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Liminal Lite - Edition 1
73 Plays10 months ago
Liminal Lite is our bite-sized bonus series — quick reflections under 10 minutes, recorded when the world throws a pop culture curveball that sends us spiralling back into childhood memories. These are little brain dumps, triggered when today's trends echo something oddly familiar from the '80s, '90s or early 2000s.
In each Liminal Lite, we explore the cyclical nature of culture — how things return, reshape, and remind us who we were. This edition is about YungBlud and how he is confusing Sab's algorithm.
Credits
Created, hosted, written, produced and edited by Sabrina Hilton & Genevieve Teasdale.
Artwork by Sabrina Hilton
This podcast includes music and sound effects that are licensed for use through Epidemic Sound
Theme and transition music: Reaching Out by Dovetail
https://www.epidemicsound.com/music/tracks/1a2fa0a8-c84f-3aa7-8092-6d3f6048e881/
Recommended
Transcript
Daily Realizations on Millennial Culture
00:00:04
Speaker
Sissy, it's just I'm having all of these day-to-day realisations. Current culture is really echoing bits of our millennial culture. Mm-hmm.
00:00:15
Speaker
And so I want to spend five minutes just like chatting through these things and processing them and sorting them out together.
Cyclical Nature of Culture
00:00:22
Speaker
These Liminal Light episodes are about the cyclical nature of culture and how as you get older and that cycle comes back around, you feel attacked.
00:00:33
Speaker
Yep.
00:00:36
Speaker
Awesome.
Youngblood's Influence on Social Media Algorithms
00:00:36
Speaker
Love it. The one for me this week is, and some of us listening to this might need to do like a little bit of research because I'm mentioning something quite current.
00:00:47
Speaker
um So there is an artist called Youngblood. So that's spelt with U's instead of O's. He is... Emo, punk rock, he's having a having a moment in the biggest way. So he's been around for a while, but he's had like this crazy glow up.
00:01:03
Speaker
ah Now he's got a new album. Everyone's salivating over this guy. He's a bit of all right, that's for sure. but He's a little bit of all right. And so um maybe I've been perving him on Instagram a bit.
00:01:17
Speaker
No comment. and And it has immediately like polluted my algorithm. Mm. And I think it says a lot about Instagram or what Instagram thinks about me.
00:01:30
Speaker
So Youngblood's music and aesthetic, it's very, very Billy Idol. yeah Yeah. Not Billy Eilish, Billy Idol from the 80s. So the song White Wedding and Youngblood obviously knows this because he brought Billy Idol on stage with him. that's great. And they they sang White Wedding the other day. So he's fully conscious of what he's doing.
00:01:55
Speaker
um But he's a very interesting and engaging and self-aware young man aside from being a bit of all right. um Yes.
Instagram's Generational Aesthetic Targeting
00:02:04
Speaker
i have I have seen some some footage of him talking. he seems to be really switched on.
00:02:09
Speaker
Yep. Definitely, which is refreshing. And so what does Instagram think when I'm, when I've been looking at a few videos of young blood? Well, Instagram always overcompensates. It's like, do you watch one video of this? Does it mean it's your entire personality and feeds you too much related stuff and it's not always right? So what I found is it is now pushing me all these videos because it knows my age. It's pushing me all these videos of Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
00:02:39
Speaker
Yes. I think I've been getting those too. I just needed to know. no it's me too. But I mean, look, we also have very similar algorithms, but obviously I didn't make that connection until now, but I've been getting all these like videos as well.
00:02:57
Speaker
So there's something about that that's definitely making a connection, that algorithm is making a connection between those two. Oh, my God, that's so funny. Yes, because Spike as a character was was the ah vampire the vampire version of Billy Idol.
00:03:12
Speaker
It's very, very obvious. um And so that they're they're like this little triad or something. It's Youngblood and Spike from Bobby the Vampire and Billy Idol all sharing this aesthetic.
00:03:23
Speaker
Yeah. And so that keeps coming through. But it's weirdly not sending sending me any Billy Idol because it's like, you're not a boomer, you're a millennial. So you're going to but you're goingnna get the millennial version of this aesthetic, which is Spike.
00:03:37
Speaker
Those poor Jet Xs. Did you purposely leave them out?
Do Gen X and Millennials Receive Different Content?
00:03:40
Speaker
Because I feel like they're actually the ones that are probably most connected to Billy Idol. ah they'd get it too. Oh. Oh, forever forgotten, Jet X. Oh, what?
00:03:50
Speaker
Forever forgotten. apologise. i haven't forgotten you. You're probably cursed. You'll probably get a bit of both. You'll get a more confusing algorithm pushed to you. That would be great to know if we have any Chen X's on here.
00:04:05
Speaker
If you've seen Youngblood and you have sort of watched a few of his videos, has your algorithm given you Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer or are you actually getting a bit of Billy Idol? It would actually be really great to know.
Spike and Youngblood: The 'Bad Boy' Appeal
00:04:18
Speaker
Yes, this is a theory and it's a hypothesis. I'd love to test it. Yeah, let us know. So I don't mind that. I think that's funny. I think also Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a bit of all right too, so I'm happy to watch that.
00:04:30
Speaker
Oh, absolutely. He was like the bad boy, right? When you compare him to Angel and Angel was supposed to be like the sensitive one and, you know, but you know he was cute, like he's cute enough. But like there was just something about Spike that was like way more alluring, like in terms of just being a bad boy but also being like a bit soft at heart but you didn't see it much.
Music Algorithms and Unwanted Emo Nostalgia
00:04:49
Speaker
And there was definitely something going on at points and times with him and Buffy, which was so interesting and made that storyline was so titillating.
00:05:01
Speaker
Yeah, they had an enemies to lovers thing. Yeah. But then i was listening to one of Youngblood's songs and you know after you listen to a single song, um your music app will be well just start pushing you songs that are related to it.
00:05:15
Speaker
Yeah. And so now I've ruined my music algorithm too because it's like you want to listen to Panic at the Disco. I'm like, no, I don't. I don't. I don't want to listen to Panic! At the Disco!
00:05:27
Speaker
And it's sending me all those songs now, so I'm just like, I've ruined everything. I'm going to have to do like a reset or just go back to listening to more of my normal music so I can just correct the algorithm. Yeah, you've got to even out.
00:05:39
Speaker
But it's trying to send me emo stuff from like the early 2000s and I don't want it. Like, if that's what you like, fine. I won't yuck your yum. I don't like that though. I don't want it playing in my car, so...
Reflections on Pop Culture's Echoes
00:05:53
Speaker
So that's my reflection for this week and what's been turning around in my head related to current pop culture and how it's how it's mirroring stuff from when we grew up.
00:06:04
Speaker
Love it. I reckon we're going to have more of these chats. Yeah, yeah. That was great. Thanks, Izzy.