Is anyone into Vaporwave?

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Is anyone into Vaporwave? I find the movement is fascinating, albeit a bit orientalist, but still feel like a lot of innovative art and music has come out directly and sometimes indirectly related to the genre in recent years. I see the way it has spilled into mainstream consciousness and capitalist aesthetic without it knowing it is vaporwave which i find ironic. Well, it is a fitting irony for a movement trying to reframe old capitalist affect and aesthetic through the lenses of the millennial's nostalgia.

Do you think the movement is a force of good? what artists do you like?

No. Vaporwave is a derivative form of electronic music. The style is defined by its appropriation of 1980s and 1990s mood music styles such as smooth jazz, elevator music, R&B, and lounge music; typically through sampling, looping, and/or manipulating tracks -- much like no-talent DJs and rap 'artists'.

that's just the superficial top layer of what vaporwave and its relatives are tho. there are a lot of interesting artists making vaporwave records / art. like HK Express, Vektroid n Daniel Lopatin.

and even if you don't like the art and music produced *directly* from the movement it's wider influence on how music and art are made and the aesthetic behind it (e.g. neon/ cyberpunk/ dystopian) is hugely prevalent in today's mainstream and non mainstream. e.g. see this artist - https://www.instagram.com/p/BjGLVASjiwG ... eeple_crap

and the video for "catch feels" seems to be drawing from vaporwave fused with future funk.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozv4q2ov3Mk

plus, it makes for some great memes!

visually, it occasionally has some good stuff - like some of the stuff on te instagram you linked to.
that music video is a prime example of what Fnord points at. it looks like a video from the early nineties.
there used to be a time, some ten, fifteen years ago, when this was done ironically. and then people forgot how awful it was, aesthetically, in the early nineties, and now it's avant-garde to post-ironically repeat the same s**t, without adding to it, or recycling it, but enacting it as a viable form, disconnected from its historical context....
it's taking a period and treating it as a mere style.
it's the neon version of mumford and sons -

The only thing that makes Vaporwave a viable means of expression is that anyone with a large music library, a personal computer, and music sampling/editing software can become an instant Vaporwave star.

Did anyone notice that I left out 'talent' as a prerequisite for stardom as a Vaporwave 'artist'?

I like some songes that happen to be.

well, "talent" is not rly my concern - i just like the movement's ideas / vibe - it's funny and feels fresh for a millennial (didn't soak up all the ironic counter culture in the 90's as i was... well, a baby xD forgive my youth)

process is important but it's the end result that counts right?

this one i think is totally original --


sample based --


one i rly like --

Last edited by Gallia on 19 Jul 2018, 4:21 am, edited 1 time in total.

lol well... i myself am tempted make some vaporwave inspired by our s**t political climate xD

and while 70% of it is admittedly pretty bad (still enjoyable tho - like mackintosh plus) there is still an excellent 30% of sick vaporwave/ cyberpunk ~

I grew up in a house with one. Made a lot of drawings in MacPaint that I printed on a b/w inkjet printer which made a horrible screeching sound as it made my masterpieces come to life one black line at a time.

From the incredibly little I know about vaporwave, it seems to like sampling 80s Japanese smooth pop songs. I like those.

i rly think vaporwavers are just a bunch of weaboos who grew up watching anime

also in terms of vaporwave influence i think 80's japanese alternative pop is pretty big -

like this one <3


oh and ofc, plastic love has been making *waves* on youtube this yr

lucky! i rly wanted one as a kid. we had a sh***y household computer that i was only allowed to use a couple hrs per day.

Haha, that's funny, because if I ask anyone around here about that, their reaction is probably going to be ... and "Why do people want to listen to that now...?" Having said that, there's a sort-of 80s revival inside Japan too. It was the "bubble" era, when the economy was booming and everything was great ... sort of the opposite to what it is now.


It was basically just an expensive toy for my father. Impressed people a lot in the late 80s to present memos with graphics from the Apple clipart library. But damn, the mouse was smooth on that computer ... it was easier to draw with it than it is on a workstation today.

yes! exactly - i enjoy the distortion of early capitalist optimism into this bastardised dystopian nonsense. the informational overload of terrible vaporwave/cyberpunk art adds to this 'trash/ recycling culture'. it's complete chaos at first but once you join the dots it makes sense. we are a generation completely overpowered by capital affect and our aspirations/ideals are based on it more than any other generations before. it's super depressing but having the ability to make stuff just for the sake of it feels like the purest act of rebellion. that's how i interpret it anyway, but of course, i am naive because most people just join because something is 'in'. so these movements are a bit like anime in that they have soft power over shaping taste and influencing culture... the question is how... why are certain conglomerates of cultural information more appealing than others (especially, if not necessarily superior in 'quality' as fnord noted eheh). my view is that it has to speak to generational discontent / values / and appeal to their sense of identity and, not a far stretch from identity, community.


sorry, im completely rumbling now xD

i like it, especially the art. it's a curious sensation to feel, that this very recent & short-lived sub-subculture already seems part of history & dead as ancient egypt; hence its allure. those purples, like the blue of chartres--lost to us.

Does anyone here watch the dead mall series by Dan Bell? He often has vaporwave playing in the background while exploring dead malls or other abandoned places.
This video is of a mall. That was in owings mills Maryland. There's 2 follow up videos that brings in through its last night and then demolition.