explain what my AMV is “about”, and this very act of putting a concept into words seems to harsh the vibe.

With this final clue, I finally found my answer. I think “vibes” videos are defined by their appeal to your subconscious self. This explanation rings true to me because it elegantly explains the open questions I listed above.

Question 2: Why are “vibes” so difficult to describe?

The part of our brain that uses language occupies the same part that our consciousness rests in. Language and consciousness are inextricably linked, to the point that philosophers debate whether it’s even possible to be conscious without language.

If a vibes video were rooted in the subconscious, we would naturally find it difficult to describe with conscious thought. Our attempts at definition could only scrape the surface of what was going on. Words like “vibes”, “emotions”, and “atmosphere” all seem to be pointing toward one thing - the unconscious self.

Question 3: Why are “vibes” distinct from conventional categories?

Traditional AMV categories are rooted in emotional techniques that our conscious minds understand. We have studied “drama” for literal millenia. Everyone has seen countless action films that follow the same basic formula. Romance is a tried and tested genre that we have a million words for.

On the other hand, vibes videos generally push against our conscious understanding. They are flying into the unknown. What is appealing about driving at night? How do you describe the feeling of being born anew? What do we feel when we realize time is always passing, whether we want it to or not? There aren’t great words to describe these emotions. The emotions undoubtedly exist, but mostly only at a subverbal level.

This can make a good vibes video unsettling. It touches against something you barely knew existed.

Question 4: Why are my videos so vibe-y?

I figured this out by thinking backwards. If all of my videos are “vibe-y”, then this has to be linked to the reason I make AMVs at all. And knowing that “vibes” are actually shorthand for “subconscious emotions” put everything into place; I am obsessed with exploring the subconscious self. This is for personal reasons that could fill another entire blogpost, and maybe they will someday, but not today!

Conclusion

Now that I understand what a vibes video is, I can explain how to make one. Stay tuned!