We have all heard at least one or two strange sounding genres of music that are not mainstream, but are defined as being rather obscure; sub-genres like lowercase, glitch trap, and tropical house, to name a few. Though, there is new micro-genre that has seemed to gain a bit of steam since it's creation straight from Tumblr, and its name is vaporwave.
To understand vaporwave, we must dissect it by following its origins, as well as how it evolved through the years. Some sources say that it originated from Tumblr as a predecessor of now dead genre known as seapunk, while other sources say it was first introduced, but dubbed as vaporwave later on, by a Texas producer named Will Burnett in 2011 in his album "New Dreams LTD." One of the songs from the album, titled "Laserdisc Visions", is a perfect example of what aspects are associated with vaporwave. The music within the song is completely electronically generated, is put on somewhat of a repeat, and has no lyrics, but is reminiscent of something that you would hear from a show or movie from the 1980's. The music video is not much different; to match the retro sounding tune are various clips of different things from the 80's and 90's, which included low-grade animations which would have been made from older programs in that time frame, as well as various Japanese commercials and characters and the Microsoft Windows 98 start-up loading screen.
If you try to find other vaporwave songs, everything I had just described would more than likely be present in the music video. Though, today, the genre encapsulates more than just nostalgia for the 1980's and 90's, artists add in "aesthetic" aspects into their videos and cover arts, which usually has no relation to the song what so ever. One of the more recent artists to use this form of obscure aestheticism in their cover art and music videos is MACINTOSH PLUS.
The picture above is from a very well known album, "Floral Shoppe," and is also associated with an included song titled "Lisa Frank 420 / Modern Computing". The song is basically Diana Ross' "It's Your Move" slowed down, warped, and repeated, yet its composure makes it feel much more soothing, like something you would hear in an elevator. This song, like many others, has since been turned into a meme and has been parodied and remixed many times over.
Though, vaporwave's true intention can best be described as a satire of corporate and consumerist culture and modern capitalism, which makes sense since the various forms of vaporwave aesthetic artworks found on-line are usually not meant to be taken seriously. Rather, they usually are just meant to keep fueling a fire of comedy, intrigue, and attention through the numerous platforms of social media, mostly Facebook. However, that does not stop people from enjoying the many songs found in this genre. I admit it, I am one of those people. Though originally, I listened to vaporwave out of pure curiosity and did not care much for it. As time went on, I felt it grow on me, as I enjoyed the repetitive tunes and visually appealing music videos jam packed with nostalgia. It made me satisfied, knowing that I could somehow relate to this music and it's visuals. I also find the expressiveness of the artworks and tunes to be well defined and unique, and I can appreciate it like any other form of art you would find out in the real or digital world.
