What the hell is vaporwave?

Oh boy. You've done it now. You've stumbled into a giant blurb about vaporwave. And I bet you're actually curious to read about it, huh? I'm so, so sorry.

So what is vaporwave, then? It sounds stupid and pretentious and like something a hipster would say. Vaporwave, though, is a genre of music that grew on the internet (and only the internet) in the early 2010s. The sound generally can be described as "slowed down ____ music with tons of reverb/fx". I put that blank there on purpose, because while vaporwave started originally using 80s pop or muzak or corporate presentation background music, in the year 2025 it's become so much more than that. Modern day artists are using phonk, rock, new age, video game soundtracks, and even completely original compositions that just fit the "aesthetic." Vaporwave is absolutely sample-centric or sample music. In fact, a lot of people have compared it to "chop and screw", a style of using samples originally developed by DJ Screw. In that sense, vaporwave isn't necessarily innovative, because manipulating music has been a thing since musique concrete. Rather, vaporwave as a concept actually transcends the music itself; it encompasses visual art, marketing, philosophy, DIY/punk attitudes, nostalgia, and more mediums than I mentioned.

So, to wrap it up, vaporwave is sample-based music, originating in 80s and 90s nostalgia and internet culture. It's steeped in irony, meta-narrative, and social commentary. One could think of it as "vibe" music or "aesthetic" in its presentation or sound. As with other internet-born music styles (lofi, traumacore/weirdcore ambience, etc) it benefits heavily from niche communities and hyper-online music nerds. Below is a recent example vaporwave, just so we're all on the same page; its a radio show run by scene legend Luxury Elite, and runs every week.

Before we get too deep into it though, it's important to keep in mind that vaporwave has changed over time. Many of the ideas and stories and concepts still transfer, but some have changed. As with all scenes, there's bad actors and drama that over time have caused rifts. For example, Dream Catalogue, a once promising and pioneering vaporwave label (probably as influential as Business Casual (run by John Zoeble, or christtt)) is now closely associated with alt-right personalities, angles, and attitudes. Over time, its become more and more difficult to divorce the music from the people making/selling the music, so please keep this in mind as you explore the Virtual Plaza.

The Visual Language

The visual language of vaporwave is almost iconic at this point. It blew up with the genre and eventually took over the internet by storm, sometimes ironically as memes or the infamous "Vaporwave is dead" addage, but usually with the bleaching of pastels (usually pink and purple) combined with roman busts, Arizona Iced Tea, Fiji water, dolphins, palm trees, Windows 95 pop-up boxes and text, the beach, pools, Japanese text, etc. It's usually compared to collaging, a popular art technique. An example of this is below:

There's certainly an element of nostalgia in the technology, and this is further expanded upon by the reference of the marble busts. Interestingly enough, vaporwave is sometimes shown in the context of retro anime, usually in semi-depressing loops of rain, water moving, or other environments (my favorites are the sad ones though, honestly). In the words of another article (Ginnell College, linked below): "The visuals that are associated with Vaporware can be described as things a person may find in an abandoned 80’s mall. This can range from brights colors, blurry images, checkered tiles, sporadic designs, and obsolete technology to more eccentric artistic statements such as horizons, stylized Greek sculptures, 3-D rendered images, and influences from Japanese anime and culture." This kind of aesthetic is captured in a not-meant-to-be-vaporwave-but-definitely-comes-across-that-way video here:

The looped low quality video adds something here that isn't quite tangible. There's something...yearning about it...wistful and surreal. That's the plan here in vaporwave. Sometimes it takes the form of vintage CGI or other early 90s technology, similar to this tune (recently re-released on George Clanton's 100% Electronica label):

What I DO what to emphasize here, quickly, is that vaporwave is NOT the visual aesthetic also known as Outrun. If you see wireframe mountains and valleys with a car and a weird gradient sunset, that ain't vaporwave, baby. Outrun is more commonly associated with synthwave, which is another 80s nostalgia based electronic genre. Another very important and related note: vaporwave isn't synthwave. Just because there's "old sounding" or "nostalgic" sounds doesn't make it vaporwave. A point of contention here. Feel free to educate yourself and watch the video I linked at the bottom about this.

This is Outrun, not vaporwave, okay?

In the recommended media/videos section, I added a lot of fanmade visual albums of some of the OG vaporwave albums (or just some really good albums) that I think will help reflect the aesthetic direction that vaporwave can take sometimes. This is of course coupled with Lux's Neon Nights show (above), which also does a great job of showing off the aesthetics. I think we've talked about this enough, right? Let's move on to a different topic...

Recontextualization

This is probably my favorite topic when it comes to vaporwave. Recontextualization is the process of taking something that is familiar and changing something about it (either the colors, the size, the location, whatever) that somehow changes your interaction or perception of it. It's the idea of taking Africa by Toto and cutting it up, rearranging it, repitching it, and remixing it such that it takes on an entirely new identity. Anyone could sit there and say "Yep, this is Africa by Toto," but there's just something about it that takes you to somewhere new. To me, this is the fascinating part about recontextualization.

The first song of the album that changed everything. Thanks OPN.

It's not difficult to hear how both the familiar and unfamiliar collide into a strange sense of intrigue and mystique. It feels alien, otherworldly, yet comforting and warm. There's moments when I listen to this music that I feel my pupils dilating, like I received some huge neuron spike reminding me of a memory I can't quite put my finger on. It gives me a sense of loss for something I never owned. There's something so magical about this concept, and its so powerful I find myself working this concept into my own music too; its just that powerful. It's hard to ramble about this too much outside of defining it and bringing awareness of it, so you should take some time to listen to some current vaporwave and see what I'm talking about!

Political Undertones

Cool, here's where we can start to get pretentious (if we weren't already). Naturally, as in all music, there's a message. Some artists are more overt, some artists don't care at all, and some artists are wishy-washy about their political stances. Sometimes its ambiguous on purpose, and designed to have the listener draw their own conclusions. So feel comforted that it's not some giant blatant messaging going on here. With the obvious excpetions of course - there is definitely a vaporwave subgenre called "fashwave" which is, you guessed it, pro-fascism. That's kind of too be avoided. Im sure there's others too, because it is the internet.

That being said, most of vaporwave's discussions revolve around capitalism. Sometimes its a critique of capitalism, sometimes its an ironic appreciation (which is tied to the nostalgia factor), and sometimes its merely a hollow sadness about how capitalism in the 80s and 90s exploded, contributing to a short period of rapid economic and technological growth. The Grennill article (again) has this to say: "Through analyzing the discourse in communities and opinions of musicians, academics have written about how Vaporwave is a critical representation of capitalism and consumerism in sound, music, image, and aesthetic. Instead of using obvious messaging, Vaporwave critiques the failure to achieve an idealist consumerist society from within by relying on the culture of the 80s and 90s to demonstrate the irony and speed at which society has developed." A famous article ("Vaporwave and the pop-art of the virtual plaza", linked below) has this insight: "Is it a critique of capitalism or a capitulation to it? Both and neither. These musicians can be read as sarcastic anti-capitalists revealing the lies and slippages of modern techno-culture and its representations, or as its willing facilitators, shivering with delight upon each new wave of delicious sound. We could apply to their music a term used to describe a certain sentiment and praxis that has recently gained currency among philosophers of capitalism: accelerationism."

I know I'm copy-pasting a lot instead of using my own words, but that's because many others have studied and looked into this section of vaporwave. They also have described it MUCH better than I have with better wording. So, "stand on the shoulders of giants" I say. Certainly, this nuance and haziness (...vapor?) is a core component of vaporwave - a dual irony and authenticity sandwich, both sincere and sarcastic as it blasts Shinji from Neon Genesis Evangelion with stunner shades and a SUPREME jacket. There's no accident that so much of vaporwave visual media invokes malls, shopping, commercials, TV, technology commercials, and more. Is it just nostalgia for simpler times? Or is it poking fun at those who will "literally die" if they don't get the next iPhone? That's for you, the listener, to decide. And that's what makes vaporwave so intriguing to think about.

I'm sold! Where do I start?

Unfortunately, you have a lot of catching up to do! However! There are SO MANY resources for you to begin to dive in. I highly recommend checking out the YouTube channel Vapor Memory. Vapor Memory is a YouTube channel that considers itself an "internet music library," which was primarily focused on vaporwave, but also some other adjacent albums as well. I also suggest checking out this vaporwave guide on Neocities which has a walkthrough of subgenres with examples, allowing you to hone in on a specific sound or artist you like. You can also check out Vaporweeb's guide for something similar. The ultimate resource for exploration, however, is probably the Nu Vaporwave Essentials Guide, which is also hosted on Neocities. With any of these albums, YouTube and Bandcamp will be your main resources for finding them. Vapor Memory has many of them, and other fans have uploaded other albums. I personally am part of some vaporwave Discord communities centered around specific artists or labels (I'm definitely a Shroudie). Overall, have fun, explore, and be open minded; you never know when the next major product will hit the shelves! You never know what you'll like, and much of this media requires your full attention. Enjoy!

Recommended Media/Listening

Visual album of christtt's classic "social justice whatever"

New Dream's Ltd "Initiation Tape: Isle of Avalon Edition"

PrismCorp Virtual Enterprises: Home(tm)

Visual album of "I'll Try Living Like This" by death's dynamic shroud

Visual album of "Ecco Jams Vol I" by Chuck Person

Visual album of FLORAL SHOPPE" by Macintosh Plus