View source for Vaporwave

{{short description|Online musical genre and visual aesthetic}}
{{distinguish|Vaporware}}
{{good article}}
{{pp|reason=Persistent [[WP:Disruptive editing|disruptive editing]]|small=yes}}
{{use American English|date=April 2020}}
{{use mdy dates|date=April 2020}}
<!--- Do NOT add content to this article or its infobox without providing an inline citation. -->
{{Infobox music genre
| name              = Vaporwave
| image             = Wikiwave 00000.png
| caption           = A vaporwave-style image with [[RetroWikipedia]] as the main theme
| etymology         = [[Vaporware]]
| stylistic_origins = * [[art pop]]<ref name="harper" />
* [[chopped and screwed]]<ref name="electronic">{{cite web |url=http://www.electronicbeats.net/en/features/columns/pattern-recognition/vol-8-5-the-year-in-vaporwave/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140223020159/http://www.electronicbeats.net/en/features/columns/pattern-recognition/vol-8-5-the-year-in-vaporwave/ |archive-date=February 23, 2014 |title=Pattern Recognition Vol. 8.5: The Year in Vaporwave |publisher=[[Electronic Beats]] |date=December 5, 2013 |access-date=February 8, 2014 |author=Harper, Adam}}</ref><ref name="subversivedreammusic">{{cite news |url=https://www.bandwagon.asia/articles/vaporwave-subversive-dream-music-for-the-post-internet-age |title=Vaporwave: subversive dream music for the post-Internet age |date=May 18, 2016 |access-date=January 7, 2017 |last2=Peters |first2=Daniel |last1=Han |first1=Sean Francis |newspaper=Bandwagon.asia |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161230155951/https://www.bandwagon.asia/articles/vaporwave-subversive-dream-music-for-the-post-internet-age |archive-date=December 30, 2016}}</ref>
* [[chillwave]]<ref name="Schilling2013">{{cite web |last1=Schilling |first1=Dave |title=Songs of the Week: Skylar Spence, Vampire Weekend's Chris Baio, and the Return of Chillwave |url=http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/songs-of-the-week-skylar-spence-vampire-weekends-chris-baio-and-the-return-of-chillwave/ |website=[[Grantland]] |date=September 18, 2015 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151119053252/http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/songs-of-the-week-skylar-spence-vampire-weekends-chris-baio-and-the-return-of-chillwave/ |archive-date=November 19, 2015}}</ref>
* [[city pop]]<ref name="phoenixnewtimes">{{cite news |last=Markowitz |first=Douglas |title=5 Vaporwave and Future Funk Tracks to Get You Ready for YUNG BAE |url=https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/music/5-vaporwave-tracks-to-prepare-you-for-yung-bae-at-valley-bar-10913771 |work=[[Phoenix New Times]] |date=October 10, 2018 |access-date=October 29, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181029030954/https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/music/5-vaporwave-tracks-to-prepare-you-for-yung-bae-at-valley-bar-10913771 |archive-date=October 29, 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="slate">{{cite news |title=La City Pop, bande-son de vos apéros estivaux |url=http://www.slate.fr/story/163895/city-pop-musique-japon-son-ete-succes |work=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]] |date=July 11, 2018 |language=fr-FR |access-date=October 29, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181029191839/http://www.slate.fr/story/163895/city-pop-musique-japon-son-ete-succes |archive-date=October 29, 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref>
* [[Dance music|dance]]<ref name="Schilling2013" />
* [[Electronic music|Electronic]]<ref name="stylus1">{{cite web |url=http://www.stylus.com/hzwtls |title=Vaporwave: Soundtrack to Austerity |date=January 29, 2014 |publisher=Stylus.com |access-date=February 8, 2014 |author=Ward, Christian |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170602212527/http://www.stylus.com/hzwtls |archive-date=June 2, 2017}}</ref>{{sfn|Tanner|2016|p=3}}
* [[elevator music]]<ref name="subversivedreammusic"/><ref name="Aux">{{cite web |last1=Aux |first1=Staff |title=AUX |url=http://www.aux.tv/2014/10/could-vaporwave-be-the-future-of-music/ |website=Aux |publisher=Aux Music Network |access-date=January 2, 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923230656/http://www.aux.tv/2014/10/could-vaporwave-be-the-future-of-music/ |archive-date=September 23, 2015}}</ref>
* [[hypnagogic pop]]<ref name="harper" /><ref name="stereogum">{{cite web |last1=Bowe |first1=Miles |title=Band To Watch: Saint Pepsi |url=http://www.stereogum.com/1409361/band-to-watch-saint-pepsi/franchises/band-to-watch/ |website=[[Stereogum]] |date=July 26, 2013 |access-date=June 26, 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160721235716/http://www.stereogum.com/1409361/band-to-watch-saint-pepsi/franchises/band-to-watch/ |archive-date=July 21, 2016}}</ref>
* [[italo disco]]<ref name="whatarebarberbeats"/>
* [[Lounge music|lounge]]<ref name="Thumpsup" /><ref name="chicago">{{cite web |last1=Gahil |first1=Leor |title=Infinity Frequencies: Computer Death |url=http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/vaporwave-spf420-chaz-allen-metallic-ghosts-prismcorp-veracom/Content?oid=8831558 |website=[[Chicago Reader]] |date=February 19, 2013 |access-date=April 6, 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170406192425/http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/vaporwave-spf420-chaz-allen-metallic-ghosts-prismcorp-veracom/Content?oid=8831558 |archive-date=April 6, 2017}}</ref>
* [[muzak]]<ref name="Thumpsup" />{{sfn|Trainer|2016|p=419}}
* [[New-age music|new-age]]<ref name="Thumpsup">{{cite web |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/is-vaporwave-the-next-seapunk/ |title=Is Vaporwave The Next Seapunk? |website=[[Vice (magazine)|Vice]] |date=December 27, 2013 |access-date=April 10, 2014 |author=Lhooq, Michelle |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140426034616/http://thump.vice.com/words/is-vaporwave-the-next-seapunk |archive-date=April 26, 2014 |df=mdy-all}}</ref>
* [[New wave music|new wave]]<ref>[https://vanpaugam.com/blog/2021/3/25/the-story-of-vaporwave The Rise & Fall of Vaporwave - Van Paugam]</ref>
* [[plunderphonics]]<ref name="subversivedreammusic"/>
* [[pop ballads]]<ref name="essential" />
* [[post-Internet]]<ref name="amarca16" /><ref>{{cite web |url=https://theoutline.com/post/7884/100-gecs-interview-post-internet |title=The batshit album that explains how 2019 feels |last=Enis |first=Eli |website=The Outline |language=en |access-date=March 14, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200330113730/https://theoutline.com/post/7884/100-gecs-interview-post-internet |archive-date=March 30, 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref>
* [[Contemporary R&B|R&B]]<ref name="subversivedreammusic"/>
* [[smooth jazz]]<ref name="subversivedreammusic"/><ref name="Thumpsup" />
| cultural_origins  = Early 2010s, [[Internet culture|Internet]]<ref name="electronic" /><ref name="Thumpsup" />
| instruments       = * [[Audio editing software]]
* [[digital audio workstation]]
* [[Music sequencer|sequencer]]
* [[Sampler (musical instrument)|sampler]]
| derivatives       = * Simpsonwave (based on ''[[The Simpsons]]'')<ref name="Pitchfork" /><ref name="geek.com" /><ref name="AVclub" />
| fusiongenres      = * Fashwave<ref name="fashwavevice" />
| subgenres         = * [[Mallsoft]]<ref name="electronic" />
* future funk<ref name="subversivedreammusic"/>
* [[hardvapour]]<ref name="Arcand" />
* late night lo-fi<ref name="elhype.com">[https://elhype.com/vaporwave-the-millennial-legacy-of-daniel-lopatin/ Vaporwave, the Millennial legacy of Daniel Lopatin – Revista cultural el Hype]</ref>
* VHS pop<ref name="elhype.com" />
* utopian virtual<ref name="elhype.com" />
* vaportrap<ref name="Arcand" /><ref name="Esquire2016" />
* vapornoise<ref name="Arcand" />
* signalwave<ref name="moonlvnding.com">{{Cite web|url=https://www.moonlvnding.com/post/the-viability-of-vaporwave|title=The Viability of Vaporwave|work=Moon Lvnding|last=Stevenson|first=Jake|date=June 28, 2023 }}</ref>
* slushwave<ref name="moonlvnding.com"/>
* barber beats<ref name="whatarebarberbeats">{{Cite web |date=2024-01-09 |title=What are Barber Beats |url=https://vanpaugam.com/blog/what-are-barber-beats |access-date=2024-04-03 |website=Van Paugam |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":1"/><ref>{{Cite web |date=Dec 26, 2020 |title=Aloe City Wrld on X: "I hereby name the subgenre Macroblank makes barber beats" |url=https://x.com/aloecitywrld/status/1342856669097824256?s=20}}</ref><ref name="vanpaugambarberbeats"/>
| other_topics      = * [[Cloud rap]]
* [[distroid]]
* [[Hauntology (music)|hauntology]]
* [[Seapunk music|seapunk]]
* [[synthwave]]
* [[Wave music|wave]]
* [[Witch house (genre)|witch house]]
}}

'''Vaporwave''' is a [[microgenre]] of [[electronic music]], a visual art style, and an [[Internet meme]] that emerged in the early 2010s<ref>For early 2010s microgenre of electronic music, see {{harvnb|Tanner|2016|p=3}}. For definition as both music and visual, see {{harvnb|Born|Haworth|2017|pp=79–81}} and {{harvnb|Glitsos|2019|p=109}}. For definition as both a genre and an Internet meme, see:
* {{harvnb|Born|Haworth|2017|pp=79–81}}: "Indeed, vaporwave circulates more like a 'meme' than a music genre.{{nbsp}}... vaporwave is defined almost entirely by its online subculture.{{nbsp}}... it is characterized by an intense material and citational reflexivity in relation to the Internet.{{nbsp}}... Vaporwave's "memetic" subculture{{nbsp}}... also portrays a profound shift in the material mediation of music online."
* {{cite web |ref=none |last=Minor |first=Jordan |date=June 3, 2016 |title=Drown Yourself Beneath the Vaporwave |url=http://www.geek.com/tech/drown-yourself-beneath-the-vaporwave-1657121/ |website=Geek.com |quote=If you haven't guessed by now, vaporwave is a bit of a joke, or more accurately, an internet meme.{{nbsp}}... Vaporwave, meme music, sounds even lazier since you can just slow down old songs, add a drug haze atmosphere, and laugh at the results |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170401144248/http://www.geek.com/tech/drown-yourself-beneath-the-vaporwave-1657121/ |archive-date=April 1, 2017}}
* {{cite web |ref=none |last1=Goldner |first1=Sam |title=The 2010s Were the Decade That Genre Collapsed |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/2010s-were-the-decade-that-genre-collapsed/ |website=Vice |date=November 6, 2019 |quote=Founded upon the blueprint of Daniel Lopatin's Chuck Person's Eccojams Vol. 1 tape, which consisted of slowed-down pop hits slathered in delay and spun on an endless loop, vaporwave's meme-patterned aesthetic spread across the internet{{nbsp}}... |access-date=March 19, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200310003557/https://www.vice.com/en_in/article/8xw3g4/2010s-were-the-decade-that-genre-collapsed |archive-date=March 10, 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>[https://www.vulture.com/2022/01/the-weeknds-dawn-fm-a-dirge-a-mirror-and-an-echo.html The Weeknd’s Dawn FM: A Dirge, a Mirror, and an Echo - Vulture]</ref> and became well-known in 2015.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Beran |first=Dale |title=It Came from Something Awful: How a Toxic Troll Army Accidentally Memed Donald Trump into Office |date=July 30, 2019 |publisher=[[All Points Books]] |isbn=978-1-250-21947-3 |edition=1st |location=New York |page=16}}</ref> It is defined partly by its slowed-down, [[chopped and screwed]] samples of [[smooth jazz]], 1970s [[elevator music]],<ref name=":2" /> [[contemporary R&B|R&B]], and [[lounge music]] from the 1980s and 1990s; similar to [[synthwave]]. The surrounding [[subculture]] is sometimes associated with an ambiguous or satirical take on [[consumer capitalism]]<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://vanpaugam.com/blog/what-is-post-vaporwave |title=The Terrifying Rise of Post-Vaporwave - Van Paugam |access-date=April 13, 2024 |archive-date=August 1, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240801134815/https://vanpaugam.com/blog/what-is-post-vaporwave |url-status=dead }}</ref> and [[pop culture]], and tends to be characterized by a [[nostalgic]] or [[surrealist]] engagement with the [[popular entertainment]], technology and [[advertising]] of previous decades. Visually, it incorporates early Internet imagery, late 1990s web design, [[glitch art]], [[anime]], stylized [[Ancient Greek sculpture|Ancient Greek]] or [[Roman sculpture]]s, [[3D rendering|3D-rendered]] objects, and [[cyberpunk]] tropes in its cover artwork and [[music video]]s.

Vaporwave originated as an ironic variant of [[chillwave]], evolving from [[hypnagogic pop]] as well as similar retro-revivalist and [[post-Internet]] motifs that had become fashionable in underground digital music and art scenes of the era, such as [[Tumblr]]'s [[seapunk]]. The style was pioneered by producers such as [[James Ferraro]], [[Daniel Lopatin]] and [[Vektroid|Ramona Langley]], who each used various pseudonyms.<ref name="Britton">{{cite web |last1=Britton |first1=Luke Morgan |title=Music Genres Are A Joke That You're Not In On |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/a-definitive-guide-to-trolling-music-genres/ |website=[[Vice (magazine)|Vice]] |date=September 26, 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170331025715/https://noisey.vice.com/en_ca/article/a-definitive-guide-to-trolling-music-genres |archive-date=March 31, 2017}}</ref> After Langley's album ''[[Floral Shoppe]]'' (2011) established a blueprint for the genre, the movement built an audience on sites [[Last.fm]], [[Reddit]] and [[4chan#/mu/|4chan]] while a flood of new acts, also operating under online pseudonyms, turned to [[Bandcamp]] for distribution.

Following the wider exposure of vaporwave in 2012, a wealth of subgenres and offshoots emerged, such as future funk, [[mallsoft]] and [[hardvapour]], although most have waned in popularity.<ref name="SecondLife" /> The genre also intersected with fashion trends such as [[streetwear]] and various political movements. Since the mid-2010s, vaporwave has been frequently described as a "dead" genre.{{sfn|Harper|2017|p=121}} The general public came to view vaporwave as a facetious Internet meme,<!--- Sourced in "SecondLife" reference ---> a notion that frustrated some producers who wished to be recognized as serious artists. Many of the most influential artists and record labels associated with vaporwave have since drifted into other musical styles.<ref name="SecondLife" /> Later in the 2010s, the genre spurred a revival of interest in Japanese [[ambient music]] and [[city pop]] <ref name="pitchmicro">{{cite web |last=Sherburne |first=Philip |author-link=Philip Sherburne |date=October 7, 2021 |title=25 Microgenres That (Briefly) Defined the Last 25 Years |url=https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/microgenres-25th-anniversary/ |access-date=October 24, 2021 |website=Pitchfork |language=en-US}}</ref> and in the 2020s with the spread of its latest subgenre, [[Frutiger Aero]], sharing its name with the graphical style.

== Characteristics ==
Vaporwave is a hyper-specific subgenre, or "[[microgenre]]",{{sfn|Stevens|O'Donnell|2020|p=1–6}} that is both a form of [[electronic music]] and an art style; however, it is sometimes suggested to be primarily a visual medium.{{sfn|Glitsos|2019|p=109}} The genre is defined largely by its surrounding subculture,{{sfn|Born|Haworth|2017|p=79}} with its music inextricable from its visual accoutrements.{{sfn|Glitsos|2019|p=109}} Academic [[Laura Glitsos]] writes, "In this way, vaporwave defies traditional music conventions that typically privilege the music over the visual form."{{sfn|Glitsos|2019|p=109}} Musically, vaporwave reconfigures [[dance music]] from the 1980s and early 1990s<ref name="Schilling2013" /> through the use of [[chopped and screwed]] techniques, repetition, and heavy [[reverb]].{{sfn|Glitsos|2019|p=109}} It is composed almost entirely from slowed-down samples<ref name="harper" /> and its creation requires only the knowledge of rudimentary production techniques.{{sfn|Frankel|2019}} However, some artists like Dan Mason create vaporwave music from scratch.<ref>[https://www.orlandoweekly.com/music/orlando-vaporwave-maestro-dan-mason-releases-crystalline-new-compilation-album-34107708 Orlando vaporwave maestro Dan Mason releases crystalline new compilation album|Orlando Music News|Orlando|Orlando Weekly]</ref>

The name derives from "[[vaporware]]", a term for commercial software that is announced but never released.{{sfn|Born|Haworth|2017|p=79}} It builds upon the satirical tendencies of [[chillwave]] and [[hypnagogic pop]], while also being associated with an ambiguous or ironic take on [[consumer capitalism]] and [[technoculture]].<ref name="harper" /> Critic Adam Trainer writes of the style's predilection for "music made less for enjoyment than for the regulation of mood", such as corporate [[stock music]] for [[infomercial]]s and [[product demonstration]]s.{{sfn|Trainer|2016}} Academic Adam Harper described the typical vaporwave track as "a wholly synthesised or heavily processed chunk of corporate [[mood music]], bright and earnest or slow and sultry, often beautiful, either looped out of sync and beyond the point of functionality."<ref name="harper" />

[[File:Nine lives vaporwave.jpg|thumb|Vaporwave artwork]]
Adding to its dual engagement with musical and visual art forms, vaporwave embraces the Internet as a cultural, social, and aesthetic medium.{{sfn|Born|Haworth|2017|p=79}} The visual [[aesthetic]] (often stylized as "{{nowrap|ＡＥＳＴＨＥＴＩＣＳ}}", with [[Halfwidth and fullwidth forms|fullwidth]] characters)<ref name="geek.com">{{cite news |url=http://www.geek.com/news/drown-yourself-beneath-the-vaporwave-1657121/ |title=Drown yourself beneath the vaporwave |last=Minor |first=Jordan |work=Geek.com |date=June 3, 2016 |access-date=June 12, 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160609195355/http://www.geek.com/news/drown-yourself-beneath-the-vaporwave-1657121/ |archive-date=June 9, 2016 |df=mdy-all}}</ref> incorporates early Internet imagery, late 1990s web design, [[glitch art]], and [[cyberpunk]] tropes,<ref name="Thumpsup" /> as well as [[anime]], [[Greco-Roman]] statues, and 3D-rendered objects.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Jurgens |first1=Genista |title=Why Won't Vaporwave Die? |url=https://www.format.com/magazine/features/art/vaporwave |website=Format |date=July 29, 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180103072648/https://www.format.com/magazine/features/art/vaporwave |archive-date=January 3, 2018}}</ref> [[VHS]] degradation is another common effect seen in vaporwave art. Generally, artists limit the chronology of their source material between [[Japanese economic miracle|Japan's economic flourishing]] in the 1980s and the [[September 11 attacks]] or [[dot-com bubble]] burst of 2001 (some albums, including ''[[Floral Shoppe]]'', depict the intact [[World Trade Center (1973–2001)|Twin Towers]] on their covers).<ref name="Colton17" />{{refn|group=nb|One vaporwave album that directly interrogates 9/11 is ''[[News at 11 (album)|News at 11]]'' (2016) by [[Cat System Corp.]]<ref>{{cite web |url=https://daily.bandcamp.com/features/the-mall-nostalgia-and-the-loss-of-innocence-an-interview-with-corp |title=The Mall, Nostalgia, and the Loss of Innocence: An Interview With 猫 シ Corp. |date=8 March 2017 |access-date=11 April 2022 |website=[[Bandcamp Daily]] |last=Chandler |first=Simon |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200303080310/https://daily.bandcamp.com/features/the-mall-nostalgia-and-the-loss-of-innocence-an-interview-with-corp |archive-date=3 March 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref>}}

== History and legacy ==

=== Origins and precursors ===
{{see also|Hauntology (music)}}

Vaporwave originated on the Internet in the early 2010s as an ironic variant of chillwave<ref name="realgenre" /> and as a derivation of the work of hypnagogic pop artists such as [[Ariel Pink]] and [[James Ferraro]], who were also characterized by the invocation of retro popular culture.{{sfn|Trainer|2016|p=416}} It was one of many Internet microgenres to emerge in this era, alongside [[Witch house (music genre)|witch house]], [[seapunk]], [[shitgaze]], [[cloud rap]], and others. Vaporwave coincided with a broader trend involving young artists whose works drew from their childhoods in the 1980s.<ref name="Jr.2018" />{{refn|group=nb|This included the [[synthwave]] music genre, also known as "outrun", although the latter term was later used to refer more generally to retro 1980s aesthetics such as VHS tracking artifacts, magenta neon, and [[gridlines]].<ref name="Jr.2018">{{cite book |editor-last=Wetmore |editor-first=Kevin J. Jr. |title=Uncovering Stranger Things: Essays on Eighties Nostalgia, Cynicism and Innocence in the Series |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6JtVDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT31 |date=2018 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-1-4766-7186-4 |page=31}}</ref>}}

"Chillwave" and "hypnagogic pop" were coined at virtually the same time, in mid-2009, and were considered interchangeable terms. Like vaporwave, they engaged with notions of nostalgia and [[cultural memory]].{{sfn|Trainer|2016|pp=409, 416–418}} Among the earliest hypnagogic acts to anticipate vaporwave was [[Matrix Metals]] and his album ''[[Flamingo Breeze]]'' (2009), which was built on synthesizer loops.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Bulut |first1=Selim |title=Remembering Sam Mehran, one of underground music's most unique talents |url=http://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/40845/1/remembering-test-icicles-outer-limits-recordings-musician-sam-mehran |website=[[Dazed Digital]] |date=July 30, 2018 |access-date=May 23, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180804200952/http://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/40845/1/remembering-test-icicles-outer-limits-recordings-musician-sam-mehran |archive-date=August 4, 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref> Around the same time, [[Daniel Lopatin]] (Oneohtrix Point Never) uploaded a collection of [[plunderphonics]] loops to [[YouTube]] surreptitiously under the alias sunsetcorp.<ref name="SecondLife" /> These clips were taken from his audio-visual album ''[[Memory Vague]]'' (June 2009).{{sfn|Frankel|2019}}{{refn|group=nb|Author Emile Frankel cited the work as "a seminal release" and argued that Lopatin had captured "the affect of vaporwave" even earlier with the "highly influential" electronic album ''Betrayed in the Octagon'' (2007).{{sfn|Frankel|2019}}}} [[Washed Out]]'s "[[Feel It All Around]]" (June 2009), which slowed down the 1983 Italian dance song "[[I Want You (Gary Low song)|I Want You]]" by [[Gary Low]], exemplified the "analog nostalgia" of chillwave that vaporwave artists sought to reconfigure.<ref name="Schilling2013" />

{{Listen
|type=music
|pos=
|filename=Chuck Person Eccojams a1.ogg
|title="A1" from ''Eccojams Vol. 1'' (2010)
|description= A track from [[Oneohtrix Point Never|Daniel Lopatin]]'s ''[[Chuck Person's Eccojams Vol. 1|Eccojams]]'', an album which pitch-shifts and distorts 1980s pop music. The sample in this excerpt is "[[Africa (Toto song)|Africa]]" by [[Toto (band)|Toto]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://spectrumculture.com/2016/12/04/chuck-person-chuck-persons-eccojams-vol-1/ |title=Chuck Person: Chuck Person's Eccojams Vol. 1 – Spectrum Culture |date=December 4, 2016 |work=Spectrum Culture |access-date=January 8, 2018 |language=en-US |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180625170756/http://spectrumculture.com/2016/12/04/chuck-person-chuck-persons-eccojams-vol-1/ |archive-date=June 25, 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref>}}

Vaporwave was subsumed under a larger "[[Tumblr]] aesthetic" that had become fashionable in underground digital music and art scenes of the 2010s.{{sfn|Born|Haworth|2017|p=81}} In 2010, Lopatin included several of the tracks from ''Memory Vague'', as well as a few new ones, on his album ''[[Chuck Person's Eccojams Vol. 1]]'', released in August under the alias "Chuck Person".{{sfn|Trainer|2016|p=420}} With packaging that resembled the 1993 video game ''[[Ecco the Dolphin (video game)|Ecco the Dolphin]]'', the album inspired a host of suburban teens and young adults to formulate what would become vaporwave.<ref name="subversivedreammusic"/> Seapunk followed in mid-2011 as an aquatic-themed Tumblr subculture and Internet meme<ref>{{cite web |last1=Stehlik |first1=Lucy |title=Seapunk: scenester in-joke or underground art movement? |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/dec/14/seapunk-has-now-gone-pop |website=[[The Guardian]] |date=December 14, 2012 |access-date=May 25, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191025231822/https://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/dec/14/seapunk-has-now-gone-pop |archive-date=October 25, 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref> that presaged vaporwave in its concern for "spacey" electronic music and [[Geocities]] web graphics.<ref name="Thumpsup" /> Like vaporwave, it was defined by its engagement with the Internet, an approach that is sometimes described as [[post-Internet]].<ref name="amarca16">{{cite web |last1=Amarca |first1=Nico |title=From Bucket Hats to Pokémon: Breaking Down Yung Lean's Style |url=https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/yung-lean-style/ |website=High Snobiety |access-date=May 24, 2020 |date=March 1, 2016}}</ref>

The musical template for vaporwave came from ''Eccojams'' and Ferraro's ''[[Far Side Virtual]]'' (October 2011).<ref name="Colton17" /><ref name="essential">{{cite web |url=http://theessential.com.au/features/the-catch-up/vaporwave-is-not-dead-nmesh-dream-sequins |title=Vaporwave is not dead |last1=Beks |first1=Ash |work=The Essential |access-date=December 8, 2015 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151210232528/http://theessential.com.au/features/the-catch-up/vaporwave-is-not-dead-nmesh-dream-sequins |archive-date=December 10, 2015}}</ref><ref name="catalyst">{{cite web |url=http://www.stereogum.com/1504091/qa-james-ferraro-on-nycs-hidden-darkness-musical-sincerity-and-being-called-the-god-of-vaporwave/franchises/interview/ |title=Q&A: James Ferraro On NYC's Hidden Darkness, Musical Sincerity, And Being Called "The God Of Vaporwave" |publisher=[[Stereogum]] |date=October 13, 2013 |access-date=February 8, 2014 |author=Bowe, Miles |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131016015436/http://www.stereogum.com/1504091/qa-james-ferraro-on-nycs-hidden-darkness-musical-sincerity-and-being-called-the-god-of-vaporwave/franchises/interview/ |archive-date=October 16, 2013 |df=mdy-all}}</ref> ''Eccojams'' featured [[chopped and screwed]] variations on popular 1980s pop songs,<ref name="subversivedreammusic"/> while ''Far Side Virtual'' drew primarily on "the grainy and bombastic beeps" of past media such as [[Skype]] and the [[Nintendo Wii]].<ref name="Colton17">{{cite web |last1=Colton |first1=Stefan |title=Love in the Time of VHS: Making Sense of Vaporwave |magazine=[[The Politic]] |date=April 15, 2017 |url=http://thepolitic.org/love-in-the-time-of-vhs-making-sense-of-vaporwave/ |access-date=May 1, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180429062903/http://thepolitic.org/love-in-the-time-of-vhs-making-sense-of-vaporwave/ |archive-date=April 29, 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref> According to ''[[Stereogum]]''{{'}}s Miles Bowe, vaporwave was a fusion between Lopatin's "chopped and screwed plunderphonics" and the "nihilistic easy-listening of James Ferraro's [[Muzak]]-[[hellscape]]s".<ref name="stereogum" /> A 2013 post on a music blog presented those albums, along with Skeleton's ''Holograms'' (November 2010), as "proto vaporwave".{{sfn|Trainer|2016|p=420}}

=== Early scene ===
Vaporwave artists were originally "mysterious and often nameless entities that lurk the internet," Adam Harper noted, "often behind a pseudo-corporate name or web façade, and whose music is typically free to download through [[MediaFire]], [[Last.fm|Last FM]], [[SoundCloud|Soundcloud]] or [[Bandcamp]]."<ref name="harper" /> According to Metallic Ghosts (Chaz Allen), the original vaporwave scene came out of an online circle formulated on the site [[Turntable.fm]]. This circle included individuals known as Internet Club (Robin Burnett), Veracom, Luxury Elite, Infinity Frequencies, Transmuteo (Jonathan Dean), Coolmemoryz, and Prismcorp.<ref name="ObserverEffect" />

Numerous producers of this online milieu took inspiration from [[Ramona Andra Langley|Ramona Langley]]'s ''[[New Dreams Ltd.]]'' (credited to "Laserdisc Visions", July 2011).<ref name="ObserverEffect" /> The first reported use of the term "vaporwave" was on an October 2011 blogpost by an anonymous user reviewing the album ''Surf's Pure Hearts'' by Girlhood;{{sfn|Born|Haworth|2017|p=79}} however, Burnett has been credited with coining the term as a way to tie the circle together.<ref name="ObserverEffect" /> Langley's ''[[Floral Shoppe]]'' (credited to "Macintosh Plus", December 2011) was the first album to be properly considered of the genre, containing all of the style's core elements.<ref name="Esquire2016">{{cite news |url=http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/music/a47793/what-happened-to-vaporwave/ |title=How Vaporwave Was Created Then Destroyed by the Internet |last=Beauchamp |first=Scott |date=August 18, 2016 |access-date=April 1, 2017 |newspaper=[[Esquire (magazine)|Esquire]] |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170403132708/http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/music/a47793/what-happened-to-vaporwave/ |archive-date=April 3, 2017}}</ref>

Vaporwave found wider appeal over the middle of 2012, building an audience on sites like Last.fm, [[Reddit]] and [[4chan]].<ref name="ObserverEffect">{{cite news |last1=Galil |first1=Leor |title=Vaporwave and the Observer Effect |url=http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/vaporwave-spf420-chaz-allen-metallic-ghosts-prismcorp-veracom/Content?oid=8831558 |work=[[Chicago Reader]] |date=February 19, 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140125121419/http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/vaporwave-spf420-chaz-allen-metallic-ghosts-prismcorp-veracom/Content?oid=8831558 |archive-date=January 25, 2014}}</ref> On Tumblr, it became common for users to decorate their pages with vaporwave imagery.{{sfn|Born|Haworth|2017|p=81}} In September, [[Blank Banshee]] released his debut album, ''[[Blank Banshee 0]]'', which reflected a trend of vaporwave producers who were more influenced by [[Trap music (EDM)|trap music]] and less concerned with conveying political undertones.<ref name="Esquire2016" /> ''Bandwagon'' called it a "progressive record" that, along with ''Floral Shoppe'', "signaled the end of the first wave of sample-heavy music, and{{nbsp}}... reconfigured what it means to make vaporwave music.<ref name="subversivedreammusic"/>

After a flood of new vaporwave acts turned to Bandcamp for distribution, various online music publications such as ''[[Tiny Mix Tapes]]'', ''Dummy Mag'' and ''Sputnikmusic'' began covering the movement.<ref name="essential" /> However, writers, fans, and artists struggled to differentiate between vaporwave, chillwave, and hypnagogic pop,<ref name="VaporFutures">{{cite web |last1=Harper |first1=Adam |title=Essay: Invest in Vaporwave Futures! |url=https://www.dummymag.com/features/essay-invest-in-vaporwave-futures/ |website=Dummy Mag |date=2013 |access-date=May 23, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200226220826/https://www.dummymag.com/features/essay-invest-in-vaporwave-futures/ |archive-date=February 26, 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref> while Ash Becks of ''The Essential'' noted that larger sites like ''[[Pitchfork (website)|Pitchfork]]'' and ''[[Drowned in Sound]]'' "seemingly refused to touch vaporwave throughout the genre's two-year 'peak'."<ref name="essential" /> Common criticisms were that the genre was either "too dumb" or "too intellectual".<ref name="Stereogum_Electronicon">{{cite web |title=Vaporwave Finally Makes An IRL Connection At 100% ElectroniCON |url=https://www.stereogum.com/2056934/100-percent-electronicon-george-clanton-vaporwave-review/franchises/sounding-board/ |last=Bowe |first=Miles |date=2019-09-03 |website=Stereogum |access-date=2020-05-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191220142642/https://www.stereogum.com/2056934/100-percent-electronicon-george-clanton-vaporwave-review/franchises/sounding-board/ |archive-date=December 20, 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{refn|group=nb|Journalist Miles Bowe recalled that when he was an intern at ''Stereogum'' in 2013, "vaporwave felt nearly impossible to explain to friends, let alone pitch to an editor."<ref name="Stereogum_Electronicon" />}}

=== Wider popularity ===
In November 2012, seapunk aesthetics were appropriated in music videos by the pop singers [[Rihanna]] and [[Azealia Banks]]. The exposure catapulted the subculture to the mainstream, and with it, vaporwave.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Amarca |first1=Nico |title=Cyber Trends: 5 Subcultures Created on the Internet |url=https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/internet-subcultures-health-goth-seapunk/ |website=High Snobiety |date=March 11, 2015}}</ref> That same month, a video review of ''Floral Shoppe'', published by the YouTuber [[Anthony Fantano]], helped solidify the album as the representative work of vaporwave,{{sfn|Harper|2017|p=122}} but was also credited as a pivotal moment in the decline of the genre.{{Sfn|Trainer|2016|p=422}} Soon after vaporwave was spotlighted in the mainstream, it was frequently described as a "dead" genre.{{sfn|Harper|2017|p=121}} Such pronouncements came from the fans themselves.<ref name="Esquire2016" />

Following the initial wave, new terms were invented by users on 4chan and Reddit who sought to separate vaporwave into multiple subgenres.<ref name="SecondLife" /> Some were created in jest, such as "vaportrap", "vapornoise" and "vaporgoth".<ref name="Arcand" /> Further subgenres included "eccojams", "utopian virtual", "[[mallsoft]]", "future funk", "post-Internet", "late-nite lo-fi", "broken transmission" (or "signalwave"), and "[[hardvapour]]".<ref name="vtrap">{{cite web |url=https://daily.bandcamp.com/2016/11/21/vaporwave-genres-list/ |title=Genre As Method: The Vaporwave Family Tree, From Eccojams to Hardvapour |date=November 21, 2016 |website=Bandcamp Daily |access-date=December 14, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180924183400/https://daily.bandcamp.com/2016/11/21/vaporwave-genres-list/ |archive-date=September 24, 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref> Joe Price of ''Complex'' reported that "most [of the subgenres] faded away, and many didn't make sense to begin with.{{nbsp}}... The visual aspect formed faster than the sound, resulting in releases that look the same but fail to form a sonically cohesive whole."<ref name="SecondLife" /> Cloud rap artists like [[Bones (rapper)|Bones]], [[Black Kray]], [[Xavier Wulf]] and [[GothBoiClique]] drew influence from vaporwave and [[Witch house (genre)|witch house]], with genre boundaries not becoming distinctly defined until later.<ref>{{cite web |last=Seraydarian |first=Thomas |date=October 14, 2015 |title=Crossfader's Cloud Rap Primer |url=https://www.xfdrmag.net/crossfaders-cloud-rap-primer/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230126232001/https://www.xfdrmag.net/crossfaders-cloud-rap-primer/ |archive-date=January 26, 2023 |work=XFDR}}</ref><ref name="Vice.com">{{cite web |last1=Marcus |first1=Ezra |date=May 12, 2017 |title=Wave Music Is a Marketing Tactic, Not a Microgenre |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/wave-music-marketing-tactic-microgenre/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170804175107/https://thump.vice.com/en_ca/article/ae5nkp/wave-music-marketing-tactic-microgenre |archive-date=August 4, 2017 |website=[[Vice (magazine)|Vice]]}}</ref>

[[File:Yunglean (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|upright| [[Yung Lean]] (pictured 2013) popularized fusions of vaporwave with [[hip-hop music|rap music]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Parizot |first1=Matthew |title=Yung Lean Shares Some Of His Favorite Songs With His Fans |url=https://www.hotnewhiphop.com/yung-lean-shares-some-of-his-favorite-songs-with-his-fans-news.49888.html |website=HotNewHipHop |date=May 10, 2018 |access-date=May 24, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180614035719/https://www.hotnewhiphop.com/yung-lean-shares-some-of-his-favorite-songs-with-his-fans-news.49888.html |archive-date=June 14, 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>[https://miscellanynews.org/2022/04/20/arts/yung-leans-stardust-sees-rapper-exploring-new-style/ Yung Lean's 'Stardust' sees rapper exploring new style – The Miscellany News]</ref> ]]

In 2013, YouTube began allowing its users to host [[live stream]]s, which resulted in a host of 24-hour "radio stations" dedicated to microgenres such as vaporwave and [[lo-fi hip hop]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Alemoru |first1=Kemi |title=Inside YouTube's calming 'Lofi Hip Hop Radio to Relax/Study to' community |url=http://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/40366/1/youtube-lo-fi-hip-hop-study-relax-24-7-livestream-scene |website=[[Dazed Digital]] |date=June 14, 2018 |access-date=February 16, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200219143916/https://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/40366/1/youtube-lo-fi-hip-hop-study-relax-24-7-livestream-scene |archive-date=February 19, 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref> The Swedish rapper [[Yung Lean]] and his Sad Boys collective inspired a wave of anonymous DJs to create vaporwave mixes, uploaded to YouTube and SoundCloud, that appropriated the music and imagery of [[Nintendo 64]] video games. Titles included "Mariowave", "Nostalgia 64", and "{{nowrap|ＺＥＬＤＡＷＡＶＥ}}"<ref name=":0">{{cite web |last1=Winkle |first1=Luke |title=Nintendo 64 Has Inspired A New Wave Of Surprisingly Sad Music |url=https://kotaku.com/nintendo-64-has-inspired-a-new-wave-of-surprisingly-sad-1830140957 |website=[[Kotaku]] |date=November 1, 2018 |access-date=May 24, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200307022040/https://kotaku.com/nintendo-64-has-inspired-a-new-wave-of-surprisingly-sad-1830140957 |archive-date=March 7, 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref> ''[[Dazed Digital]]''{{'}}s Evelyn Wang credited Lean with "allowing vaporwave to leak IRL [and] encouraging its unholy coupling with [[streetwear]]". She cited their associated fashion staples as "frowny faces, Japanese and Arabic as accessories, sportswear brands, [[Arizona Beverage Company|Arizona iced tea]], and the uncanny ability to simultaneously communicate in and be a meme."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Wang |first1=Evelyn |title=A brief history of sad boy fashion |url=https://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/32335/1/a-brief-history-of-sad-boy-fashion |website=[[Dazed Digital]] |date=August 9, 2016 |access-date=May 24, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190321184806/https://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/32335/1/a-brief-history-of-sad-boy-fashion |archive-date=March 21, 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{refn|group=nb|Responding to the memes of Lean's music video for "Hurt" (2015), Arizona Beverage Company collaborated with [[Adidas]] on a sneaker design based on the turquoise and pink can design of Arizona 99-cent teas that had become "a vaporwave standard".<ref name="ice">{{cite web |last1=Hatfield |first1=Amanda |title=NYPD shuts down chaotic Adidas pop-up selling 99-cent Arizona tea sneakers |url=https://www.brooklynvegan.com/nypd-shut-down-chaotic-adidas-pop-up-selling-99-cent-arizona-tea-sneakers/ |website=[[Brooklyn Vegan]] |date=July 18, 2019 |access-date=May 24, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200512214923/http://www.brooklynvegan.com/nypd-shut-down-chaotic-adidas-pop-up-selling-99-cent-arizona-tea-sneakers/ |archive-date=May 12, 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref>}}

At the end of 2013, ''Thump'' published an essay headlined "Is Vaporwave the Next Seapunk?".<ref name="SecondLife" /> Although the author prophesied that vaporwave would not end "as a joke" the way seapunk did, the genre came to be largely viewed as a facetious Internet meme based predominately on a retro visual style or "vibe", a notion that frustrated some producers who wished to be recognized as serious artists. Many of the most influential artists and record labels associated with the genre later drifted into other musical styles.<ref name="SecondLife" />

In 2015, ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' published a list that included vaporwave act [[2814]] as one of "10 artists you need to know", citing their album {{nihongo|''[[Birth of a New Day]]''|新しい日の誕生}} as "an unparalleled success within a small, passionate pocket of the internet."<ref name="rs">{{cite magazine |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/10-new-artists-you-need-to-know-november-2015-20151125/2814-20151124 |title=2814 |date=November 25, 2015 |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |series=10 New Artists You Need to Know |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160703150513/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/10-new-artists-you-need-to-know-november-2015-20151125/2814-20151124 |archive-date=July 3, 2016 |url-status=dead |access-date=June 27, 2016}}</ref> The album ''[[I'll Try Living Like This]]'' by [[Death's Dynamic Shroud.wmv]] was featured at number fifteen on the ''[[Fact (UK magazine)|Fact]]'' list "The 50 Best Albums of 2015",<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.factmag.com/2015/12/09/the-50-best-albums-of-2015/ |title=The 50 Best Albums of 2015 |date=December 9, 2015 |publisher=[[The Vinyl Factory]] |access-date=December 11, 2015 |work=[[Fact (UK magazine)|Fact]] |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160130223316/http://www.factmag.com/2015/12/09/the-50-best-albums-of-2015/ |archive-date=January 30, 2016}}</ref> and on the same day [[MTV]] International introduced a [[rebrand]] heavily inspired by vaporwave and seapunk,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.gq.com/story/mtv-miley-cyrus-vma-vaporwave-seapunk |title=The Crowd-Sourced Chaos of MTV's Vaporwave VMAs |last1=Lange |first1=Maggie |date=August 29, 2015 |work=[[GQ]] |publisher=[[Condé Nast]] |access-date=December 8, 2015 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151210214659/http://www.gq.com/story/mtv-miley-cyrus-vma-vaporwave-seapunk |archive-date=December 10, 2015}}</ref> Tumblr launched a [[GIF]] viewer named Tumblr TV, with an explicitly MTV-styled visual spin.<ref name="vice2">{{cite web |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/tumblr-and-mtv-killed-vaporwave/ |title=How Tumblr and MTV Killed the Neon Anti-Corporate Aesthetic of Vaporwave |date=June 26, 2015 |website=Motherboard ([[Vice (magazine)|Vice]]) |publisher=[[Vice Media, Inc.]] |access-date=December 8, 2015 |last1=Pearson |first1=Jordan |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151206193920/http://motherboard.vice.com/read/tumblr-and-mtv-killed-vaporwave |archive-date=December 6, 2015}}</ref> Hip-hop artist [[Drake (musician)|Drake]]'s single "[[Hotline Bling]]", released on July 31, also became popular with vaporwave producers, inspiring both humorous and serious remixes of the tune.<ref name="subversivedreammusic"/>

As of 2016, vaporwave albums, including ''Floral Shoppe'', continued to rank among the best-selling experimental albums on Bandcamp.<ref name="Pitchfork" /> The scene also maintained a dedicated following on communities such as Reddit.<ref name="SecondLife" /> Price reported that, for those outside of these arenas, the genre was generally considered to be "a big joke". He added that "Users of the various vaporwave sub-Reddits will always take it very seriously for the most part, but even there people are discussing whether or not vaporwave is still going strong."<ref name="SecondLife">{{cite magazine |last1=Price |first1=Joe |title=Vaporwave's Second Life |url=https://www.complex.com/pigeons-and-planes/2016/08/vaporwave-essay/ |magazine=[[Complex (magazine)|Complex]] |date=August 29, 2016}}</ref>{{refn|group=nb|Harper wrote in 2017 that the genre's demise was merely a popular [[talking point]], as it is contradicted by the wealth of releases that still appeared on Bandcamp.{{sfn|Harper|2017|p=121}} Price commented that these releases were only observed by those who are "constantly checking the vaporwave charts" and cited "countless parody albums of ''Floral Shoppe'', to the point in which there are even full Bandcamp pages dedicated to these innocuous releases."<ref name="SecondLife" />}} Despite their objections to the label, serious artists of the movement continued to be tagged as vaporwave.<ref name="SevenDays" />

In 2019, user comments that state "{{nowrap|ＡＥＳＴＨＥＴＩＣ}}" remained ubiquitous on YouTube videos concerning the Internet.{{sfn|Frankel|2019|pp=239–241}} [[George Clanton]], a prominent figure in the genre, commented that the "vaporwave" banner still functioned well as a marketing tag for music that is not necessarily considered of the genre.<ref name="SevenDays">{{cite web |title=George Clanton on Vaporwave, Rebranding and His Record Label, 100% Electronica |url=https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/george-clanton-on-vaporwave-rebranding-and-his-record-label-100-electronica/Content?oid=4833985 |last=Adams |first=Jordan |date=2017-03-29 |website=[[Seven Days (newspaper)|Seven Days]] |access-date=2020-05-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181203133741/https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/george-clanton-on-vaporwave-rebranding-and-his-record-label-100-electronica/Content?oid=4833985 |archive-date=December 3, 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Fader2019">{{cite web |title=Inside 100% ElectroniCON, the world's first vaporwave festival |url=https://www.thefader.com/2019/09/04/vaporwave-festival-100-electronicon-scene-report |last=Gooding |first=Sarah |date=2019-09-04 |website=[[The Fader]] |access-date=2020-05-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200418051741/https://www.thefader.com/2019/09/04/vaporwave-festival-100-electronicon-scene-report |archive-date=April 18, 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref> In September, he organized the first-ever vaporwave festival, 100% ElectroniCON, in New York City, where various artists associated with the genre such as [[Skylar Spence|Saint Pepsi]], Vaperror, Nmesh, 18 Carat Affair, and Clanton himself performed live, most of them for the first time in their careers.<ref name="Stereogum_Electronicon" /><ref name="Fader2019" />

=== Political appropriations ===
<!---           DO NOT REMOVE THIS SECTION WITHOUT TALK PAGE CONSENSUS         ----->
In December 2012, ''Dummy'' published what was considered the "definitive" article on vaporwave, authored by Adam Harper, in which he equated the genre to [[accelerationist]] political theory. The article had the effect of inspiring "a wave of content ambiguously celebrating a dystopian capitalism".{{sfn|Born|Haworth|2017|pp=82–83}} In early 2016, the satirical publication Rave News reported that prominent vaporwave producers had scheduled an emergency summit in Montreal to discuss "creeping [[fascism]]" in the scene. Although the article was facetious, its comment section attracted many vaporwave fans who defended such political beliefs.<ref name="fashwavevice" /> In August, ''[[Daily Stormer]]'' founder [[Andrew Anglin]] recommended that [[alt-right]] members embrace [[synthwave]] instead of the rock genres traditionally associated with far-right movements, as he felt that synthwave represented the "Whitest music ever". His remarks popularized the musical and visual aesthetic dubbed "fashwave", an updating of fascist tropes inspired by vaporwave that was celebrated by many members of the alt-right.<ref name="HermanssonLawrence2020">{{cite book |last1=Hermansson |first1=Patrik |last2=Lawrence |first2=David |last3=Mulhall |first3=Joe |last4=Murdoch |first4=Simon |title=The International Alt-Right: Fascism for the 21st Century? |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=43fNDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT96 |year=2020 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-0-429-62709-5 |pages=96–97}}</ref> (see also {{Section link|Vaporwave|Fashwave}})

In 2017, ''[[Vice (magazine)|Vice]]''{{'s}} Penn Bullock and Eli Penn reported on the phenomenon of self-identified fascists and alt-right members appropriating vaporwave music and aesthetics, describing the fashwave movement as "the first fascist music that is easy enough on the ears to have mainstream appeal" and reflective of "a global cybernetic subculture geared towards millennials, propagated by memes like [[Pepe the Frog]], and centered on sites like 4chan".<ref name="fashwavevice" />{{refn|group=nb|They also wrote that Trumpwave exploits vaporwave's perceived ambivalence towards the corporate culture it engages with, allowing it to recast Trump as "the modern-day inheritor of the mythologized 80s, a decade that is taken to stand for racial purity and unleashed capitalism".<ref name="fashwavevice">{{cite magazine |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/trumpwave-fashwave-far-right-appropriation-vaporwave-synthwave/ |title=Trumpwave and Fashwave Are Just the Latest Disturbing Examples of the Far-Right Appropriating Electronic Music |last1=Bullock |last2=Kerry |first1=Penn |first2=Eli |magazine=[[Vice (magazine)|Vice]] |date=January 30, 2017 |access-date=February 6, 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170206105847/https://thump.vice.com/en_us/article/trumpwave-fashwave-far-right-appropriation-vaporwave-synthwave |archive-date=February 6, 2017}}</ref>}} ''[[The Guardian]]''{{'}}s Michael Hann noted that the movement is not unprecedented; similar offshoots occurred in [[punk rock]] in the 1980s and [[black metal]] in the 1990s. Hann believed that, like those genres, there was little chance fashwave would ever "impinge on the mainstream".<ref name="Hann2016" />

By 2019, pink vaporwave-inspired hats that promoted 2020 presidential candidate [[Andrew Yang]] became popular among his supporters. ''[[National Review]]'' commentator Theodore Kopfre reported that it was part of a trend indicating that Yang had "replaced [[Donald Trump]] as the meme candidate."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Kupfer |first1=Theodore |title=Rise of the Pink Hats |url=https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/03/rise-of-the-pink-hats/ |website=[[National Review]] |date=March 12, 2019 |access-date=February 8, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191007010025/https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/03/rise-of-the-pink-hats/ |archive-date=October 7, 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref>

== Critical interpretations ==
=== Parody, subversion, and genre ===
[[File:Vaporwave art example.png|thumb|Vaporwave-style image using elements of Windows 95]]

Vaporwave was one of several microgenres spawned in the early 2010s that were the brief focus of media attention.<ref name="Vice.com" /> Users on various music forums, as quoted by ''[[Vice (magazine)|Vice]]'', variously characterized the genre as "chillwave for [[Marxists]]", "post-elevator music", and "corporate smooth jazz [[Windows 95]] pop".<ref name="Thumpsup" /> Its circulation was more akin to an Internet meme than typical music genres of the past, as authors Georgina Born and Christopher Haworth wrote in 2017, {{blockquote|Vaporwave's cultural practices knowingly replicate and parody the addictive, almost compulsory participation that feeds social networks, where the voluntary labor of the user community drives the system and generates value. Anyone with an Internet connection can produce vaporwave{{nbsp}}... The uniformity of these memes is encouraged by their rapid imitation among the genre's hyperactive online subculture, fueled by affective contagion.{{sfn|Born|Haworth|2017|pp=79–80}}}}

''Pitchfork'' contributor Jonny Coleman defined vaporwave as residing in "the uncanny genre valley" that lies "between a real genre that sounds fake and a fake genre that ''could'' be real."<ref name="realgenre">{{cite web |last1=Coleman |first1=Jonny |date=May 1, 2015 |title=Quiz: Is This A Real Genre |url=http://pitchfork.com/thepitch/756-quiz-is-this-a-real-genre/ |website=[[Pitchfork (website)|Pitchfork]] |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170730144948/http://pitchfork.com/thepitch/756-quiz-is-this-a-real-genre/ |archive-date=July 30, 2017}}</ref> Also from ''Pitchfork'', Patrick St. Michel calls vaporwave a "niche corner of Internet music populated by Westerners goofing around with Japanese music, samples, and language".<ref>{{cite web |last1=St. Michel |first1=Patrick |date=December 3, 2014 |title=10 Essential Japanese Netlabels |url=http://pitchfork.com/features/starter/9554-10-essential-japanese-netlabels/ |website=[[Pitchfork (website)|Pitchfork]] |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160316125701/http://pitchfork.com/features/starter/9554-10-essential-japanese-netlabels/ |archive-date=March 16, 2016}}</ref> ''Vice'' writer Rob Arcand commented that the "rapid proliferation of subgenres has itself become part of the "vaporwave" punchline, gesturing at the absurdity of the genre itself even as it sees artists using it as a springboard for innovation."<ref name="Arcand">{{cite web |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/what-is-hardvapour-vaporwave-essay-hke-sandtimer/ |title=Inside Hardvapour, an Aggressive, Wry Rebellion Against Vaporwave |website=Thump |publisher=[[Vice Media]] |date=July 12, 2016 |access-date=January 30, 2019 |last=Arcand |first=Rob |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161231173305/https://thump.vice.com/en_us/article/what-is-hardvapour-vaporwave-essay-hke-sandtimer |archive-date=December 31, 2016 |df=mdy-all}}</ref>

Speaking about the "supposedly subversive or parodic elements" of vaporwave in 2018, cultural critic [[Simon Reynolds]] said that the genre had been made redundant, in some respects, by modern [[trap music]] and mainstream hip hop. He opined: "What could be more insane or morbid than the subjectivity in a [[Drake (musician)|Drake]] record or a [[Kanye West|Kanye]] song? The black Rap n B mainstream is further out sonically and attitudinally than anything the white Internet-Bohemia has come up with. Their role is redundant. Rap and R&B{{nbsp}}... is already the [[Simulacrum]], is already decadence."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Reynolds |first1=Simon |author-link1=Simon Reynolds |last2=Finauro |first2=Beatrice |url=https://www.collectibledry.com/featured/what-is-trap-simon-reynolds-trap-music-criticism-dry-interview-classical-heretical-issue-9/ |title=A fantasy of a life without constraints |magazine=Collectible Dry |date=December 10, 2018 |access-date=January 8, 2019 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190108224800/https://www.collectibledry.com/featured/what-is-trap-simon-reynolds-trap-music-criticism-dry-interview-classical-heretical-issue-9/ |archive-date=January 8, 2019 |df=mdy-all}}</ref>

In a 2018 ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' article that reported [[the Monkees]]' [[Mike Nesmith]]'s enthusiasm for the genre, author Andy Greene described vaporwave as a "fringe electronic subgenre that few outside irony-soaked meme enthusiasts have even heard of, let alone developed an opinion on."<ref name="nesmith">{{cite magazine |last1=Greene |first1=Andy |title=Michael Nesmith of the Monkees Loves Vaporwave. Seriously. |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/monkees-michael-nesmith-vaporwave-714253/ |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |date=August 22, 2018 |access-date=February 8, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200127100540/https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/monkees-michael-nesmith-vaporwave-714253/ |archive-date=January 27, 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref> Nesmith praised the genre and attributed its sound to be highly reminiscent of [[psychedelic drug|psychedelic]] trips.<ref name="nesmith" />

Music critic Scott Beauchamp wrote that vaporwave's stance is more focused on loss, the notion of [[lassitude]], and passive acquiescence, and that "vaporwave was the first musical genre to live its entire life from birth to death completely online".<ref name="Bkn Rail" /> He suggested that expressions of ''hypermodulation'' – precisely tuned "micro-experiences" resulting from social media algorithms funneling different people with similar interests into obscure topics – inspired both the development and downfall of vaporwave.<ref name="Bkn Rail" />

=== Capitalism and technology ===
{{quote box|
|align=right
|text= It initiates a lot of important conversations about power and money in the industry. Or{{nbsp}}... everything just sounds good slowed down with reverb?
|width=25%
|source=—Aaran David Ross of [[Gatekeeper (band)|Gatekeeper]], speaking about vaporwave<ref name="Fader2015">{{cite web |last1=Friedlander |first1=Emilie |last2=McDermott |first2=Patrick D. |title=A Recent History of Microgenres |url=http://www.thefader.com/2015/10/08/timeline-history-of-music-microgenres-chillwave-cloud-rap-witch-house |website=[[The Fader]] |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170404045803/http://www.thefader.com/2015/10/08/timeline-history-of-music-microgenres-chillwave-cloud-rap-witch-house |archive-date=April 4, 2017 |df=mdy-all}}</ref>
}}

Vaporwave is cited for espousing an ambiguous or [[accelerationist]] relationship to [[consumer capitalism]].{{sfn|Born|Haworth|2017|p=83}}<ref name="harper" /> A popular trend within its audience from 2015 to 2019 was to use vaporwave songs and [[music video]]s to escape reality by observing and remixing commercial products and popular trends of the past.<ref name=":2" /> Numerous academic books have been published on this subject, a trend that was provoked by Adam Harper's 2012 ''Dummy'' article and its attempt to link the genre to punk rock and [[anti-capitalist]] gestures.<ref name="Pitchfork" /> In the article, he wrote that vaporwave producers "can be read as sarcastic anti-capitalists revealing the lies and slippages of modern [[technoculture|techno-culture]] and its representations, or as its willing facilitators, shivering with delight upon each new wave of delicious sound."<ref name="harper" />{{refn|group=nb| Langley described her 2012 album {{nihongo3|''[[Contemporary Sapporo]]''|札幌コンテンポラリー}} as "a brief glimpse into the new possibilities of international communication" and "a parody of American [[Contextualism|hypercontextualization]] of e-[[Asia]] circa 1995".<ref name="tmt">{{cite web |url=http://www.tinymixtapes.com/music-review/virtual-information-desk-contemporary-sapporo |script-title=ja:情報デスクVIRTUAL - 幌コンテンポラリー |publisher=[[Tiny Mix Tapes]] |access-date=February 8, 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131225013707/http://www.tinymixtapes.com/music-review/virtual-information-desk-contemporary-sapporo |archive-date=December 25, 2013 |df=mdy-all}}</ref> Critic [[Simon Reynolds]] characterized Daniel Lopatin's Chuck Person project as "relat[ing] to cultural memory and the buried [[utopianism]] within capitalist commodities, especially those related to consumer technology in the computing and audio/video entertainment area".{{sfn|Reynolds|2011}}}} He noted that the name itself was both a nod to vaporware and the idea of [[libido (Psychoanalysis)|libidinal energy]] being subjected to relentless sublimation under capitalism.<ref name="harper">{{cite web |url=http://www.dummymag.com/features/adam-harper-vaporwave |title=Comment: Vaporwave and the pop-art of the virtual plaza |publisher=Dummy |date=December 7, 2012 |access-date=February 8, 2014 |author=Harper, Adam |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150401173930/http://www.dummymag.com/features/adam-harper-vaporwave |archive-date=April 1, 2015 |df=mdy-all}}</ref>

Philosopher [[Grafton Tanner]] wrote, "vaporwave is one artistic style that seeks to rearrange our relationship with electronic media by forcing us to recognize the unfamiliarity of ubiquitous technology{{nbsp}}... vaporwave is the music of 'non-times' and '[[non-place]]s' because it is skeptical of what consumer culture has done to time and space".{{sfn|Tanner|2016|p=10}} Commenting on the adoption of a vaporwave- and seapunk-inspired rebrand by [[MTV]] International, Jordan Pearson of ''Motherboard'', ''[[Vice (magazine)|Vice]]''{{'s}} technology website, noted how "the cynical impulse that animated vaporwave and its associated Tumblr-based aesthetics is co-opted and erased on both sides—where its source material originates and where it lives".<ref name="vice2" /> Beauchamp proposed a parallel between punk's "No Future" stance and its active "raw energy of dissatisfaction" deriving from the historical lineage of [[Dada]] dystopia, and vaporwave's preoccupation with "political failure and social anomie".<ref name="Bkn Rail">{{cite journal |last1=Beauchamp |first1=Scott |title=Attention Online Shoppers{{nbsp}}... |journal=The Brooklyn Rail |date=April 2017 |pages=23–24 |url=http://brooklynrail.org/2017/04/music/Attention-Online-Shoppers |access-date=April 2, 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170331230307/http://brooklynrail.org/2017/04/music/Attention-Online-Shoppers |archive-date=March 31, 2017}}</ref>

Michelle Lhooq of ''Vice'' argued that "parodying commercial taste isn't exactly the goal. Vaporwave doesn't just recreate corporate lounge music – it plumps it up into something sexier and more synthetic."<ref name="Thumpsup" /> In his 2019 book ''Hearing the Cloud: Can Music Help Reimagine The Future?'', academic Emile Frankel wrote that vaporwave was reduced to "a commercial shell of itself" by those who fetishized the 1980s and "retro synth-pop". He likened the scene to [[PC Music]], a label that "was seen to warp from an ironic affirmation of commercialism, to become just regular pop.{{nbsp}}... Anything that uses irony as a method of critique runs the risk of misrecognition."{{sfn|Frankel|2019|pp=239–241}}

== Offshoots and subgenres{{anchor|Subgenres}} ==
=== Future funk ===
Future funk is a [[French house]]-inspired offshoot<ref>{{cite web |date=2021-02-24 |title=The Endless Life Cycle of Japanese City Pop |url=https://pitchfork.com/features/article/the-endless-life-cycle-of-japanese-city-pop/ |access-date=2021-11-09 |website=Pitchfork |language=en-US}}</ref> that expands upon the [[disco]] and [[house music|house]] elements of vaporwave.<ref name="Arcand" /> It involves much of the same visual imagery drawn from 1980s anime,<ref>{{cite web |last=Yassin |first=Jilbrit |title=Tendencies Revamps the 80s with Some Shiny Future Funk |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/tendencies-revamps-the-80s-with-some-shiny-future-funk/ |access-date=November 9, 2021 |website=Vice |date=May 4, 2015 |language=en}}</ref> with reference points including ''[[Urusei Yatsura]]'', ''[[Super Dimension Fortress Macross]]'', ''[[Kimagure Orange Road]]'', and ''[[Sailor Moon]]''.<ref name="CBR" /> Musically, future funk is produced in the same sample-based manner as vaporwave, albeit with a more upbeat approach.<ref name="ElPais">{{cite news |language=es |last=Victoria |first=Elisa |url=https://elpais.com/elpais/2017/08/14/tentaciones/1502713729_845896.amp.html |title=Future funk, el género musical que te va a alegrar la vida |newspaper=El País |date=August 16, 2017 |access-date=January 14, 2018 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180115184842/https://elpais.com/elpais/2017/08/14/tentaciones/1502713729_845896.amp.html |archive-date=January 15, 2018}}</ref><ref name=":caseofjapanesecitypop">{{cite journal |last=Sommet |first=Moritz |date=2020-09-30 |title=Intermediality and the discursive construction of popular music genres: the case of 'Japanese City Pop' |url=https://folia.unifr.ch/global/documents/308987 |journal=Journal of Handai Music Studies |language=en |volume=16 |issue=17 |pages=15–42}}</ref> Most of the music samples are drawn from Japanese [[city pop]] records from the 1980s, and the genre has led to an increased exposure of city pop music to western audiences.<ref name="phoenixnewtimes" /><ref name="slate" />

Some of the most popular future funk artists include [[Macross 82-99]], who pioneered the genre with his ''Sailorwave'' album series in 2013,<ref name="CBR">{{cite web |last=Donahoo |first=Timothy |date=October 5, 2020 |title=Macross 82-99's 'Sailorwave' Should Be Every Retro Anime Fan's Soundtrack |url=https://www.cbr.com/macross-82-99-sailorwave-vaporwave-anime-music/ |access-date=2021-11-09 |website=CBR |language=en-US}}</ref> Other artists described as being the most popular in future funk include [[Skylar Spence]] (aka Saint Pepsi), Tsundere Alley, Ducat,<ref name="voiceff">{{cite web |last=Voice |first=Rob |title=Interview: DUCAT & The Retro, Feel-Good World of Future Funk |url=https://www.magneticmag.com/2020/05/interview-ducat-future-funk/ |access-date=2021-11-09 |website=Magnetic Magazine |date=May 11, 2020 |language=en-us}}</ref> [[Yung Bae]],<ref>{{cite web |last1=Gokhman |first1=Roman |title=Interview: Yung Bae 'straight up relaxin' yet won't stop creating |url=https://riffmagazine.com/features/yung-bae-straight-up-relaxin/ |website=Riff Magazine |date=December 3, 2021}}</ref> and Night Tempo.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-07-12 |title=The Future Is Funked by Future Funk |url=https://www.popmatters.com/future-funked-by-future-funk |access-date=2024-02-15 |website=PopMatters |language=en-US}}</ref>

=== Hardvapour ===
{{main|Hardvapour}}
Hardvapour emerged in late 2015<ref name="Broom" /> as a reimagination of vaporwave with darker themes, faster tempos, and heavier sounds.<ref name="Arcand" /> It is influenced by [[speedcore]] and [[gabber]], and defines itself against the utopian moods sometimes attributed to vaporwave. Hardvapour artists include wosX and Subhumanizer.<ref name="Broom">{{cite web |last=Broomfield |first=Matt |date=April 28, 2016 |url=http://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/30896/1/inside-harvapour-the-internet-s-latest-microgenre |title=Inside 'hardvapour', the internet's latest microgenre |website=[[Dazed]] |access-date=March 11, 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170327161901/http://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/30896/1/inside-harvapour-the-internet-s-latest-microgenre |archive-date=March 27, 2017}}</ref>

=== Mallsoft ===
{{main|Mallsoft}}
Mallsoft amplifies vaporwave's [[lounge music|lounge]] influences.<ref name="Arcand" /> It may be viewed in connection to "the concept of malls as large, soulless spaces of consumerism{{nbsp}}... exploring the social ramifications of capitalism and globalization".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://sunbleach.net/2016/08/07/disconscious-hologram-plaza/ |title=Disconscious – Hologram Plaza – Sunbleach |publisher=Sunbleach Media |date=August 7, 2016 |access-date=August 7, 2016 |author=Kilby, Dylan |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160901201552/http://sunbleach.net/2016/08/07/disconscious-hologram-plaza/ |archive-date=September 1, 2016 |df=mdy-all}}</ref> Popular mallsoft artists include Disconscious, Groceries, Hantasi, and [[Cat System Corp.]]<ref name="vtrap" />

===Fashwave===<!---           DO NOT REMOVE THIS SECTION WITHOUT TALK PAGE CONSENSUS         ----->
Fashwave (from "[[Fascism|fascist]]")<ref name="Hann2016">{{cite news |last1=Hann |first1=Michael |title='Fashwave': synth music co-opted by the far right |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2016/dec/14/fashwave-synth-music-co-opted-by-the-far-right |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=December 14, 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220011950/https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2016/dec/14/fashwave-synth-music-co-opted-by-the-far-right |archive-date=December 20, 2016}}</ref><ref name="heavyfash" /> is a largely instrumental fusion of synthwave and vaporwave that originated on YouTube circa 2015.<ref name="coleman2016">{{cite news |last1=Coleman |first1=Jonny |title="Fashwave" Is Fascist Synthesizer Music and Yes, It's an Actual Thing |url=http://www.laweekly.com/music/fashwave-is-fascist-synthesizer-music-and-yes-its-an-actual-thing-7726607 |work=[[LA Weekly]] |date=December 19, 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220234942/http://www.laweekly.com/music/fashwave-is-fascist-synthesizer-music-and-yes-its-an-actual-thing-7726607 |archive-date=December 20, 2016}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last=Ugwu |first=Reggie |date=2016-12-13 |title=How Electronic Music Made By Neo-Nazis Soundtracks The Alt-Right |url=https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/reggieugwu/fashwave |access-date=2024-02-26 |website=BuzzFeed News |language=en}}</ref> Artists include Cybernazi<!-- also spelled CybernΔzi, compare [[minced oath]] -->, Xurious, Andrew Anglin, and Elessar.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Macnair |first=Logan |date=2023-06-28 |title=Understanding Fashwave: The Alt-Right's Ever-Evolving Media Strategy |url=https://gnet-research.org/2023/06/28/understanding-fashwave-the-alt-rights-ever-evolving-media-strategy/ |access-date=2024-02-26 |website=GNET |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref name=":3" /> It is also been described as an extremist subset of the non-extremist latter promoted by [[neo-Nazis]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Carless |first=Will |title=Oath Keepers on trial, extremists on Spotify and white supremacists hassling a church |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/09/30/oath-keepers-and-stewart-rhodes-trial-extremist-music-spotify/8125629001/ |access-date=2024-02-26 |website=USA TODAY |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":3" /> With political track titles and occasional soundbites,<ref name="fashwavevice" /> the genre combines [[Nazi symbolism]] with the visuals associated with vaporwave and synthwave.<ref name="Bkn Rail" /> According to Hann, it is musically derived from synthwave,<ref name="Hann2016" /> while ''[[Heavy.com|Heavy]]'' contributor Paul Farrell writes that it is "considered to be an offshoot from the harmless vaporwave movement."<ref name="heavyfash">{{cite web |first=Paul |last=Farrell |url=https://heavy.com/news/2018/05/fashwave/ |title=Fashwave: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know |date=March 18, 2018 |website=Heavy.com |language=en |access-date=March 5, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200523201643/https://heavy.com/news/2018/05/fashwave/ |archive-date=May 23, 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref> The visual aesthetic of fashwave, consisting of typical vaporwave elements mixed with [[Fascist symbolism|fascist symbols]] like the [[Black Sun (symbol)|black sun]], [[Othala#Modern use|odal rune]], or [[Crusades#Legacy|crusader imagery]],<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-06-30 |title=Fashwave |url=https://www.amadeu-antonio-stiftung.de/publikationen/fashwave/ |access-date=2024-02-26 |website=Amadeu Antonio Stiftung |language=de-DE}}</ref> has been associated with the "Dark [[Make America Great Again|MAGA]]" imagery surrounding Trump and Ron DeSantis.<ref name=":4">{{Cite magazine |last1=Varkiani |first1=Adrienne Mahsa |last2=Otten |first2=Tori |last3=Otten |first3=Tori |last4=Segers |first4=Grace |last5=Otten |first5=Tori |last6=Otten |first6=Tori |last7=Varkiani |first7=Adrienne Mahsa |last8=Otten |first8=Tori |last9=Varkiani |first9=Adrienne Mahsa |date=2022-11-01 |title=Team DeSantis Created That Weird Meme Video With the Giant Nazi Symbol |url=https://newrepublic.com/post/174753/its-confirmed-team-desantis-created-video-giant-nazi-symbol |access-date=2024-02-26 |magazine=The New Republic |issn=0028-6583}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Friedman |first=Dan |title=Joe Biden made a "Dark Brandon" joke at the White House Correspondent's dinner, killing it for good |url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/04/joe-biden-dark-brandon-correspondent-dinner/ |access-date=2024-02-26 |website=Mother Jones |language=en-US}}</ref> It has been parodied by [[Anti-fascism|anti-fascists]], such as with the [[Dark Brandon]] meme, a mocking imitation of the "Dark MAGA" imagery surrounding Trump.<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=2022-08-08 |title=The "Dark Brandon" Joe Biden Meme Has Made Its Way Into the White House |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/08/the-dark-brandon-joe-biden-meme-has-made-its-way-into-the-white-house |access-date=2024-02-26 |magazine=Vanity Fair |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Sommer |first=Sam Brodey,Ursula Perano,Will |date=2022-08-09 |title='Dark Brandon': How Dems Learned to Love Biden's Alter Ego |url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/dark-brandon-or-how-the-left-stopped-worrying-and-learned-to-love-joe-bidens-alter-ego-lets-go-brandon |access-date=2024-02-26 |work=The Daily Beast |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Breland |first=Ali |title=Requiem for a Dark Brandon |url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/08/dark-brandon-meme-joe-biden/ |access-date=2024-02-26 |website=Mother Jones |language=en-US}}</ref> In 2023, the [[Ron DeSantis 2024 presidential campaign|DeSantis campaign]] let go of their campaign director, after it was publicized that a campaign aide had created a DeSantis "[[fan edit]]" featuring the black sun symbol.<ref name=":4" /><ref>{{Cite news |last=Pengelly |first=Martin |date=2023-07-26 |title=DeSantis aide fired after sharing video featuring symbol used by Nazis |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jul/26/desantis-campaign-video-nazi-symbol-fired-aide |access-date=2024-02-26 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

=== Others ===
* '''Eccojams''': an early subgenre that, according to Lopatin, started out as a simple exercise looping up a slowed-down segment of a certain song while adding vibrating echoes.<ref name="vtrap"/>
* '''Simpsonwave''': a [[YouTube]] phenomenon popularized by the user Lucien Hughes.<ref name="geek.com" /><ref name="Pitchfork">{{cite web |url=http://pitchfork.com/thepitch/1188-what-the-hell-is-simpsonwave/ |title=What the Hell Is Simpsonwave? |last=Lozano |first=Kevin |date=June 14, 2016 |publisher=[[Pitchfork Media]] |access-date=June 22, 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160622225714/http://pitchfork.com/thepitch/1188-what-the-hell-is-simpsonwave/ |archive-date=June 22, 2016}}</ref> It mainly consists of videos with scenes from the American [[Animated series|animated]] [[television series]] ''[[The Simpsons]]'' set to various vaporwave tracks. Clips are often put together out of context and edited with [[VHS]]-esque [[distortion]] effects and surreal visuals, giving them a "hallucinatory and transportive" feel.<ref name="AVclub">{{cite web |last=Blevins |first=Joe |url=http://www.avclub.com/article/simpsonwave-most-wack-tripped-out-simpsons-meme-ev-237679 |title="Simpsonwave" is the most wack, tripped-out Simpsons meme ever |work=[[The A.V. Club]] |date=June 3, 2016 |publisher=[[The Onion]] |access-date=June 4, 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160603223124/http://www.avclub.com/article/simpsonwave-most-wack-tripped-out-simpsons-meme-ev-237679 |archive-date=June 3, 2016}}</ref> {{anchor|Fashwave}}
*'''Late night lo-fi''' (or '''late-nite lo-fi'''): slowed down 1980s pop and jazz that mimics recorded programs on old [[4:3 (aspect ratio)|4:3]] televisions.<ref name="elhype.com" /> The main progenitor of this subgenre is [[Luxury Elite]], who is known for her music's high-class feel.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://daily.bandcamp.com/lists/vaporwave-genres-list |title=Genre As Method: The Vaporwave Family Tree, From Eccojams to Hardvapour |date=November 21, 2016 |access-date=September 25, 2023 |website=[[Bandcamp Daily]] |last=Chandler |first=Simon |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191221161542/https://daily.bandcamp.com/lists/vaporwave-genres-list |archive-date=December 21, 2019 |url-status=live |at=sec.&nbsp;Late-nite Lo-fi}}</ref>
*'''VHS pop''': a more positive variant of late night lo-fi with richer sound and vibrant aesthetics.<ref name="elhype.com" />
*'''Utopian virtual''': using Ferraro's concept of a virtual life soundtrack, with crisp and unreal early 3D computer graphics.<ref name="elhype.com" /> Its off-shoot is [[Frutiger Aero]] music, mixing the usual bubbly and utopistic cues of utopian virtual with samples or sound cues of the 2000s instead. Its album covers heavily feature the visuals of the graphical style of the same name.
*'''Signalwave''' (or '''broken transmission'''): sampling and distorting radio broadcasts, television programs, and stations, especially [[The Weather Channel]]. Representative artists include [[Cat System Corp.|猫 シ Corp]] and CT57.<ref name="moonlvnding.com" />
*'''Slushwave''': the ambient side of vaporwave, creating a musical environment to "get lost in" with tracks longer than 10 minutes. Prominent artists include [[Telepath (musician)|t e l e p a t h テレパシー能力者]], SOARER, and desert sand feels warm at night.<ref name="moonlvnding.com"/><ref>[https://vanpaugam.com/blog/what-is-slushwave-2023 Slushwave? - Van Paugam]</ref>
*'''Barber beats''': popularized by artists such as Haircuts for Men and Macroblank, the subgenre heavily samples and slows down a wide variety of [[smooth jazz]], [[lounge music]], and [[R&B]] from the 1980s to the early 2000s.<ref name="newvaporwaveaesthetic">{{Cite web |title=Haircuts for Men, Macroblank, and the new vaporwave aesthetic |url=http://poly.rpi.edu/features/2022/03/macroblank-haircuts-for-men-and-the-new-vaporwave-aesthetic/ |access-date=2024-04-04 |website=The Polytechnic}}</ref><ref>[https://villagepipol.com/barber-beats-a-youtube-rabbit-hole/ Barber Beats: A YouTube Rabbit Hole - Your Guide to the Big City]</ref><ref name="vanpaugambarberbeats">{{Cite news |last=Editorial |first=YRB |date=December 21, 2023 |title=What Are Barber Beats? by Van Paugam – YRB Magazine |url=https://yrbmag.com/what-are-barber-beats-by-van-paugam/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240323233908/https://yrbmag.com/what-are-barber-beats-by-van-paugam/ |archive-date=March 23, 2024 |access-date=April 13, 2024 |newspaper=Yrb Magazine}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=BARBER BEATS: A Controversial Music Genre |url=https://vapor95.com/blogs/darknet/barber-beats-a-controversial-music-genre |access-date=2024-04-04 |website=Vapor95 |language=en}}</ref>

== See also ==
{{Portal|Internet|Music}}
{{columns-list|colwidth=30em|
* [[Bisexual lighting]]
* [[Criticism of capitalism]]
* [[Culture jamming]]
* [[Dead mall]]
* [[Digitality]]
* [[Frutiger Aero]]
* [[Hyperconsumerism]]
* [[Hyperreality]]
* [[Internet art]]
* [[Japanese asset price bubble]]
* [[Lofi hip hop]]
* [[Liminal space]]
* [[Mashup (music)|Mashup music]]
* [[Massurrealism]]
* [[Minimalist music]]
* [[Phonk]]
* [[Postmodern music]]
* [[Production music]]
* [[Remix culture]]
* [[Sampling (music)|Sampling]]
* [[Scratch video]]
* [[Sovietwave]]
* [[Yacht rock]]
}}
{{clear}}

== Notes ==
{{reflist|group=nb|30em}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== Bibliography ==
* {{cite book |last1=Born |first1=Georgina |last2=Haworth |first2=Christopher |editor-last1=Hjorth |editor-first1=Larissa |editor-last2=Horst |editor-first2=Heather |editor-last3=Galloway |editor-first3=Anne |title=The Routledge Companion to Digital Ethnography |chapter=Mixing It: Digital Ethnography and Online Research Methods--A Tale of Two Global Digital Music Genres |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uC0lDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA81 |date=2017 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-317-37778-8}}
* {{cite book |last=Frankel |first=Emile |title=Hearing the Cloud: Can Music Help Reimagine The Future? |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UvSyDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT239 |year=2019 |publisher=John Hunt Publishing |isbn=978-1-78535-839-5}}
* {{cite book |last=Glitsos |first=Laura |author-link=Laura Glitsos |title=Somatechnics and Popular Music in Digital Contexts |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kqKvDwAAQBAJ |year=2019 |publisher=Springer Nature |isbn=978-3-030-18122-2}}
* {{cite book |last=Harper |first=Adam |editor-last1=Cook |editor-first1=Nicholas |editor-last2=Ingalls |editor-first2=Monique M. |editor-last3=Trippett |editor-first3=David |title=The Cambridge Companion to Music in Digital Culture |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VtGoDwAAQBAJ |date=2017 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-1-107-16178-8 |chapter=Personal Take: Vaporwave Is Dead, Long Live Vaporwave!}}
* {{cite book |last=Reynolds |first=Simon |author-link=Simon Reynolds |title=Retromania: Pop Culture's Addiction to Its Own Past |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8FI3dVT9t34C |year=2011 |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |isbn=978-1-4299-6858-4 |access-date=April 1, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170216082659/https://books.google.com/books?id=8FI3dVT9t34C |archive-date=February 16, 2017 |url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |editor-last1=Stevens |editor-first1=Anne H. |editor-last2=O'Donnell |editor-first2=Molly C. |title=The Microgenre: A Quick Look at Small Culture |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RkzODwAAQBAJ&pg=PA6 |year=2020 |publisher=[[Bloomsbury Publishing]] |isbn=978-1-5013-4583-8}}
* {{cite book |last=Tanner |first=Grafton |title=Babbling Corpse: Vaporwave and the Commodification of Ghosts |author-link=Grafton Tanner |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qq83DAAAQBAJ |year=2016 |publisher=John Hunt Publishing |isbn=978-1-78279-760-9 |access-date=April 1, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170402092333/https://books.google.com/books?id=qq83DAAAQBAJ |archive-date=April 2, 2017 |url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |last=Trainer |first=Adam |title=The Oxford Handbook of Music and Virtuality |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C1wFCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA409 |year=2016 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-932128-5 |chapter=From Hypnagogia to Distroid: Postironic Musical Renderings of Personal Memory}}

== External links ==
{{sister project links|d=Q15733887|c=category:Vaporwave|n=no|b=no|wikt=vaporwave|f=no|m=no|mw=no|s=no|species=no|q=no|v=no}}
* {{YouTube|id=HYCkxaIBg54|title=Adam Harper: Indie Goes Hi-Tech: The End of Analogue Warmth and Cosy Nostalgia}}
*[https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/what-does-the-internet-sound-like-1.4500006 What does the internet sound like? on ''The Irish Times'']

{{vaporwave|state=expanded}}
{{Hauntology}}
{{Electronica}}
{{Western art movements}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Vaporwave| ]]
[[Category:2010s in music]]
[[Category:2020s in music]]
[[Category:2010s neologisms]]
[[Category:21st-century music genres]]
[[Category:American styles of music]]
[[Category:Art pop]]
[[Category:Contemporary art movements]]
[[Category:Cyberpunk culture]]
[[Category:Electronic music genres]]
[[Category:Experimental music genres]]
[[Category:Indie music]]
[[Category:Microgenres]]
[[Category:Nostalgia]]
[[Category:Visual arts genres]]
[[Category:Internet memes introduced in 2011]]
[[Category:Counterculture of the 2010s]]
[[Category:Counterculture of the 2020s]]
[[Category:Retro-style music]]
[[Category:Internet aesthetics]]