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Vaporwave


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Guest jacqueschristo

Man. Havent checked into this thread since page 5.

So looking back I always found the beginning of this sound to be

interesting but realized the slippery slope of no holds barred sampling.

Now I regularly come across vaporwave tracks that not only do not modify

the sample at all, but are using more recent tracks. Kids uploading classic

house/electronic music (Cassius/Modjo) as well as current stuff as their own

and getting circle jerk praise as per usual in this scene and thousands of

followers. It's like an alternate universe.

 

Maybe I'm missing the joke but a movement now based on straight plagiarism and

no re-contextualization...I don't see how that is 'punk'. A kid can just steal a VHS

Head track and he is all of a sudden on the frontier of underground/culture? Wild.

The potential was there initially but its now hive for the worst type of people.

Edited by jacqueschristo
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Man. Havent checked into this thread since page 5.

So looking back I always found the beginning of this sound to be

interesting but realized the slippery slope of no holds barred sampling.

Now I regularly come across vaporwave tracks that not only do not modify

the sample at all, but are using more recent tracks. Kids uploading classic

house/electronic music (Cassius/Modjo) as well as current stuff as their own

and getting circle jerk praise as per usual in this scene and thousands of

followers. It's like an alternate universe.

 

Maybe I'm missing the joke but a movement now based on straight plagiarism and

no re-contextualization...I don't see how that is 'punk'. A kid can just steal a VHS

Head track and he is all of a sudden on the frontier of underground/culture? Wild.

The potential was there initially but its now hive for the worst type of people.

 

You just have to look around a little bit to find the good stuff.. Sure, there's lots of lazy vaporwave, but there's also a lot of good stuff. It's more about curation though, and how the material is tied together, treated and conceptualized imo, whether it's sample-based or not. There are also non-sampling original projects out there like Blank Banshee, Eyeliner, Donovan Hikaru (sorry, shameless plug!), and many of Vektroid's stuff. Not everything vaporwavey is labeled as such anyway.

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Guest jacqueschristo

 

Man. Havent checked into this thread since page 5.

So looking back I always found the beginning of this sound to be

interesting but realized the slippery slope of no holds barred sampling.

Now I regularly come across vaporwave tracks that not only do not modify

the sample at all, but are using more recent tracks. Kids uploading classic

house/electronic music (Cassius/Modjo) as well as current stuff as their own

and getting circle jerk praise as per usual in this scene and thousands of

followers. It's like an alternate universe.

 

Maybe I'm missing the joke but a movement now based on straight plagiarism and

no re-contextualization...I don't see how that is 'punk'. A kid can just steal a VHS

Head track and he is all of a sudden on the frontier of underground/culture? Wild.

The potential was there initially but its now hive for the worst type of people.

 

You just have to look around a little bit to find the good stuff.. Sure, there's lots of lazy vaporwave, but there's also a lot of good stuff. It's more about curation though, and how the material is tied together, treated and conceptualized imo, whether it's sample-based or not. There are also non-sampling original projects out there like Blank Banshee, Eyeliner, Donovan Hikaru (sorry, shameless plug!), and many of Vektroid's stuff. Not everything vaporwavey is labeled as such anyway.

 

I hear you but don't confuse curation with creation. The concept of edits and mix tapes that reassemble old material into new vibes are nothing new obviously. The only difference here is that this culture gives zero credit...what is the point. Just post the originals and edit them if you want to be a curator. The whole notion of some philosophy behind this was not relevant for 90% of those involved. They latched onto it as an excuse to steal and get internet love. That

is becoming even more obvious now. Again I think there are some doing interesting stuff with the concept, but this 'genre' has by far the worst ratio of good to

bad music. I think that speaks to how poor the core of the culture is. I know it is on its way out but it was always unsustainable in that form.

Edited by jacqueschristo
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Man. Havent checked into this thread since page 5.

So looking back I always found the beginning of this sound to be

interesting but realized the slippery slope of no holds barred sampling.

Now I regularly come across vaporwave tracks that not only do not modify

the sample at all, but are using more recent tracks. Kids uploading classic

house/electronic music (Cassius/Modjo) as well as current stuff as their own

and getting circle jerk praise as per usual in this scene and thousands of

followers. It's like an alternate universe.

 

Maybe I'm missing the joke but a movement now based on straight plagiarism and

no re-contextualization...I don't see how that is 'punk'. A kid can just steal a VHS

Head track and he is all of a sudden on the frontier of underground/culture? Wild.

The potential was there initially but its now hive for the worst type of people.

 

You just have to look around a little bit to find the good stuff.. Sure, there's lots of lazy vaporwave, but there's also a lot of good stuff. It's more about curation though, and how the material is tied together, treated and conceptualized imo, whether it's sample-based or not. There are also non-sampling original projects out there like Blank Banshee, Eyeliner, Donovan Hikaru (sorry, shameless plug!), and many of Vektroid's stuff. Not everything vaporwavey is labeled as such anyway.

 

I hear you but don't confuse curation with creation. The concept of edits and mix tapes that reassemble old material into new vibes are nothing new obviously. The only difference here is that this culture gives zero credit...what is the point. Just post the originals and edit them if you want to be a curator. The whole notion of some philosophy behind this was not relevant for 90% of those involved. They latched onto it as an excuse to steal and get internet love. That

is becoming even more obvious now. Again I think there are some doing interesting stuff with the concept, but this 'genre' has by far the worst ratio of good to

bad music. I think that speaks to how poor the core of the culture is. I know it is on its way out but it was always unsustainable in that form.

 

 

I actually have to agree with you in that I think all artists regardless of genre should mention the source material and credit the creator. That may be my main gripe with the heavily-sampled vaporwave. However, I think it's so niche at this point, that it's more of an oddity. Regardless, it would be nice to see that evolution of using crediting of sample-based vaporwave in the future. Hopefully, that will also weed out the completely unoriginal "vaporwave artists" who just post other ppls tracks and dont even do anything to em.

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Guest jacqueschristo

Totally. That is pretty much how I feel about it. On another note, I have always wondered,

Is the Vektroid material (not Mac+) heavy samples or is that more original? I assumed it

as original but it seemed so well done that I questioned it considering her other aliases.

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Totally. That is pretty much how I feel about it. On another note, I have always wondered,

Is the Vektroid material (not Mac+) heavy samples or is that more original? I assumed it

as original but it seemed so well done that I questioned it considering her other aliases.

 

I'm not 100% but I believe her work under Vektroid is all original, just from my own analysis.. Clearly, Mac +, Sacred Tapestry, Eco Virtual, prob Esc Ghost (or whatever it is), and that one with all the Japanese letters, are sample-based projects, but they seem to have layers of production through out that could be original. I'm still split over whether Prism Corp Virtual Enterprises is original or sample-based. Home and ClearSkies are so intricate, layered and so advanced in terms of jazz progression and instrumental nuance, that I find it hard to believe that it's not sample-based, or at least that the compositions were recontextualized and she "covered" the songs using cheesy MIDI sounds. Anyone know for sure though? I'm completely baffled, although there are a number of tracks on both Home and ClearSkies that have hip hop tropes and "internet" music stylings which would seem too current/relevant for them not to be original. I actually played the opening track from Home for a music publisher friend of mine, and he was almost sure he'd heard that melody before from some song from the 70's or something, but he may have been mistaken.

Edited by Lane Visitor
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