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Vaporwave was created then destroyed by the internet (2016)

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Re: Vaporwave was created then destroyed by the internet (2016)

#21
post #5

I’ll start out by saying I’m an avid fan of vapor/synth/whatever wave. I’ve heard this argument before and I can’t be the only one to think it’s silly, right? A cursory search of Spotify, Bandcamp, or YouTube will show that ALL the “wave” genres are alive and well some 5 years after this article was written. Some artists have moved on to other aesthetics, some artists have continued to produce the same sound they alw…

Corporate businesswave is so perfectly my aesthetic, thank you so much for the recommendation.

If you haven't heard, you should also check out Mitch Murder's Businessfunk mixtapes.

Re: Vaporwave was created then destroyed by the internet (2016)

#22

Who else accidentally read this title as "vaporware" instead of vaporwave. Kinda unnerving how that happens when scanning headlines.

I mean, they're kinda in the similar style and I think the naming of vaporwave is intentionally borrowing from vaporware.

Vaporware is tech and products that had a beautiful idea that never came to fruitition and vaporware makes music out of tracks that used to belong but don't any longer. There's a similar feeling of abandonment and emphasis on feelings of being in the wrong place and the wrong time.

Re: Vaporwave was created then destroyed by the internet (2016)

#23
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Synthwave‘s cheery, Vaporwave‘s sad/depressed. I never liked the latter for that reason.

That's not true at all. There are plenty of cheery vaporwave songs mentioned in the article itself: saint pepsi [1], macross 82-99 [2] etc. all early vaporwave entries based on city-pop which is as cheery as you can get! In fact that's probably the most popular remaining evolutions of the genre, both of the mentioned artists are still huge! (multi-million listens on spotify) 1 - https://saintpepsi.bandcamp.com/album/…

Saint Pepsi and Macross are generally classified as Future Funk artists rather than "pure" vaporwave in the vein of Macintosh Plus. For anyone who is interested in Future Funk (i.e. "cheery" vaporwave) a now-archived and inactive youtube channel by the name of Artzie Music [1] collected classics of the FF genre and is, for now, still available to peruse. The best ones in my opinion were uploaded between 2017 and 2018.

[1]https://youtube.com/c/ArtzieMusic/videos

Re: Vaporwave was created then destroyed by the internet (2016)

#24
post #5

I’ll start out by saying I’m an avid fan of vapor/synth/whatever wave. I’ve heard this argument before and I can’t be the only one to think it’s silly, right? A cursory search of Spotify, Bandcamp, or YouTube will show that ALL the “wave” genres are alive and well some 5 years after this article was written. Some artists have moved on to other aesthetics, some artists have continued to produce the same sound they alw…

I really like Spirawave and other "low fi" synth/vapor wave remakes of old video game music.

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

Re: Vaporwave was created then destroyed by the internet (2016)

#25
Is it really killed? It is still produced but even more important it has evolved through CityPop to FutureFunk and even has touched a bit other genres. I you haven't yet, give it a try. There are many online radio stations that play both FutureFunk and Vaporwave.

As for the SynthWave (2.0 because the original SynthWave happened in very early 80s and I do not know why it is called that way since it is unrelated and I prfere to call it RetroWave) it is still produced. I suggest you try it, the more recent incarnations even have vocals which resemble a lot the US Pop Rock music of the mid 80s but in some songs you can even hear clearly the influence of ItaloDisco.

I really like both and they are very original and important parts of music history. Still carry in them the seeds of the very early 80s evolution in music aka "New Wave" but have completely different aesthetics (VaporWave is mid 90s nostalgia oriented).

If you search in discogs you can even find collections that fuse VaporWave/SynthWave/ItaloDisco and Funk to produce very ethereal music.

PS there also exists the very difference subgenre of SovietWave

Re: Vaporwave was created then destroyed by the internet (2016)

#26
I’ll just assume everyone here is a fan and share some great playlists: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0wIjGv5BH8dRETiikmormc?si=...

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2ALbeqn1aDPutYOozVRres?si=...

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DXdLEN7aqioXM?si=...

Re: Vaporwave was created then destroyed by the internet (2016)

#28
post #5

I’ll start out by saying I’m an avid fan of vapor/synth/whatever wave. I’ve heard this argument before and I can’t be the only one to think it’s silly, right? A cursory search of Spotify, Bandcamp, or YouTube will show that ALL the “wave” genres are alive and well some 5 years after this article was written. Some artists have moved on to other aesthetics, some artists have continued to produce the same sound they alw…

For some data, here's a rough number of Vaporwave albums released per year (source: RYM[1])

2010: 11

2011: 63

2012: 168

2013: 348

2014: 572

2015: 1193

2016: 1144

2017: 812

2018: 816

2019: 798

2020: 732

2021: 269

[1]https://rateyourmusic.com/genre/vaporwave/

Re: Vaporwave was created then destroyed by the internet (2016)

#29

Is it really killed? It is still produced but even more important it has evolved through CityPop to FutureFunk and even has touched a bit other genres. I you haven't yet, give it a try. There are many online radio stations that play both FutureFunk and Vaporwave. As for the SynthWave (2.0 because the original SynthWave happened in very early 80s and I do not know why it is called that way since it is unrelated and I…

Italodisco is super underrated- it has a lot of the upbeat analog electronic dance music that many of the *waves try to recreate; and did it 40ish years ago. Always felt it was more poppy and fun than the Eurobeat songs that came afterwards like those featured in the anime series Initial D.

Re: Vaporwave was created then destroyed by the internet (2016)

#30

Who else accidentally read this title as "vaporware" instead of vaporwave. Kinda unnerving how that happens when scanning headlines.

I did the same and was confused. I'm only a 1/3rd of the way through my first morning coffee.
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