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| Vaporwave | |
|---|---|
| Name | Vaporwave |
| Stylistic origins | Chillwave, Plunderphonics, Ambient music, Synth-pop, New Age music, Electronica |
| Cultural origins | Early 2010s, Internet culture, United States, Japan |
| Instruments | Samplers, Digital audio workstation, synthesizers, drum machines |
| Subgenres | Future funk, Mallsoft, Hardvapour, Dream catalog |
| Derivatives | Microgenres of the 2010s, Lo-fi hip hop, Hypnagogic pop |
| Notable artists | Daniel Lopatin, Macintosh Plus, Chuck Person, James Ferraro, Saint Pepsi, Vektroid |
Vaporwave is an electronic microgenre and visual art movement that emerged in the early 2010s within online communities, notable for its use of slowed or manipulated samples of 1980s–1990s pop music, smooth jazz, advertising jingles and corporate muzak. It combines musical techniques derived from Plunderphonics, Ambient music, Synth-pop, and Chillwave with distinctive visual aesthetics drawing from Postmodernism, Japanese city pop, Windows 95, Neon signage and corporate branding. The movement gained attention through Bandcamp, SoundCloud, YouTube and forums such as Reddit and 4chan, influencing mainstream and underground practices across music, fashion, graphic design and academic discourse.
Vaporwave developed during a period when platforms like Bandcamp, SoundCloud, Tumblr, YouTube, Reddit, 4chan, Twitter, and Mixcloud enabled independent producers such as Vektroid, Daniel Lopatin, Saint Pepsi, James Ferraro, and Chuck Person to circulate work rapidly, alongside labels including Beer on the Rug, Business Casual, Beacon, Sphere and Arc and Orange Milk Records. Early releases such as an album by Vektroid and a project by Chuck Person catalyzed discourse in blogs like The Quietus, Pitchfork, Resident Advisor, FACT Magazine, and publications including The Guardian, The New York Times, The Atlantic, and Wired. Events at venues such as Boiler Room, Unsound Festival, and CTM Festival later contextualized live interpretations alongside artists associated with IDM, Warp Records acts, and Ghostly International affiliates. Academic interest from scholars at institutions like Goldsmiths, University of London, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of California, Berkeley, University of Oxford, and Harvard University framed the phenomenon within discussions referencing Jean Baudrillard, Fredric Jameson, Guy Debord, Walter Benjamin, and Marshall McLuhan.
Vaporwave aesthetic elements often reference corporate and consumerist iconography tied to entities such as McDonald's, Microsoft, Sony, Panasonic, Mitsubishi, Seiko, Nike, Toyota, Mitsui, Sumitomo, and Mitsubishi Estate. Visual motifs include rendered marble busts akin to Classical sculpture shown alongside interfaces from Windows 95, Mac OS, and brands like Commodore, Atari, Nintendo, and SEGA. Typography often appropriates typefaces used by Apple Inc., IBM, Adobe Systems, and Microsoft Corporation; imagery borrows from Japanese city pop album covers, Shōwa period advertising, Harajuku streetscapes, and hotel lobbies associated with chains such as Hilton, Marriott, and Four Seasons. Themes engage with simulacra discussed by Jean Baudrillard and late capitalism critiques associated with Fredric Jameson and Guy Debord, while referencing consumer culture exemplars like Mall of America, Plaza Hotel, Isetan, and Takashimaya.
Musically, producers use sampling techniques pioneered by John Oswald's Plunderphonics and the production toolsets of Ableton Live, FL Studio, Logic Pro, Pro Tools, and hardware samplers such as the Akai MPC and Roland SP-404. Compositional approaches mirror manipulations used by Brian Eno, Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, My Bloody Valentine, Stereolab, and The Caretaker. Releases often feature pitch shifting, time-stretching, reverb, EQ filtering, and looped fragments of songs by artists like Phil Collins, TOTO, Mariah Carey, Madonna, Kenny G, George Michael, Wham!, Earth, Wind & Fire, Michael Jackson, Prince, and Stevie Wonder. Labels and curators such as Wavertree, The Vinyl Factory, Warp Records, Ghostly International, Mexican Summer, and Tri Angle Records have intersected with vaporwave-adjacent releases, while platforms like Discogs and Last.fm track discographies and fan metadata.
Visual practitioners draw from graphic design histories associated with Paul Rand, Saul Bass, Neville Brody, and David Carson, while referencing album art from Yumi Arai, Haruomi Hosono, Tatsuro Yamashita, Anri, Cornelius, and labels like Victor Entertainment. Imagery commonly features Roman and Greek busts evoking sculptures housed at institutions such as The British Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Louvre Museum, intercut with Japanese kanji and katakana, examples from Shiseido advertisements, and motifs from Tokyo Disneyland and Seibu Department Stores. Design languages borrow from corporate identities of Mitsubishi, Sony Music Entertainment, CBS, NBC, MTV, and VH1; online visual communities on Tumblr, Instagram, DeviantArt, and Behance disseminated templates, GIFs, and Vaporwave-derived palettes.
Critics and scholars in outlets such as Pitchfork, The New Yorker, The Guardian, The Atlantic, NME, Dazed, i-D, Vice, Tiny Mix Tapes, and The Quietus have debated vaporwave's politics, aesthetics, and relationship to nostalgia, neoliberal critique, and postmodern irony. Fashion labels including Gucci, Supreme (brand), A Bathing Ape, H&M, and Zara have absorbed retro-futuristic tropes while museums and galleries at MoMA, TATE Modern, Centre Pompidou, and Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo have exhibited works engaging similar themes. The movement influenced adjacent phenomena such as Lo-fi hip hop, Synthwave, Chillwave, and internet-native microgenres cataloged on Bandcamp Daily and discussed at conferences like ICA and AES.
Distinct strains emerged, including Future funk, which foregrounds upbeat sampling of Japanese city pop and acts like Tatsuro Yamashita and Mariya Takeuchi; Mallsoft, focusing on simulated retail environments referencing Mall of America and Westfield Group; and Hardvapour, drawing from Industrial music, Hardcore techno, and Eastern European club aesthetics with artists tied to scenes in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine. Other evolutions intersect with experimental labels such as PAN, Houndstooth, Tri Angle Records, and the archival concerns of The Caretaker-adjacent projects, while hybrid forms cross with Microgenres of the 2010s and networks around SoundCloud collectives and Discord servers.
Notable figures and releases include Vektroid's projects released under aliases like Macintosh Plus, albums by Daniel Lopatin (including work as Oneohtrix Point Never), early compilations by Chuck Person, confectionary-pop reinterpretations by Saint Pepsi, conceptual works by James Ferraro, and contemporaries such as Telepath テレパシー能力者, Luxury Elite, Blank Banshee, Cat System Corp., O|O|N, 2814, Agartha, Esprit 空想, Boring Machines, Death's Dynamic Shroud.wmv, RAMONA and labels like Business Casual and Beer on the Rug. Milestone releases discussed in critical coverage include albums tied to Macintosh Plus, Oneohtrix Point Never's mainstream crossover, and full-lengths circulating on Bandcamp and Vimeo that helped define the movement's aesthetic lexicon.
Category:Electronic music genres