aesthetic

Tumblr kids might want to imagine that they made up aesthetic, but they ultimately have 18th-century German philosopher Alexander Baumgarten for coining aesthetics, recorded in English in the 1760–70s. Treated in ancient and modern philosophy alike, aesthetics considers how humans experience and appreciate beauty, art, and taste.

Fast forward to the 2010s, when the music genre vaporwave helped bring the term aesthetic to the mainstream. Several releases were influential in popularizing the term, including Macintosh Plus’s album Floral Shoppe (2012) and Savvy J’s video  “♋ AESTHETIC ♋” (2013).

Vaporwave had a very defined aesthetic—or the curated appearance or style of something, especially when it comes to a look, art, or design, a sense of the word which dates back to the 1950s. Its album covers featured 1980–90s graphics, bright, airbrushed pinks and purples, and images of classical statues and retro technology. While people in vaporwave culture were proud of their aesthetic, others began to satirize its purported originality online.

Meanwhile, many on social media sites like Tumblr began cultivating blogs with a particular aesthetic, typically based on a particular theme, look, feel, or interest—helping to make this fancy, philosophical work with Greek roots a more common term for “beautiful” or “well-styled.”