Vaporwave

[autopilot]

But Vaporwave isn't a gimmick- it's a cultural statement about doing the extreme opposite of putting unique-ness and identity and ego behind one's "work".

 

So ironically badly produced, same-sounding sampled ambient music, released on obsolete music formats, collectively ripping off one or two artists' aesthetic, is not a gimmick?

[Lane Visitor]

 

But Vaporwave isn't a gimmick- it's a cultural statement about doing the extreme opposite of putting unique-ness and identity and ego behind one's "work".

So ironically badly produced, same-sounding sampled ambient music, released on obsolete music formats, collectively ripping off one or two artists' aesthetic, is not a gimmick?

Well I can only speak from my own idealistic interpretation of what vaporwave means to me, so if you see it as a gimmick, I can't really argue against that... But I can definitely see how that can be interpreted as a gimmick.., but at the same time the idea of a gimmick is something that's tied to identity, for the purpose of gaining popularity... It would seem absurd to market anonymity.

[Lane Visitor]

I personally don't use samples in any of my Donovan Hikaru material because I prefer to keep it all original, it's fun for me to make midi jams and i like the exercise of sometimes trying to make stuff that sounds like sampled material, even though it's actually my midi production using fx/pitch to sound sampled. It's kinda meta, i know but it's satisfying for me.

 

And I don't think the idea of any vaporwave is irony- i think its bizarreness, absurdity, awkwardness, cheesiness, etc- aspects often rejected in the music world and passed off as silly or hokey.

Edited September 19, 2015 by Lane Visitor

[autopilot]

Well personally, I think it's just really bad music music by amateur producers who've tried to attach a pretentious higher artistic meaning to it to cover up for the fact that they can't make real songs. Totally seems like a gimmick to me.

 

But that's just me. All the power to you if that slowed down Tina Turner has giving you a new outlook on life and a deeper appreciation of capitalism or whatever.

[Lane Visitor]

Well personally, I think it's just really bad music music by amateur producers who've tried to attach a pretentious higher artistic meaning to it to cover up for the fact that they can't make real songs. Totally seems like a gimmick to me.

 

But that's just me. All the power to you if that slowed down Tina Turner has giving you a new outlook on life and a deeper appreciation of capitalism or whatever.

There are absolutely bad vaporwave producers out there like any other genre.. Prob the majority of releases are pretty run of the mill / bad.

 

I know what you're getting at, but for the overtly sample-based vaporwave stuff, i don't think it's intended to be judged as music make "made" by its creator.. It s more of a curation, an idea, concept, a mix, like as if they were djs. Straight up sample-only producers are not claiming to be musicians. It's a collective exchange.

 

Now a lot of the more original content stuff like Blank Banshee, Eyeliner, HKE, etc- I would put into a different category as they often compose / produce. There are just different movements within the genre and there could be a really talented original content vaporwave producer just as there could be a really talented all-sample-based one.

[brian trageskin]

vaporwave is shit compared to this

 

 

just stating the obvious

[Lane Visitor]

vaporwave is shit compared to this

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7u-xHPNIco

 

just stating the obvious

I love this album

[drillkicker]

 

 

 

 

 

Nostalgia is something that is best avoided. It's tempting, but it normally doesn't result in anything very productive. I think that if you're going to listen to vaporwave for nostalgia, you're better off just listening to actual ambient synth music from the '80s and '90s. Nostalgic music tends not to produce anything new for obvious reasons.

vaporwave is full of faux nostalgia, half the listeners were born after the era it evokes and/or pulls influence from...i suppose the appeal for some is the novelty of it, which I get, but I don't approach it like that at all

 

i've always listened to it as another hauntology genre, so it's not quite nostalgic for me in the straightforward sense, but in a future past way (music that could of been but never was made with tech from a certain past era) after all it uses the word "vaporware" as a basis...so like the aesthetics and sounds are not like pure retro fetishism or re-hashing (like say 80s synth stuff or 60s psych rock) but instead an exploration of more forgotten and discarded new age, muzak, commercial jingles, etc., specifically late 80s / early 90s stuff. If done right it's cathartic emotionally even to me - a rediscovery of music I loved as a kid but either purposely ignored later on or simply forgot about.

Most of the vaporwave I've heard is an exact copy of the same type of sound that new age synth musicians were doing in the '80s. It doesn't feel very new to me. Some '80s music (like Software's Digital Dance or Yasuaki Shimizu's Music For Commercials, for example) feels more vaporwave than actual vaporwave does.

Yeah the stuff I like is halfway between that sound and the slowed down pop eccojams approach, t e l e p a t h テレパシー能力者 is a good example. It's moody too.

That's one of the things that I really don't like about vaporwave. All the artists are trying to go for the exact same aesthetic. They all have a random English word in all lowercase or all capital letters with spaces after each one, followed by some Japanese word(s). It's like they all want to be as unoriginal and generic as possible. I wish they would just try to be themselves, because that's what art is supposed to be about. Nobody wants to listen to a musician who's just trying to be someone else. (On second thought, I just remembered that they actually do want to listen to someone who doesn't have a personality, and it makes me kind of sad tbh. Artists who just follow whatever trend is hip and try to brand their music to that trend as much as possible tend to get significantly more recognition and praise than artists who are doing their own thing entirely.)

But its really not about "popularity" or "originality" or "hipness" at all... Vaporwave is not really a genre- it's more of a curation of new ideas and concepts, usually narrated through recycled parts from unexpected or strange sources. It's more of a found/ collage art movement. Most of the "artists" in the movement straight up pitch down and loop sequences of muzak and smooth jazz in order to create a specific mood or effect, so of course it's not original- the goal in much vaporwave is to use generic sources and turn into something weird- of often times so absurdly generic that it becomes original its own way. It's not really about trying to be original- its about capturing a specific feeling... Nobodys taking their vaporwave ep on the road or trying to chart on radio lol.. This is a weird anonymous Internet genre where we can openly collaborate and come up with bizzaro cyberpunk concepts using 80s / 90s / discount bin / cheesy

corporate training video vibes- hence the japanese characters, weird glitch art, roman busts and surreal neon city scapes. It's weird, fun, dreamy, romantic, idealist, and fucked up. And that's why we dig it (:

 

Imagine youre feeling sick and in bed all day and stumble onto weather channel cuz its slow canned artificial generic thoughtless vibes comfort you and numb your mind ... Thats what vaporwave is and why we like it.. We're all just trying to make albums that sound and look like the Weather Channel.

 

 

 

Vaporwave is kind of the opposite of trying to be unique. In a world where art & culture is so incredibly splintered into a gazillion niches, subgenres, communities, movements , flavors, styles etc, and therefore anyone who wants to stand out from the crowd is told they must do something COMPLETELY, unequivocally, painstakingly, absurdly "unique" and absolutely life-alteringly ONE OF A KIND in order to get attention, acceptance, love, credit, money, reward rather than simply making great content and working hard to put it out, society has accumulated this syndrome where gimmick not only comes before art, where drama not only comes before message, but where they completely envelope any redeeming quality that that content /art had or could have had... And many times (see the Kardashians empire), gimmick and drama IS the content itself... Why? Because the channels of modern-day information /entertainment / culture are a breeding ground for our ADD/small-talk/sexuality/ego-obsessed/dumbed down culture.

 

Vaporwave is a fun little movement that poses the hypothetical question... "What if the opposite route that we're told we need to take in order to stand out was taken?... What if I just took a Diana Ross loop, slowed it down, glitched it out, threw some Japanese characters and Roman busts on the cover, and called something pretentious, and created a whole little world of other weird highly conceptual "works" - all using shit i found from the web, and presented as an "artist" but stayed anonymous? In a way, it seems like the ultimate gimmick, because its so simple, thoughtless, random... But also effective and vibey. But Vaporwave isn't a gimmick- it's a cultural statement about doing the extreme opposite of putting unique-ness and identity and ego behind one's "work". And because of this, it's complete freedom in a cultural, artistic, idealistic sense- something that's often hard to achieve in a world where the concept of authorship is so absurdly inflated that it often trumps the content itself.

You summed up my complaints with vaporwave better than I could myself. Thanks.

[Lane Visitor]

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nostalgia is something that is best avoided. It's tempting, but it normally doesn't result in anything very productive. I think that if you're going to listen to vaporwave for nostalgia, you're better off just listening to actual ambient synth music from the '80s and '90s. Nostalgic music tends not to produce anything new for obvious reasons.

vaporwave is full of faux nostalgia, half the listeners were born after the era it evokes and/or pulls influence from...i suppose the appeal for some is the novelty of it, which I get, but I don't approach it like that at all

 

i've always listened to it as another hauntology genre, so it's not quite nostalgic for me in the straightforward sense, but in a future past way (music that could of been but never was made with tech from a certain past era) after all it uses the word "vaporware" as a basis...so like the aesthetics and sounds are not like pure retro fetishism or re-hashing (like say 80s synth stuff or 60s psych rock) but instead an exploration of more forgotten and discarded new age, muzak, commercial jingles, etc., specifically late 80s / early 90s stuff. If done right it's cathartic emotionally even to me - a rediscovery of music I loved as a kid but either purposely ignored later on or simply forgot about.

Most of the vaporwave I've heard is an exact copy of the same type of sound that new age synth musicians were doing in the '80s. It doesn't feel very new to me. Some '80s music (like Software's Digital Dance or Yasuaki Shimizu's Music For Commercials, for example) feels more vaporwave than actual vaporwave does.

Yeah the stuff I like is halfway between that sound and the slowed down pop eccojams approach, t e l e p a t h テレパシー能力者 is a good example. It's moody too.

That's one of the things that I really don't like about vaporwave. All the artists are trying to go for the exact same aesthetic. They all have a random English word in all lowercase or all capital letters with spaces after each one, followed by some Japanese word(s). It's like they all want to be as unoriginal and generic as possible. I wish they would just try to be themselves, because that's what art is supposed to be about. Nobody wants to listen to a musician who's just trying to be someone else. (On second thought, I just remembered that they actually do want to listen to someone who doesn't have a personality, and it makes me kind of sad tbh. Artists who just follow whatever trend is hip and try to brand their music to that trend as much as possible tend to get significantly more recognition and praise than artists who are doing their own thing entirely.)

But its really not about "popularity" or "originality" or "hipness" at all... Vaporwave is not really a genre- it's more of a curation of new ideas and concepts, usually narrated through recycled parts from unexpected or strange sources. It's more of a found/ collage art movement. Most of the "artists" in the movement straight up pitch down and loop sequences of muzak and smooth jazz in order to create a specific mood or effect, so of course it's not original- the goal in much vaporwave is to use generic sources and turn into something weird- of often times so absurdly generic that it becomes original its own way. It's not really about trying to be original- its about capturing a specific feeling... Nobodys taking their vaporwave ep on the road or trying to chart on radio lol.. This is a weird anonymous Internet genre where we can openly collaborate and come up with bizzaro cyberpunk concepts using 80s / 90s / discount bin / cheesy

corporate training video vibes- hence the japanese characters, weird glitch art, roman busts and surreal neon city scapes. It's weird, fun, dreamy, romantic, idealist, and fucked up. And that's why we dig it (:

 

Imagine youre feeling sick and in bed all day and stumble onto weather channel cuz its slow canned artificial generic thoughtless vibes comfort you and numb your mind ... Thats what vaporwave is and why we like it.. We're all just trying to make albums that sound and look like the Weather Channel.

Vaporwave is kind of the opposite of trying to be unique. In a world where art & culture is so incredibly splintered into a gazillion niches, subgenres, communities, movements , flavors, styles etc, and therefore anyone who wants to stand out from the crowd is told they must do something COMPLETELY, unequivocally, painstakingly, absurdly "unique" and absolutely life-alteringly ONE OF A KIND in order to get attention, acceptance, love, credit, money, reward rather than simply making great content and working hard to put it out, society has accumulated this syndrome where gimmick not only comes before art, where drama not only comes before message, but where they completely envelope any redeeming quality that that content /art had or could have had... And many times (see the Kardashians empire), gimmick and drama IS the content itself... Why? Because the channels of modern-day information /entertainment / culture are a breeding ground for our ADD/small-talk/sexuality/ego-obsessed/dumbed down culture.

 

Vaporwave is a fun little movement that poses the hypothetical question... "What if the opposite route that we're told we need to take in order to stand out was taken?... What if I just took a Diana Ross loop, slowed it down, glitched it out, threw some Japanese characters and Roman busts on the cover, and called something pretentious, and created a whole little world of other weird highly conceptual "works" - all using shit i found from the web, and presented as an "artist" but stayed anonymous? In a way, it seems like the ultimate gimmick, because its so simple, thoughtless, random... But also effective and vibey. But Vaporwave isn't a gimmick- it's a cultural statement about doing the extreme opposite of putting unique-ness and identity and ego behind one's "work". And because of this, it's complete freedom in a cultural, artistic, idealistic sense- something that's often hard to achieve in a world where the concept of authorship is so absurdly inflated that it often trumps the content itself.

You summed up my complaints with vaporwave better than I could myself. Thanks.

Lol no problem... And i was trying to hold back from praising or criticizing the movement, but rather contextualize it onjectively, and convey my opinion that it's not quite a genre of music, it's more a form- a way of delivering music/art itself. It's kind of more of a tool. But recently, newer variations of it have sort of morphed into a genre, and now i see it as both a micro-genre and a non-genre at the same time, which makes it even more fascinating and attractive to me. I think of it as a utilitarian form of Internet-age concept art that uses music and imagery to convey its message (although that in turn kind of makes it genre). Edited September 19, 2015 by Lane Visitor

[joshuatxuk]

That's one of the things that I really don't like about vaporwave. All the artists are trying to go for the exact same aesthetic. They all have a random English word in all lowercase or all capital letters with spaces after each one, followed by some Japanese word(s). It's like they all want to be as unoriginal and generic as possible. I wish they would just try to be themselves, because that's what art is supposed to be about. Nobody wants to listen to a musician who's just trying to be someone else. (On second thought, I just remembered that they actually do want to listen to someone who doesn't have a personality, and it makes me kind of sad tbh. Artists who just follow whatever trend is hip and try to brand their music to that trend as much as possible tend to get significantly more recognition and praise than artists who are doing their own thing entirely.)

 

 

i agree

 

actually this is often my biggest gripe with the genre as well, especially the meme "artwork" and barrage of cookie cutter producers...it's especially the case with all the "future funk" albums after saint pepsi

 

if fact, sometimes I have to take a break from browsing r/vaporwave because there's so much mediocre and flat out unoriginal crap, including rehashed discussions and topics, it literally drains me

 

the only positive thing about this circle jerk derivative mentality is the community aspect of it - many are attracted to vaporwave because it's others kids making music and sharing it online for free...there's far more shallow and superficial attitudes among more popular electronic music genres, especially scenes in major cities where people are chasing after label contracts and becoming PR firm clients

 

also t e l e p a t h テレパシー能力者 was a misleading example, his music is kind of a weird case b/c derivative name and album cover aesthetics aside him his music is some of the strongest out there (especially his collaboration project with hong kong express 2814)

 

the most interesting vaporwave out there is often the most unassuming and/or the least involved with all the communities and fan cliques online...or were never formally labeled as vaporwave, stuff like this:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8Xv-5i6G5Y

 

 

vaporwave is shit compared to this

 

 

just stating the obvious

 

it's an absolute benchmark for the genre imo - lot of vw fans don't idolize it which is a bit maddening

[Lane Visitor]

 

That's one of the things that I really don't like about vaporwave. All the artists are trying to go for the exact same aesthetic. They all have a random English word in all lowercase or all capital letters with spaces after each one, followed by some Japanese word(s). It's like they all want to be as unoriginal and generic as possible. I wish they would just try to be themselves, because that's what art is supposed to be about. Nobody wants to listen to a musician who's just trying to be someone else. (On second thought, I just remembered that they actually do want to listen to someone who doesn't have a personality, and it makes me kind of sad tbh. Artists who just follow whatever trend is hip and try to brand their music to that trend as much as possible tend to get significantly more recognition and praise than artists who are doing their own thing entirely.)

 

i agree

 

actually this is often my biggest gripe with the genre as well, especially the meme "artwork" and barrage of cookie cutter producers...it's especially the case with all the "future funk" albums after saint pepsi

 

if fact, sometimes I have to take a break from browsing r/vaporwave because there's so much mediocre and flat out unoriginal crap, including rehashed discussions and topics, it literally drains me

 

the only positive thing about this circle jerk derivative mentality is the community aspect of it - many are attracted to vaporwave because it's others kids making music and sharing it online for free...there's far more shallow and superficial attitudes among more popular electronic music genres, especially scenes in major cities where people are chasing after label contracts and becoming PR firm clients

 

also t e l e p a t h テレパシー能力者 was a misleading example, his music is kind of a weird case b/c derivative name and album cover aesthetics aside him his music is some of the strongest out there (especially his collaboration project with hong kong express 2814)

 

the most interesting vaporwave out there is often the most unassuming and/or the least involved with all the communities and fan cliques online...or were never formally labeled as vaporwave, stuff like this:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8Xv-5i6G5Y

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFzgTWOh0Vw

 

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

vaporwave is shit compared to this

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7u-xHPNIco

 

just stating the obvious

it's an absolute benchmark for the genre imo - lot of vw fans don't idolize it which is a bit maddening

+1

 

Yeah as much as im obsessed with vaporwave & love the community, sometimes i need a break from it too, as with anything (:

[Lane Visitor]

not that this has anything to do with vaporwave, but have any of you guys heard Arab Strap??

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoIfuSo12Ic

 

so good.. i grew up on the album Philophobia, where this song is from.. it's the best for breakups, cuz this guy with a thick Scottish accent just goes on and on in this ridiculous narrative through the whole release about some random high school breakup story involving jealousy, infidelity, crush, romance, young love.. but in this drunken absolutely at the bottom of the barrel attitude, slightly self deprecating, slightly suicidal, slightly deadpan. its amazing.

 

aaaanyway :D someone should ban me cuz i strayed from the topic of the thread lol

Edited September 20, 2015 by Lane Visitor

[Lane Visitor]

Anyone heard these newly unearthed Data Dream releases yet? classic stuff

 

https://datadream.bandcamp.com/album/virtua

 

Edited September 22, 2015 by Lane Visitor

[Guest Enter a new display name]

Anyone heard these newly unearthed Data Dream releases yet? classic stuff

 

https://datadream.bandcamp.com/album/virtua

 

 

Track 6 is a slowed down version of the Bar theme from Streets of Rage 2. I hate when Vaporwave tracks steal a whole track and call it a new one. I have seen it with other video game soundtracks.

Edited September 22, 2015 by Enter a new display name

[Lane Visitor]

 

Anyone heard these newly unearthed Data Dream releases yet? classic stuff

 

https://datadream.bandcamp.com/album/virtua

 

Track 6 is a slowed down version of the Bar theme from Streets of Rage 2. I hate when Vaporwave tracks steal a whole track and call it a new one. I have seen it with other video game soundtracks.

Oh wow i didnt even notice... Speaking of Streets of Rage, did you hear about this vinyl release of the game's soundtrack?...

 

http://data-discs.com/products/streets-of-rage?variant=1738192897

Edited September 22, 2015 by Lane Visitor

[melancholera]

https://dreamcatalogue.bandcamp.com/album/the-eternal-dream-system

[prdctvsm]

https://avaloneanaeon.bandcamp.com/album/pawn-of-null-h

https://networ-1.bandcamp.com/album/mediadisc-suite-deluxe

[Tamagotchi San]

 

http://lost-angles.com/portfolio/paulene-hamasaki-embrace/

[Rubin Farr]

https://dmttapes.bandcamp.com/

[Rubin Farr]

yeah who cares i'm from florida lol

[joshuatxuk]

dmt tapes legacy is really iffy imo - lot of good artists on it but a lot of crap - the owner meant well but he was just way over his head

 

they launched a revamp called dmtrec - looks more promising

[gmanyo]

Were dmt tapes the ones that would charge for albums and then never ship them? Underground vaporwave releases that barely anyone buys seems like one of the least profitable ways to scam people.

[Rubin Farr]

that's right, they folded and it turned out they weren't paying people for their music at all, and the owner was taking all the $$. #vaporgate

Oops I gave him a dollar, now I feel bad. Well, not that bad.

 

Ok, I'm over it. Haha

[purlieu]

Cassettes are a pain in the ass to record. I'm more of a vinyl guy, anyway, and I think it would be really cool to hear that album on a vinyl record. I don't care what's "hip" in the "scene" these days, it's easier to just pay someone to make records for me rather than buying a ton of blank cassettes, recording them all, and then printing out the J-cards and the labels.

Or you could just get them pro-dubbed. Pretty cheap these days. I know some labels pride themselves in home-made tapes but unless you've got a lot of dupe machines slaved up, fuck that.

 

I've been playing around with some slightly less obvious source material (may contain Aphex) for some vaporwave stuff recently, should be a release soon, I'll post it in here for a lampooning when it's out.

[Stock]

Finally made my first "Vaporwave" track for a remix contest on reddit, pretty happy about the result. I tried to make something "different" but in the end I don't know if that's good or not.

 

 

 

Anyway I'm glad I finally started something, hopefully I'll work on some more tracks soon :)

Edited October 3, 2015 by StocKo