Good Vibes Only: Phenomenology and the Biopolitics of Algorithmic Legitimation

"Good Vibes Only argues that we are in a new era where legitimation and its internal standards have replaced normalization and its external referents, and that this shift can be demonstrated through the rise of discussion of vibes, especially in pop music songs and delivery mechanisms, given the sonic dimensions of vibration. The book follows Robin James's earlier work The Sonic Episteme in attending to the relationship between biopower's quantitative and qualitative dimensions. Vibes, James argues, are qualitative categories that define the same tendencies that probability graphs model as vectors or orientations. Vibe checks, following this line of thought, assess something other than the disciplinary and regulatory norms characteristic of traditional models of biopower. Thus, while Foucauldian biopower weaves together qualitative and quantitative norms, "vibe checks" weaves together qualitative and quantitative orientations. These orientations in turn allow power to address not only the present reality of human life, but also counterfactual and speculative future capacities"-- Provided by publisher.