What is Vaporwave?

As a music-based genre, Vaporwave is a microgenre of electronic music that usually involves slowed down, reverbed music samples (typically from the 70's-90s), smooth jazz, choppy 'low fi' beats, and includes sometimes lyrics, or dialogue from culturally relevant pieces of media. It is also commonly overlapped with or mistaken for Japanese citypop from the 80s and Synthwave, but that may be because fans of one genre can overlap with another due to similarities (like me).

As a visual artform (or aesthetic), Vaporwave is both nostalgic and surreal, like a hazy memory you may have mistaken for a dream. While it isn't unique in it's core of a futuristic past (ex. Y2K futurism), artists might use Vaporwave to either celebrate or critique the technological advancements of the 70s-90s, the wild dreams society had for the future, and/or the relentless advertisements of brands.

What does Vaporwave include?

Vaporwave visuals usually include: cool colours, muted or neon; statues; vintage or retro technology such as casset tapes, TVs, and low-polygon animations; VHS static; sparkling water; dolphins and other sea creatures; old designs of well-known brands; dream-like or surreal images; old anime; shopping centers; city skylines.

All in all, imagery meant to invoke a nostalgic wonder, like a memory or dream, and more can be found on the Aesthetic wiki.

However, Vaporwave is not without it's flaws and controversies. Asian imagery (usually Japanese) is commonplace in the artform, which isn't surprisingly considering the influence it has from the eceonomic and technological boom of Japan in the 70s (which also influenced Western consumerism as a result), but this can lead to appropriation if images and language are used without an understanding of what said images mean.
Unfortunately, this is true for many other "aesthetics" online that appear to reduce parts of people's culture for the sake of a visual artform or feeling. Regardless of whether the artist intended this or not, it should not be ignored when it is called out.

Vaporwave can also be accused of glorifying the past and consumerism, with it's heavy (almost core) emphasis on 70s-90s and well-known brands such as microsoft, coke, and pepsi, making them appear more positively than they really were/ are.
Of course, others say that the "glorification" of such things is purely satircal, and is making fun of how much people loved to consume bright, flashy brands that were advertised in such memorable ways. Others say that Vaporwave is a meme that died long ago and should stay dead.
But like all artforms, it is up to the artist and the viewer to decide if they want to glorify or critique, or both.

My personal appeal

Funny thing is, I wasn't around for the 80s. I was hardly around for the 90s, and I find the intrusive inclusion of adverts everywhere I go to be infuriating and I praise the people who work so hard to keep adblock working so I can read a 5-minute article or video without being interrupted every 4 seconds.

So what connection do I have to Vaporwave? It doesn't seem like I should relate to a singe thing about it.

I think it comes down to a few things:

• I have little, but very fond nostalgia for the 90s and 80s, likely from 2nd hand nostalgia from others. I can't remember the shit of the 80s, so it feels safer and calmer, evne if it wasn't for a lot of people.


• I am definitely, in part, yearning for a time that was less dependent on modern technology but still throughly enjoyed it. Like when your computer was sat in a single desk, and surfing the net was a whole activity in itself. I've talked about this a little bit on my main site, and yes I understand the irony of saying this while also being dependent on my phone. But I don't like being dependent on a phone, or the whims of a streaming service thinking about whether or not I should have access to the things I paid for. By the time you read this, I've probably already set up my MP3 player with my playlsits and stopped playing for Spotify (Pay your artists better, Spot).


• On a lighter point- I very much adore the visual aspects of Vaporwave. I love the cool colours with a mix of muted and neon. I love low poly animations. I love old, oddly charming adverts. I love the design of brands before they collectively decided that minimalism was the way to go, for some reason. (Like why? How is plain and unmemorable anything good?)


• I also love Vaporwave music, as well as synthwave and city pop.