The Rise & Fall of Vaporwave

Disclaimer: This is just my personal opinion and experience with the genre as someone who has been listening to it since the early days around 2010. I have collected a mass of physical media, supported artists & labels, and tried to be involved in whatever ways I could. I did NOT just start listening to Vaporwave so my thoughts come from a decade’s worth of examining what goes on in the scene. I am not biased towards any artists and I don’t lean one way or another when it comes to the labels, I just observe and respond in a way I hope comes across as a realist perspective. No vaporware producers were harmed in the making of this blog post.

The Rise & Fall of Vaporwave

Vaporwave in 2021 is a bit of a quagmire. Almost everything that can be said about it has already been written or blogged about somewhere online since its early inception around 2010. Countless articles will flood your search pages all theorizing on either the intense faux-philosophical undertones of the music or some pseudo-intellectual analysis of the artwork that permeates the genre like a parasitic neon haze that suffocates your eyes. Plagued by stereotypes, endlessly recycled imagery, and sonic characteristics being over-used to the point of exhaustion, many seem to have become disenchanted with the state of the fading art movement which in a way fulfills the bleak mentality it once heralded.

Having become more focused on personality as opposed to anonymity, Vaporwave has become a parody of a parody, creating an infinite loop of irony that leaves behind the awe it once generated replacing it instead with endless memes of pastel gradients, Roman busts, and 3D coke cans. It’s been over a decade since it sprang into existence and now it seems to be struggling to find what made it special in the first place all while battling the disarray and despair of an increasingly toxic fanbase that is no longer excited but rather obligated to cheer it on. Today’s Vaporwave scene is in a constant flux of contentious debate on authenticity, originality, and a tug-of-war between small and big labels.

Typical Vaporwave Propaganda

Back in the early years of the 2010s, there was a spirit of innovation and experimentation that mirrored the start of the 1980s, when synthesizers and audio equipment once too expensive for smaller studios became more accessible, giving independent musicians and artists a way to contribute to music and culture. The result of this renaissance of music production gave birth to a style of music that is the root of almost all new music today; New Wave. The experimental sounds of bands like Gary Numan, The Cars, and other synth-laden musical acts harkening back to the doomed nihilistic party that was Disco before it. The effects of New Wave are still felt today, having influenced many genres that came in the decades to come such as Electro-Clash, Nu-Rave, Chillwave, and most recently Vaporwave.

Experimenting with synthesizers and audio production is not a new phenomenon, but to Gen Z who are often barely familiar with the origins of experimental electronica, vaporwave truly is something new. Accessibility to affordable consumer electronics allowed millennials to produce a kind of music that once seemed rebellious and almost punk in its aesthetic and attitude, but like all things lost its edge over time. For anything to ever truly last it must have a broad enough scope that it allows for constant evolution and growth unrestrained by boundaries that define it in rigid ways. With Vaporwave, it’s often that exact opposite idea that draws in its fervent believers; an unchanging petrified version of the past that never transcends so it never needs to die and is only ever in danger of being forgotten.

The first musical offerings from Vaporwave were almost anti-capitalist, Marxist interpretations of music that defied traditional expectations of what a music genre could be. Although it had a unique aesthetic and anti-establishment sentiment, it still borrowed most of its production style from earlier sample-based genres Sound Collage, Plunderphonics, and Chopped n Screwed. At the intersection of Bedroom Pop, Hauntology, and Lo-fi, Vaporwave was an entry point for many to express their musings on the dark nature of civilization, corporatism, and imaginative dreamscapes of futures that would never be. What set it apart was its base of producers who banded together to create a niche community focused on themes of cyberpunk fetishism and distortion from obsolete technology. The sound could be likened to something replicants might have enjoyed in the original Bladerunner film.

There is an undeniable 80s influence, mostly because a vast majority of Vaporwave samples 80s and 90s music that had either been long forgotten or discarded by corporations after their intended commercial usage. Vaporwave is a product of a generation that had been marketed to more than any other in the past which explains why many of its elements make use of a wide variety of discarded commercial content. The genre is a hallmark of the Millenial paradigm; a reaction to the constant exposure to advertisements, marketing media, and consumer culture that spawned a collective psychological shadow that manifested in contrarian attitudes towards what should be classified as good music in contrast to whatever mainstream sounds were popular at the time.

Coming up in the mid-2010s Vaporwave was starting to develop a very large following online with massive social network platforms spawning elite groups dedicated to the style. This was the turning point for Vaporwave because the mainstream acceptance led to a corruption of its original ideals and philosophies regarding the sound and aesthetic. Vaporwave was being re-rewritten by anyone with moderator privileges on Facebook, Reddit, or any other platform that allowed anyone to control what was seen as Vaporwave and what wasn’t. This control over what Vaporwave was in the minds of the masses was given to people who didn’t even make music or even believe in the vision of the genre, and instead, the power to control the narrative was seized by anyone keen enough to open group pages that collected hundreds of thousands of members.

The phrase “Is this Vaporwave” was so ubiquitous it became its own meme as arguments waged across the web regarding what Vaporwave actually was and what could be considered part of the style. This burgeoning meme culture did more harm than good, as the music that was once taken somewhat seriously was now just a joke and meme that had no actual weight other than to be decidedly “aesthetic” and ironic in the same way hipsters in the late 2000s adopted garish fads like t-shirts with defunct company branding and “out of style” clothing trends like mom jeans and anything that purposely looked 2nd hand. Vaporwave is very much a product of Hipster culture, with its revival of post-ironic tendencies to glorify anything that goes against the mainstream view on taste and conformity.

Moving past 2016, Vaporwave had splintered into dozens of tiny sub-genres that all carried a similar production style but had their own unique aesthetics that often were more about the spectacle than the actual music. Taking it even further, Alt-Right sympathy for fascism, racism, and elitism began tainting the scene with variations like Fashwave and Trumpwave. Political affiliation inevitably began infecting nearly everything and everyone online with its tentacles due to the extremely hostile climate of opinionated rage on any matter that seemed divided on governmental policy. Vaporwave was no longer a vision of a dystopian future, it became the dystopian present; a manifestation of the collective’s obsession with the dark pastel imagery of a technologically advanced prison planet.

By this time a new cycle of Vaporwave producers were cropping up and focused on reviving the style’s roots and revitalizing the scene by creating communities more orientated towards positivity and collaboration. While ambitious, it seemed the train had already come off the tracks and these smaller groups only became enclaves for the well-connected or already internet-famous producers whose names were recognizable through the oversaturated dump of throw-away vaporwave being produced faster than fried chicken at a KFC. Due to stricter regulation on identity on the internet, anonymity was all but dead. Those who had made music in the early years of the genre had either faded away and resented the scene, or shed their moniker-cloak and finally gloated in the adoration of their impressionable new fans.

In the latter part of the decade, Vaporwave had become big business as labels started to produce non-stop content that streamed 24/7. It became an infinite infomercial of the same stylistic tropes slightly re-arranged each time to give the impression that an artist was doing something new. Vaporwave became the very thing it advocated against in the beginning, coming full circle to embody the same corporate tendencies and money-hungry ambition of the industries it siphoned inspiration from. Like most things, there is more than one dimension to vaporwave and some have tried with success to elevate it to be more than the sum of its parts, but even still it could not end its passionate love affair with derivative and contrived content leading it to become a flat out mockery of what it once was.

There have been many altruistic efforts put forth by labels and producers and while admirable it seems like that was never the true end goal of the genre. It’s always been about influence, power, and control of the scene. Vaporwave could not remove the darkness of human nature from its algorithmic music, and it only compounded overt cynicism, meaningless platitudes, and trite standards. Many on social media have a very pointed tone for anyone who has something to say that isn’t celebratory about the scene, giving it an impression of being a cultish parade of mediocrity. That kind of community is usually very “awesome” on the surface, but underneath you’ll find a gritty miasma of things often hidden away from the unassuming observer. At first glance you’ll think you’re happy to have found a community where you can express yourself creatively and be accepted, but only so long as you worship at the alter of the big-name producers, and don’t pull the curtain back on their metaphorical Wizard of Oz.

As social justice became an increasingly visible aspect of social media, Vaporwave came under heavy criticism for its perceived disrespect of ethnic cultures. Sampling had become a hot topic as arguments on both sides of the debate tussled over the practice. Many producers defended their self-applied right to sample copyrighted music from Black & Asian cultures without paying due respect. This digital colonizer attitude towards the struggles of minority artists whose music Vaporwave & Future Funk producers plundered for their own profit was seen as the harbinger for the end. No longer were artists who stole music and re-labeled it as something else safe from the criticism of the internet.

This change in how sampling was perceived pushed many out of the spotlight and angered those who saw no harm in appropriating music in the same way colonizers stole land from indigenous populations. The “colonizer mentality” infiltrated Vaporwave and once called out, the scene was never quite able to fully recover from the damage to its reputation that has already been done. Add to that feuds between labels, producers stealing music originally stolen by other producers, and the deterioration of the aesthetics the scene once championed and you can see why things went south.

Going into the 2020s, Vaporwave is a fractured mess but still glued together by a supergroup of producers and scenesters who will defend the genre to its bitter end. The vast majority of new vaporwavers today are mostly Gen Z, who fully embrace the neon-colored cutesy graphic element of the aesthetic but rarely venture into the music which has become somewhat of an afterthought. If internet trends have proven anything is that once a generation ditches a fad, it’s soon forgotten, which seems fitting for Vaporwave as it enshrined obscure and esoteric media that had been forgotten by the world. The millennials who once held the flag for the scene are aging rapidly, having children, buying houses, and moving on to more practical usage of their talents, leaving what’s left to those who have nowhere to but the virtual plaza.

The dark future Vaporwave envisioned came and went, and now its adherents are all stuck in the past and that cannot break free from its neverending story. Record labels continue to pop up offering new artists and albums, physical merch, and the fantasy the genre sold originally, but to a vast majority who once loved the ideas presented in the music, it’s lost luster as the world seeks to find a new vision for the future. The pandemic might have put the final nail in the coffin for Vaporwave, as people started to shy away from the hopelessness and dreary scenes played out on album artwork, and even the music itself which often sounded like an abandoned cityscape, mutated tape cassettes, and fried electronics just doesn’t play as well into contemporary moods like it once did. Contemporary vaporwave is almost always uninspired, and even when put on a shiny colored vinyl record only approximates the idea of being something unique.

Enter 2021, the world has been forever changed. Nothing feels the same. Life as we know it has been completely altered due to a virus that decimated hundreds of thousands of people. Listening to Vaporwave today just doesn’t hit the same for me at least. I’ve been listening for a long time. I think anyone that has been involved with the style for a while bears certain fatigue that comes from hearing the same variants of vaporwave over and over. The labels produce tapes on tapes stacking higher than abandoned shopping malls. Who can keep track anymore of who releases what, and that leads people to keep buying up the artists that they already know, often not giving anyone else a chance.

While many would say Vaporwave is dead so it can never die, I no longer think that it’s true. Vaporwave can be forgotten, and for all the fanfare and praise its fans would give it, it’s mostly only a circle-jerk of the same people doing the same things hoping it comes across as different to an increasingly indifferent fanbase. So the question still lingers, is Vaporwave finally dead? In a sense, it was never really alive. It only ever made a dent in the overall musical world. Seen as too esoteric for the masses, and too polluted with nonsense to appeal to anyone other than people who have something to gain from keeping alive. A big part of being a Vaporwave enthusiast today is forcing yourself to believe the absurdity of what they claim is actually good art. The price of a ticket is the required suspension of taste.

In the end, anyone can listen to whatever they want. Music will continue to be made, and new genres will emerge just as they always have. It’s all in your hands, so just enjoy yourself. - Van

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AUTHOR

Van Paugam is an Internationally-Acclaimed DJ and leading figure specializing in 70s and 80s Japanese Music, dubbed City Pop. He has organized and hosted over 100 events dedicated to the style, and actively promotes Japanese culture while on the board of the Japanese Arts Foundation of Chicago. He has been featured on CNN, NHK, and many other publications for his dedication to City Pop. Van is credited with being the first person to begin popularizing City Pop online through his mixes on YouTube in 2016, and subsequently through live events. Learn More…