Do you know about Vaporwave?

[SampleScience]

Vaporwave is a genre of music I've discovered on Bandcamp a while ago, and immediately loved. According to Wikipedia, vaporwave is:

a musical genre that emerged in the early 2010s from indie dance genres such as seapunk, witch house, and chillwave. Although there is much diversity and ambiguity in its attitude and message, vaporwave sometimes serves as both a critique and a parody of consumerist society, '80s yuppie culture,[3] and new-age music, while sonically and aesthetically showcasing a curious nostalgic fascination with their artifacts.

I think it sums it up nicely. One of the founding album of the genre is Floral Shoppe by Macintosh Plus:

https://beerontherug.bandcamp.com/album/floral-shoppe

Macintosh Plus also releases music under the Vektroid name. He's got a couple of albums under his belt under this pseudonym:

http://vektroid.bandcamp.com/

While he practically founded the genre, I'm not a big fan of his music. I prefer the more ambient, "dreamy" side of vaporwave, such as the music released by the aptly named "Dream" label:

http://dreamcatalogue.bandcamp.com/album/--18



I like the slowed down eighties music snippets and the aesthetic related to it. One of the sub-genre of vaporwave I dig is called "Future Funk":

http://music.businesscasual.biz/album/a ... adventures

It's a very underground genre, but I think that making fun of old corporate music by transforming it into a completely anti-commercial music genre is genius. The whole political/sociologic aspect of vaporwave is really interesting. I won't go into the details, but the Dummy 2 parts article on the subject is very informative and detailed:

http://www.dummymag.com/Features/adam-harper-vaporwave

If you'd like to dig deeper here's some more articles on vaporwave:

https://thewaveuca.wordpress.com/2014/0 ... -you-care/
http://nsnfanzine.com/post/56458844264/ ... -never-die

And here's a mini documentary describing the genre history very well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdpP0mXOlWM

I'm curious to know what's your thoughts on it? Do you think it's a trend that will quickly fade or it's something that will stand the test of time, mutating into a new version of itself while the time passes?

[SampleScience]

Here's a quote from the Wave article that I think describe the genre very well:

But what is the meaning behind the music? “In theory it’s the recontextualisation of corporate trash muzak that is devoid of emotion or purpose into something that might be considered emotionally stimulating or passionately expressive” notes key vaporwave pioneer, anonymous producer Disconscious. “Physically I’m curating abandoned samples and presenting them in a new format.” Arguably it’s this sense of abandon and discovery that makes vaporwave seem much more exciting than its predecessors like chillwave, a scene which mimicked the sounds of the 1980s unlike vaporwave which actively searches for ideas that have already been and until now, were frozen in time.

While I don't think it's totally logical (corporate music has a purpose), I really dig the overall concept.

[SampleScience]

Now I understand why there was no topic on vaporwave here. Nobody cares about the genre!

[arkmabat]

I know a lot about vaporWARE

[Numanoid]

I guess Burroughs did this long ago with his cut-up technique.

Can't bands move on from the 80's now?

There is so much uncharted land still, by going outside the regular harmonic structures, and incorporating 12-tone music etc

[SampleScience]

I guess Burroughs did this long ago with his cut-up technique.

Can't bands move on from the 80's now?

There is so much uncharted land still, by going outside the regular harmonic structures, and incorporating 12-tone music etc

I totally agree, there so much more that musicians could do in terms of innovation and boundary pushing. The tools are there, maybe someone will explore them in a clever and new way, we never know!

[Numanoid]

While he practically founded the genre, I'm not a big fan of his music. I prefer the more ambient, "dreamy" side of vaporwave, such as the music released by the aptly named "Dream" label:

http://dreamcatalogue.bandcamp.com/album/--18

This is pretty nice

But what makes it Vaporware and not just regular Ambient?

[SampleScience]

While he practically founded the genre, I'm not a big fan of his music. I prefer the more ambient, "dreamy" side of vaporwave, such as the music released by the aptly named "Dream" label:

http://dreamcatalogue.bandcamp.com/album/--18

This is pretty nice

But what makes it Vaporware and not just regular Ambient?

I think it's the use of slowed down & looped pop music samples from the eighties. I agree that it sounds almost like ambient!

[MOK19]

I discovered some of it recently, and I think I like it. But it doesn't feel right to describe it as a music genre, as the artists I was looking at make it seem more of a broader art installation. Their concerns don't seem to be the same kind of concerns other musicians have. Maybe I'm being pretentious, thinking that "I Get It," but it does feel like it's playing a different game than all the other musicians I love, and it didn't seem any good at first, until I read a thing that gave me an 'aha' moment, something clicked, and it started working for me.

Then again, this all suggests that there's a right and wrong way to interpret it or make it. Which of course is a futile stance.

[xoxos]

heard some clever/astute music, doesn't always have the cultural support to get it acknowledged as a genre on wikipedia EH TRENDSETTERS


repeat the part about EH TRENDSETTERS some

[paradiddle]

First time I hear this. I like it. I'm very much into sampling and I like to hear stuff sampled and remixed into something else completely. Since I was a teen in the 80s, it's really funny some stuff I know being mashed up.

I don't know if this could be called a genre but anything that uses similar prod techniques eventually gets labelled into a category.

[SAW75]

I know this is an old thread but Vektroid is a girl. Just sayin.

[Functional]

To be honest, I think witch house does better this whole "recontextualize meaningless capitalist pop-music" stuff. Vaporwave takes devoid material, twists it around and... leaves us with devoid material.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1xUxy6v8-s

[nineofkings]

I personally am intrigued by the idea behind Vaporwave, but am afraid to get too into it for fear of becoming a righteous "everything is ironic" type

One more artist: since recontextualizing old material is sorta the soul of hip hop in a lot of ways, vapory hip hop can be really cool (Clams Casino is probably one of the most famous examples). One of my favs is Kill Bill: https://exordiummusic.bandcamp.com/track/backwoods

What I wanna see/do, though, is take the "recontextualizing vapidity" idea and apply it to aggressive music to get at the catharsis more directly - like Death Grips meets elevator music. Anyone up for a collab?

[chaosWyrM]

I personally am intrigued by the idea behind Vaporwave, but am afraid to get too into it for fear of becoming a righteous "everything is ironic" type

One more artist: since recontextualizing old material is sorta the soul of hip hop in a lot of ways, vapory hip hop can be really cool (Clams Casino is probably one of the most famous examples). One of my favs is Kill Bill: https://exordiummusic.bandcamp.com/track/backwoods

cool...youve heard danger doom yeah?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zR2BboZeLEw

What I wanna see/do, though, is take the "recontextualizing vapidity" idea and apply it to aggressive music to get at the catharsis more directly - like Death Grips meets elevator music. Anyone up for a collab?

thats kinda been done.. this whole album is made up of repurposed clips from tv/radio shows and samples. from '93:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bu2eCXV6Oc4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vh51gv3F_Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSKXxQhhRWA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSXLUMMcOBo