Vaporwave is a hyper-specific subgenre, or "microgenre," that is both a form of electronic music and an art style, although it is sometimes suggested to be primarily a visual medium. The genre is defined largely by its surrounding subculture, with its music inextricable from its visual accoutrements.
The genre emerged in 2011 from online communities, such as Turntable.fm. In subsequent years, it gained popularity through websites such as Bandcamp, Soundcloud, Last.fm, 4chan, and Agora Road's Macintosh Cafe. Its rise in popularity coincided with the decline of Seapunk and while the two certainly share similar aesthetic choices, there is a distinct difference between the two. The key difference between Seapunk and Vaporwave is that Seapunk had a much more focused aesthetic on early '90s CG images and aquatic life. On the other hand, Vaporwave cast a broader net on its aesthetic cues, choosing to highlight the period from the 1970s to early 2000s (crossing over somewhat with the Y2K aesthetics of 1997—2004). It is debated when the period that Vaporwave is centered around ended; some mark the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks as the ending point, while others mark the Great Recession of 2008 as the end point. Over time, Frutiger Aero aesthetics of 2004—2013 have started to make their way into the Vaporwave scene, which would make the cutoff point 2012—2013 when smartphones and Flat Design became fully popular and social media took a different turn. There is an air of ambiguity of whether Vaporwave artists are either celebrating the rampant capitalism that birthed the Vaporwave aesthetics, ironically mocking the hollowness of a lot of these visual cues which mistakes shallowness for depth, or just happens to think they look or sound cool/nostalgic. It is generally left up to the listener as to what they think the artist meant with the final work.
Vaporwave was first characterized by its heavy use of samples from the 1980s and 1990s music, typically lounge, smooth jazz, or Muzak. Samples are often pitched down, layered, or altered in classic chopped and screwed style. However, vaporwave has started to incorporate more original compositions with a heavy focus on ambiance (as seen by acts like ２８１４). Artists have also started to get creative with the physical mediums they sell their albums on, ranging from the conventional (vinyl and cassette) to the unusual (Minidiscs and floppy disks). There are so many Vaporwave Music Artists out there that we won't be able to exactly list them off, but we can give you a list of some Vaporwave artists that can serve as an introduction to the genre.
Macintosh Plus (Vektroid (creator of Floral Shoppe), Skylar Spence (the artist formerly known as Saint Pepsi), George Clanton, S U R F I N G, Windows96, t e l e p a t h テレパシー能力者, Infinity Frequencies, ２８１４, R23X, Nmesh, 猫 シ Corp., Angela Regina Rossi, Luxury Elite, Tupperwave, Yuni Wa, Stux.Io, Cosmic Cycler, マクロスMACROSS 82-99, Vantage, Moe Shop, Desired, BarbWalters, サクラSAKURA-LEE, bl00dwave, LensCorp™ International, Subliminal Network, MILLENNIAL DREAM CORP, TOWERS, Death's Dynamic Shroud.wmv and personally my favorite one BLANK BANSHEE
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