Unless you live on the Internet or in Bagijnhof 3, you probably have never heard about vaporwave. And yet, I am here to argue that it is an essential part of every millennial’s life. Its irony, criticisms, but also its complete apathy may define our generation like no other piece of art does.
Vaporwave is a musical genre that is defined by a surrealistic nostalgia to times and places that may not actually exist. It arose in the early 2010s across multiple Internet forums, making it the first truly globalized and online genre of music. People who shared a fascination with retro products, Japanese culture and 80s elevator music found each other and created an aesthetic that many of you may recognize. A pink-and-blue mess of Roman busts, early computers and consumerist slogans all layered over retro gaming backgrounds. From this, the music of vaporwave was born.
To truly understand vaporwave, it is important to know where it came from. Many claim that it started with the release of three albums; eccojams vol. 1 by Chuck Person, Far Side Virtual by James Ferraro and Floral Shoppe by Macintosh, all released in 2010 and 2011. Some criticized the music for being overly pretentious and ironic, which at this point used nothing but slowed-down 80s samples and sounds from the Internet. It seemed to be one big joke, stealing everything you can, slowing it down and then rebranding it with some funky Japanese name and memes. But others praised its innovative nature and claimed it to be a genius take on the capitalist music industry.
New artists played on this association with capitalism and pushed it as far as it could go. Internet Club released a series of albums, such as Webinar and Redefining the Workplace, that seem to promote an 80s corporate idealism, combining it with eerie and almost uncomfortable ambient sounds.
This is when many felt that a rebranding was necessary. Because the corporate vibe was easily exploited and quickly grew tiresome, some commentators proclaimed that this was the death of vaporwave, but luckily, some found a way to overcome this problem. Sticking close to the core idea of vaporwave, different subgenres began to pop up. Blank Banshee and Vaperror both made albums that added heavy drum beats to classic vaporwave and thus created a new subgenre called vaportrap. Others played more with the idea that vaporwave should be ambient, leading to the creation of the Atmospheres series, by Ecovirtual, which essentially mimics the feeling of the Weather Channel.
A bit later in the timeline, the label Dream Catalogue was created by artist Hong Kong Express. It was meant to be a platform for vaporwave albums that truly created a feeling and a narrative. To illustrate this, he described his own album Romantic Dream as: ‘A mysterious and romantic trip through the neon haze of a night in Hong Kong. A journey of subway carriages and fast cars, a love both lost and found, and a connection between souls.’ And strangely enough, when you listen to it, you feel that. The need for a narrative led to another subgenre called mallsoft, which aims to recreate the feeling of being in a large, yet empty space, such as a shopping mall.
A small subsection of artists tried to make vaporwave a more upbeat version of itself, leading to the rise of my personal favourite subgenre, future funk. Taking the same 80s samples but speeding them up instead of slowing them down ensured that the overall vibe of these albums is a soulful and funky one, white still being rooted in the same vaporwave principle. This proved to be one of the most proliferic and popular types of vaporwave, perhaps due to its happier nature.
Right now, it feels like vaporwave may finally be dying, as less and less albums are produced and many of the classic artists have moved on from the genre. Nevertheless, there remains an incredibly big body of work to keep listening to and as everything is internet-based, it is all free to download or listen to on YouTube. The more well-known albums are slowly amounting millions of views and the internet’s obsession with vaporwave aesthetics also does not seem ready to leave yet. And rightfully so. While the music may be radically different across the different sub-genres, the feeling it gives you is almost identical; a calm nostalgia that takes you away to different places and different times, whether you have actually been there or not. Some albums make you feel like you are standing in the pouring rain on a smoggy night in Hong Kong, while others take you to a sun-filled day at the beach in 1982 Miami. All in all, the escapist, nostalgic and ultimately critically anti-capitalist layers are something to be admired and something we should aim to keep alive.
5 ESSENTIAL ALBUMS TO START WITH:
- Floral Shoppe – Macintosh Plus
- Hit Vibes – Saint Pepsi
- 0 – Blank Banshee
- birth of a new day – 2814
- ATMOSPHERES 1 – ECO VIRTUAL
Maaike Oosterling, Class of 2016, is a Cognitive Science and Psychology major from Zwijndrecht, The Netherlands.
