Vaporwave

Vaporwave is a musical genre and art movement ^{[3] [4]} that emerged in the early 2010s from indie dance genres such as seapunk, bounce house, witch house, and chillwave. Although there is much diversity and ambiguity in its attitude and message, vaporwave sometimes serves as both a critique and a parody of consumerist society, '80s yuppie culture,^[5] and New Age music, while sonically and aesthetically showcasing a curious nostalgic fascination with their artifacts.

Style and origins

Vaporwave was first characterized by its heavy use of samples from late 70's, '80s, '90s and early 2000's music, typically lounge, smooth jazz or Muzak.^[6] Samples are often pitched, layered or altered in classic chopped and screwed style.^[6][7]

The genre emerged in 2011 from online communities, such as Turntable.fm.^[6][8] In subsequent years, it gained popularity through websites such as Bandcamp, Soundcloud, Last.fm and 4chan.^[1][6] Chuck Person's 2010 release, Chuck Person's Eccojams Vol.1 and James Ferraro's Far Side Virtual are regarded as a "catalyst" for the development of the genre.^[9][10]

Imagery associated with vaporwave includes glitch art, Classical sculpture, '90s web design, outmoded computer renderings and classic cyberpunk aesthetics.^[11] Use of Japanese characters and other non western writing systems is also prominent. The visual components of works by John Foxx and other electronic musicians from the 1980s are considered influences of the vaporwave aesthetic.^[2]

Interpretations

Vaporwave has been interpreted as a dystopian^[12] critique of capitalism^[11] in the vein of cyberpunk.

Music writer, Adam Harper of Dummy Mag, describes the genre as "ironic and satirical or truly accelerationist", and that the name "vaporwave" itself is a nod to both vaporware, products that are announced but never actually manufactured or cancelled, and to the idea of libidinal energy being subjected to relentless sublimation under capitalism.^[13]

情報デスクVIRTUAL, alias of Vektroid, describes her album 札幌コンテンポラリー as “a brief glimpse into the new possibilities of international communication” and “a parody of American hypercontextualization of e-Asia circa 1995."^[14] Another artist, inspired by the Situationists, describes his work as a degrading of commercial music in an attempt to reveal the "false promises" of capitalism.^[13]

Notable artists

• Blank Banshee^[15][16]
• Eco Virtual^[17][18][19]
• James Ferraro
• Oneohtrix Point Never (as Chuck Person)
• Saint Pepsi^[20][21]
• Vektroid also known as MACINTOSH PLUS

See also

References