Vaporwave has been increasing in popularity recently and many people online are left wondering, “What is it and where did it come from?”. To start, Vaporwave is an art and music movement that was started in the early 2010’s which mostly uses retro samples and imagery to invoke a feeling of nostalgia. Like most interesting things, it was started almost entirely on the internet and supported by sites like 4chan, reddit and tumblr.

Often referred to as 80s elevator music, Vaporwave has a distinct style of splicing and repeating samples to give a nostalgic calming feeling. Early on many experimental tracks resemble nothing of what Vaporwave is today and left much to be desired. Even when the music transitioned to a more catchy, mainstream style , It didn’t go viral right away. Rather, it slowly gained a cult following while artists of the genre built up their libraries and experimented with new styles and samples.

In 2011, arguably the most famous Vaporwave artist, Vektroid, released his album Floral Shoppe which came out to critical acclaim. Many of the songs on that album helped boost Vaporwave’s notoriety and cult status, especially Lisa Frank 420/Modern Computing known better as (リサフランク420 / 現代のコンピュ) , which led to a large creation of memes. After a little while the community had grown to a decent size and started to use catch phrases like “Its all in your head” or “Aesthetics”.

The genre itself is often regarded as a critique of modern capitalism especially in how it essentially steals someone else’s music, remixes it and releases it to the masses. Vaporwave intentionally strives for an elevator/ mall music feel as a further criticism on capitalism. They are essentially stealing the music and throwing it back in the faces of the capitalistic market. Other subgenres of Vaporwave include new retro wave, Simpsons wave, Avertising wave and other obscure points. Each comes with their own style of sounds and music with unique additions to the genre.

With the current growth trend positive it looks like Vaporwave will continue to reach new ears for the time being, despite many thinking it will suffer the same fate as other internet trends. Below I have posted a few popular tracks. Comment and let me know what you think about vaporwave or if you have never heard of it before this post.

The following three tracks are my 3 favorite

Yung Bae -Fly With Me

Saint Pepsi- Private Caller

ΛDRIΛNWΛVE - it's good to see you again!!

-Calaber24p