Vaporwave
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About
Vaporwave is a musical genre inspired by electronic dance music (EDM), New Age music and the indie dance genres chillwave and seapunk. Vaporwave is known for its use of Japanese characters in song titles, 80’s smooth jazz and Muzak samples that have been pitch shifted and time stretched with music editing software. The genre has often been described as a satire of corporate and consumerist culture, specifically as a critique of mainstream EDM.
History
According to an article in the Chicago Reader,[1] the vaporwave genre emerged on July 1st, 2011 with the release of the album New Dreams LTD. by Laserdisc Visions, which was later dubbed “vaporwave” by Texas producer Will Burnett.
The earliest known use of the term was printed in a review for the album Surfs Pure Hearts by Girlhood in the music blog Weed Temple[7] on October 13th. 2011.
Reception
In December 2012, the music blog /mu/essentials[3] posted a graphic for “Essential Vaporwave” (shown below).

On December 7th, the music blog Dummy[8] published an article about vaporwave, which described it as a satire of capitalism. On January 24th, 2013, the Tumblr[5] blog “Vaporwave Album Covers” was launched, which highlights album art from notable vaporwave artists (shown below).
On March 4th, a vaporwave thread was submitted to the /mu/ (music) board on 4chan,[6] where many users recommended their favorite vaporwave albums. On March 19th, the music blog Another County Heard[4] published an article titled “The Verdict on Vaporwave,” which noted how many Internet commenters had declared vaporwave to be “over.” On December 27th, Vice[2] published an article comparing vaporwave to seapunk, quoting several forum commenter descriptions of the genre as “chillwave for Marxists,” “post-elevator music” and “corporate smooth jazz Windows 95 pop.”
Impact
Notable Videos
Search Interest
External References
[1]Chicago Reader – Vaporwave and the observer effect
[2]Vice – Is Vaporwave the New Seapunk
[3]Muessentials – Essential vaporwave
[4]Another County Heard – The Verdict on Vaporwave
[5]Tumblr – Vaporwave Album Covers
[7]Weed Template – Review – Girlhood Surfs Pure Hearts
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